By David Burke. 1. “No other perpetrator involved would be given anonymity, for some reason Soldier F is a protected species”. In the last week, Colum Eastwood MP, the Leader of the SDLP, named ‘Soldier F’, in the House of Commons, under privilege. ‘Soldier F’ had faced murder charges for his actions on Bloody Sunday which had been dropped. The world now knows that former Lance Corporal Cleary is ‘Soldier F’. He is a small man who joined the Parachute Regiment in 1966. Eastwood said that, “For 50 years he has been granted anonymity and now the government want to grant him an amnesty. No one involved in murder during the Troubles should be granted an amnesty.” After his speech, Eastwood told BBC NI that: “Over the past couple of weeks his name has been plastered on Free Derry Corner, it has gone viral on social media. The people of Derry know his name. There is no reason for him to be granted anonymity. No other perpetrator involved would be given anonymity, for some reason Soldier F is a protected species.” The Speaker of the Commons has confirmed that Eastwood did not abuse parliamentary privilege in naming Cleary. 2. David Cleary’s Killing Spree. On Bloody Sunday in January 1972 Cleary was conveyed into the Bogside at speed in a Saracen vehicle or “pig”. He and his colleagues leapt out of it and took up positions behind a low wall adjacent to a ramp on Kells Walk from where they shot Michael Kelly. Kelly was unarmed and standing at a nearby rubble barricade, a threat to no one. Cleary and three of his colleagues, Corporal E, Private G, Private H, [the EFGH unit] moved into Glenfada Park North, where their killing spree continued. The Saville Inquiry found that Cleary or Private H shot William McKinney dead; also that this unit was responsible for the shot that wounded Joe Mahon, and that either Cleary or Private G fired the shot that wounded Joe Friel. Saville opined that the EFGH unit also murdered William Wray, injured Joe McMahon, Joe Friel, Michael Quinn and Patrick O’Donnell, and possibly injured Daniel Gillespie. There was no excuse for their behaviour. According to Saville: “In our view none of the soldiers fired in the belief that he might have identified a person in possession of or using or about to use bombs or firearms.” Saville also found that: “The last gunfire casualties were Bernard McGuigan, Patrick Doherty, Patrick Campbell and Daniel McGowan, all shot in the area to the south of Block 2 of the Rossville Flats within a very short time of each other. We are sure that Lance Corporal F [i.e. Cleary] fired at and shot Bernard McGuigan and Patrick Doherty, and it is highly probable that he was also responsible for shooting the other two casualties. This soldier fired across Rossville Street from the Rossville Street entrance way into Glenfada North”. Cleary was a cruel, cynical and clinical killer. He shot Patrick Doherty in the buttock while he was on the ground crawling away from him. As Doherty lay crying out in pain, his life draining away from him, Barney McGuigan, an exceptionally brave and humane man, stepped forward with a white handkerchief looking to help Doherty. Cleary dropped to one knee, aimed his rifle and shot McGuigan in the head. Cleary was a cruel, cynical and clinical killer. He shot Patrick Doherty in the buttock while he was on the ground crawling away from him. As Doherty lay crying out in pain, his life draining away from him, Barney McGuigan, an exceptionally brave and humane man, stepped forward with a white handkerchief looking to help Doherty. Cleary dropped to one knee, aimed his rifle and shot McGuigan in the head. 3. A Pat on the Back: mentioned in despatches. Cleary was “mentioned in dispatches” for confronting the enemies of the Queen in the London Gazette in February 1972. This was a few weeks after Bloody Sunday. The citation was for his alleged courage in Belfast the previous August 1971. The odds are astronomically high that Cleary was one of those involved in the shooting of unarmed and innocent civilians in what became known as the Ballymurphy massacre. It is now beginning to look like Cleary and a group of paratroopers attached to the Support Company of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment (1 Para) were identified, recruited and groomed to carry out the extermination of civilians in any circumstance, including on occasions when they posed no threat to the British Army. The man in charge of Cleary and his comrades was Colonel Derek Wilford. He is on record as having said that all Catholics support the IRA. Thus, to kill a Catholic was tantamount to killing a supporter or member of the IRA. That attitude was undoubtedly shared by Cleary and others in 1 Para. The contempt and disdain they had for Catholics became grotesquely manifest in the Bogside on Bloody Sunday. Wilford reported to Brigadier (later General) Frank Kitson. Of the pair, Kitson is the far more significant. First, he was the superior officer. Second, Wilford did not take over command of 1 Para until July 1971 by which time the soldiers of 1 Para had been engaged in countless violent confrontations with civilians in Belfast. (The murderous violence of 1 Para did, however, gather momentum after Wilford’s appointment.) Third, Kitson had disclosed the technique of terrorising a community which harboured insurgents in his infamous book ‘Low Intensity Operations’. An analysis which makes sense of what took place in Ballymurphy from a British Army counterinsurgency perspective – and which is based on the content of ‘Low Intensity Operations’ – can be found at: Brigadier Kitson’s motive for murdering unarmed civilians in Ballymurphy. From the standpoint of the British Army, Kitson’s book should never have been published. However, the author was entitled to 50% of the royalties of the sale thereof and this may account for the indiscretion of publishing
