Billy McKee

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Billy McKee ( Irish Liam Mac Aoidh;   born November 12, 1921 in Belfast , Northern Ireland ; † June 11, 2019 ibid) was an Irish Republican who was a founding member and leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA). He has also been referred to as "the veteran of the IRA".

Early life

Billy McKee joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1939 , which carried out numerous armed attacks in its Northern Campaign during World War II . McKee was captured and imprisoned in Crumlin Road Gaol Prison for his participation in that campaign until 1946. When the IRA carried out further armed attacks in the course of the Border Campaign in 1956 , he was arrested again and interned until the end of that campaign; he was released in 1962.

After his stay in prison, he was appointed commanding officer of the Belfast Brigade . He resigned from this position in 1963 after clashes with other Republicans over the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and after he was banned from carrying the Irish flag during a Republican march. He was succeeded by Billy McMillen .

At the beginning of the 1960s, McKee distanced himself from the IRA because he was very disillusioned with the Marxist orientation and the reformist course of their armed struggle. McKee was also a devout Catholic who attended mass every day , and therefore u. a. extremely dissatisfied with the creeping spread of communist ideas in the republican movement.

Split IRA

During the Northern Irish uprising in August 1969 that occurred in Belfast between Irish Catholics, Nationalists, Loyalist Protestants and the RUC, McKee criticized the IRA for failing to defend the Catholic territories adequately during these clashes. On August 14, 1969, McKee, Joe Cahill, and a number of other Republicans were involved in armed conflict with the RUC and loyalists on Kashmir Street . However, they were unable to defend Catholic Bombay Street , parts of Cupar Street and Kashmir Street when they were set on fire because they were too weakly armed.

In the aftermath of the riots, McKee accused Billy McMillen , the IRA commander in Belfast, and the IRA leadership in Dublin of misguiding the fight and using insufficient resources to defend the Catholic streets. On September 22, 1969, while attending a meeting called armed by McMillen, McKee and other IRA men attempted to enforce his recall as leader of the Belfast IRA. This attempt was unsuccessful, but they said afterwards that they would no longer take orders from the IRA leadership in Dublin. In December of the same year, the IRA split into the Provisional IRA with traditional militarists like McKee and the Official IRA , which consisted of the remnants of the split-off Marxist leadership and its supporters. McKee established the first Provisional Army Council alongside the Provisionals in September 1970.

Provisional IRA

McKee became the first commanding officer of the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade . From the beginning there were feuds between his men and former comrades in the Official IRA as they patrolled nationalist areas. However, the Provisionals gained the upper hand because they were the most reliable in protecting both themselves and the Catholic community.

McKee himself added to his notoriety when he took action on June 27, 1970 during the riots in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast following a march by the Protestant Orange Order and killing three Protestants in shootings between the Provisional IRA and the Loyalists were. In an act of revenge, the loyalists prepared an attack on the Catholic enclave of Short Strand in east Belfast. Upon hearing this, McKee drove eleven men and guns to Short Strand and took up a fighting position at St Matthew's Church . McKee was wounded in a five hour armed conflict; one of his men and four Protestants were killed.

On April 15, 1971, McKee and Proinsias MacAirt were arrested by the British Army for possession of small arms and imprisoned in the Crumlin Road prison in Belfast. Joe Cahill took over the post of commanding officer of the Belfast Brigade after him.

In 1972 McKee led the hunger strike that led to IRA inmates being recognized as Special Category Status . This special status roughly corresponded to the status of prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention . Republicans who had already been interned had already achieved this special status, but not those Republicans who had been convicted of crimes. When McKee was near starvation, William Whitelaw consented to special category status . Although this special status was not officially recognized as political status, this tactic was successful because lifelong public condemnation was recognized as political.

McKee was released on September 4, 1974 and resumed his position as commanding officer of the Belfast Brigade. At that time the IRA declared a ceasefire that McKee had negotiated with Ruairí Ó Brádaigh in secret peace talks in Derry with the Northern Ireland Office . He was also involved in talks with Protestant clergymen in Feakle , County Clare in December 1974, where he called for an end to the violence. At the same time, however, McKee authorized a number of attacks on Protestants as well as rival Republicans and the IRA. For this he was heavily criticized by activists of the PIRA who had grouped around Gerry Adams .

Next life

A faction led by Adams elected McKee from the IRA Army Council in 1977 , which amounted to a discharge from his leadership in that organization. McKee's health deteriorated during that time and he stopped participating in IRA activities. In 1986 he joined the Republican Sinn Féin .

In the years that followed, McKee, along with Brendan Hughes and Tommy McKearney, criticized the Belfast Agreement and the reformist policies of Sinn Féin. In 2010, at the age of 88, he participated in an interview with Tommy KcKearny and Gerry Adams. Billy McKee died in Belfast in June 2019 at the age of 97.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Irish Republican Felons Association 1964-2004 , p. 10.
  2. ↑ Connla Young: Profile: Provisional IRA leader Billy McKee , irishnews.com, published and accessed June 13, 2019.
  3. ↑ Billy McKee: Provisional IRA founding member dies , bbc.com, published and accessed June 12, 2019.
  4. ↑ Former IRA leader Billy McKee dies aged 97, belfasttelegraph.co.uk, June 12, 2019 , accessed June 12, 2019.
  5. ^ A b c Richard English: Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA . Pan Books, 2003, ISBN 0-330-49388-4 , p. 112.
  6. ↑ Patrick Ryan: The Birth of the Provisionals - A Clash between Politics and Tradition . CAIN . 2001. Retrieved March 19, 2007.
  7. ^ Bishop, Patrick & Mallie, Eamonn: The Provisional IRA . Corgi Books, 1987, ISBN 0-552-13337-X , p. 56.
  8. ↑ Peter Taylor : Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin . Bloomsbury Publishing , 1997, ISBN 0-7475-3818-2 , p. 24.
  9. ↑ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin , pp. 52–53.
  10. ↑ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin , pp. 60–61.
  11. ↑ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin , pp. 65–66.
  12. ^ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin , pp. 77-78.
  13. ↑ English, pp. 134-135.
  14. ^ Ed Moloney : A Secret History of the IRA . Penguin Books , 2002, ISBN 0-14-101041-X , p. 98.
  15. ^ A b Peter Taylor: Brits . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2001, ISBN 0-7475-5806-X , pp. 119-120.
  16. ↑ Anthony McIntyre: Gerry Adams's IRA years: An insider's account. In: The Irish Times . February 18, 2018, accessed June 14, 2019 .
  17. ^ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin , pp. 177–182.
  18. ↑ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin , pp. 174-176.
  19. ↑ a b Moloney, pp. 166-168.
  20. ↑ Malachi O'Doherty: Adams may have to concede defeat . Belfast Telegraph . February 6, 2001. Retrieved March 19, 2007.
  21. ↑ Interview of Frontline involving McKee, Tommy McKearny and Gerry Adams . Retrieved December 26, 2010
personal data
SURNAME McKee, Billy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mac Aoidh, Liam (Irish name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Northern Irish political activist, founding member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Belfast , Northern Ireland
DATE OF DEATH June 11, 2019
Place of death Belfast , Northern Ireland