Joe McCann

Joe McCann (2 November 1947 - 15 April 1972) was an Irish Republican Army and later Official Irish Republican Army volunteer from Belfast. He was active in politics from the early 1960s and participated, as an Official IRA volunteer, in the early years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He was killed in a confrontation with British soldiers in 1972 aged 24.

Early life

He was born in the Lower Falls area of Belfast, and spent most of his life there and in the nearby Markets area of the city. His mother died when he was four years old leaving behind Joe and three other children. His Father remarried having another three children with his second wife. He was educated in the Christian Brothers school on Barracks Street in Belfast, where he developed an interest in the Irish language. A brick-layer by trade, he joined the Fianna at age 14 and the IRA in the early 1960s. In 1964 he was involved in a riot on Divis Street in Belfast in opposition to the threat of loyalist leader Ian Paisley to march on the area to remove an Irish tricolour flying over the election office of Billy McMillen. In 1965 he was arrested for the possession of bayonets with five other men. The five refused to answer questions in custody or to speak in court and were sentenced to a three years in prison. They served nine months in Crumlin Rd jail. Joe was always very spiritual and had had expressed an interest in the priesthood while a teenager. He joined the third order of the Franciscans in his later teens.

Joe was active in the Official I.R.A.'s civil rights policy protesting against the development of the Divis flats which were being built to replace the old tenement slums in the Lower Falls. As predicted the Divis flats proved to be a social disaster and their demolition began in the early 1990's. Joe was vocal on voting making sure people understood their rights. The O.I.R.A. had been instrumental in obtaining one man one vote on the North on Ireland. Joe assisted the people of the Markets area, were he was Officer in Command (O.C.), with housing issues and any matters which related to local government. Joe was conscious of the need to build a strong social structure within an area and the benefits of this to it's people. Joe was the first person to campaign for the rights of the Palestinian People before their plight was widely known. He was never with out a book in his hand or a news paper. He was an avid reader and thinker.

1969 seen a split occur in the I.R.A. The I.R.A.'s social agitation policy, which seen many civil rights marches take place across the north of Ireland in the late 1960's, caused a sectarian back lash from the loyalist community. This resulted in the siege of Derry's Bog Side and the attack of August 1969 on the lower Falls area of a loyalist mob. The I.R.A. defended the area with what little weaponry it had at it's disposal keeping the mob at bay. Joe was part of the defense which took place that night.

McCann married Anne McKnight who hailed from a strong republican family in the Markets area in Belfast. Anne's older brother Bobby McKnight was part of the 1956-62 boarder campaign and was arrested and jailed as well as being interned. Bobby was command staff in Belfast played a key role in the arms deals that went on between the I.R.A. and the Irish government of 1969. Anne's brother Seán sided with the Provisional's after the 1969 split. He went on the represent South Belfast for Sien Fein

Armed activities

McCann was appointed commander of the OIRA's Third Belfast Battalion By 1970, violence in Northern Ireland had escalated to the point where British soldiers were deployed there in large numbers. From 3–5 July 1970, McCann was involved in gun battles during the Falls Curfew between the Official IRA and up to 3,000 British soldiers in the Lower Falls area that left four civilians dead from gunshot wounds, another killed after being hit by an armoured car and 60 injured . On 22 May 1971, McCann's unit ambushed a British patrol, killing one soldier. In another incident McCann led a unit which captured 3 UVF members in Sandy Row. The UVF had raided an OIRA arms dump earlier that day and the OIRA announced they would execute the three prisoners if the weapons were not returned. McCann eventually released the three UVF members because they were "working class men like yourself". His most famous act came on 9 August 1971 when his unit took over the Inglis bakery in the Markets area and fortified it after the introduction of internment without trial by the Northern Ireland authorities (see Operation Demetrius). They defended it throughout the night from an incursion by 600 British soldiers, looking to arrest paramilitary suspects . The action allowed other IRA members to slip out of the area and avoid arrest. He was photographed during the incident, holding an M1 carbine, against the background of a burning building and the Starry Plough flag; one of the most striking early images of The Troubles. In early February 1972, he was involved in the attempted assassination of Ulster Unionist politician and Northern Ireland Minister for Home Affairs. John Taylor in Armagh. McCann and another gunman fired on Taylor's car with Thompson submachine guns, hitting him five times in the neck and head, but he survived, though badly injured. In another incident he and a comrade were standing outside a Belfast cinema to purchase tickets for the film Soldier Blue when McCann spotted a British Army checkpoint. He drew his gun and fired at the soldiers before running away laughing.

Death

Joe McCann was killed on 15 April 1972 in Joy St in The Markets. Joe had been sent to Belfast by a member of the Dublin command while at the time being top of the Special Branch wanted list. He was told by the Belfast command to return for his own safety to Dublin. He ignored their requests and remained in Belfast. The Branch were aware of his presence in Belfast and were on the look out for him. It is a possibility that they were tipped off as to his movements that Saturday morning. Informers have always played a role throughout Irish history. It is claimed by the Special Branch and 1 Para that Joe was resisting arrest while he was shot. Joe McCann was shot in the back and unarmed.

Ten cartridge cases were seen by a local shop keeper in Joy St at the corner of her shop directly after the shooting. Bullet holes were also visible in the walls of near by houses and also on houses in Hamilton St which faces into Joy St. The yellow card rule which the British military were bound to adhere to while attempting an arrest was in this instance abandoned. The total bullet count is unknown-a further breach of military protocol.

McCann was the leader of the most militant of the OIRA's members in Belfast and was much more enthusiastic about the use of "armed struggle" in Northern Ireland than the OIRA leadership. His killing was closely followed by the organisation calling a ceasefire. Joe McCann's weapon was not removed from him by the O.I.R.A. as has been suggested. Five days of rioting followed his death. Turf Loge, where Joe Lived, was a no go area and was openly patrolled by an O.I.R.A. land rover with the words "Official IRA - Mobile Patrol" emblazoned on the side. over 5'000 people attended his funeral as well as 21 battalions of the O.I.R.A. Four Members of Parliament including Bernadette Devlin were also in attendance. The OIRA shot five British soldiers, killing three, in revenge for McCann's killing, in different incidents the following day in Belfast, Derry and Newry .

Funeral and tributes

McCann's funeral on 18 April 1972 was one of the largest Republican funerals of modern times. Between 6,000 and 20,000 mourners attended it. A guard of honour was provided by 20 OIRA volunteers and a further 200 women followed carrying flowers and wreaths. Cathal Goulding the Official IRA Chief of Staff, provided the graveside oration in Milltown Cemetery. Goulding said;

"By shooting Joe McCann [the British Government] their Whitlaws and their Heaths and their Tuzos have shown the colour of their so called peace initiatives. They have re-declared war on the people...We have given notice, by action that no words can now efface, that those who are responsible for the terrorism that is Britain's age old reaction to Irish demands will be the victim of that terrorism, paying richly in their own red blood for their crimes and the crimes of their imperial masters".

In spite of this hardline rhetoric, however, Goulding called a ceasefire just six weeks later, on 29 May 1972.

One of the more surprising tributes to McCann came from Gusty Spence, leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force loyalist group. Spence wrote a letter of sympathy to McCann's widow, expressing his, "deepest and profoundest sympathy" on the death of her husband. "He was a soldier of the Republic and I a Volunteer of Ulster and we made no apology for being what we were or are...Joe once did me a good turn indirectly and I never forgot him for his humanity". This is thought to refer to an incident in which two UVF men wandered into the Lower Falls, were captured by OIRA men, but were released unharmed on McCann's orders .

In 1997, a plaque was unveiled at the spot on Joy street in the Markets where McCann was killed. Members of the various republican factions, the Workers Party of Ireland (ex Official IRA), Sinn Féin (political wing of the Provisional IRA) and the Irish Republican Socialist Party (a splinter, along with the Irish National Liberation Army from the Official republican movement in 1974) were all in attendance.

References

The Lost Revolution The Story of The Official I.R.A. and The Workers Party. Hanley and Miller. Penguin 2009.

Sources

• Patrick Bishop, Eamonn Mallie, The Provisional IRA
• Jack Holland, Henry McDonald, INLA, Deadly Divisions
• http://www.irelandsown.net/JoeMcCann.htm

The Lost revolution the story of The Official I.R.A. and the workers party. Hanley and Miller. Penguin, 2009.

External links

• The famous photo of McCann at Inglis' bakery in 1971
• Poster based on the photo of McCann at Inglis' bakery in 1971
• Memorial to McCann in Belfast
• Time Magazine article about McCann's death from 1972