The book titled “Shooting Crows” may not seem like it at first, but it’s an exploration of grotesque murders and allegations of complicity by the British military and RUC in safeguarding the guilty parties. The title derives from the analogy of a farmer exterminating crows to warn the others; it’s an allusion not to the perpetrators but to the author, Trevor Birney’s harassment by law enforcement.
In collaboration with his co-worker Barry McCaffrey, Birney probed into a brutal assault executed by a loyalist faction at Loughinisland’s Heights Bar in County Down in June 1994 that resulted in the death of six individuals. The duo uncovered that a member of the group was doubling as a police informant. They hence inferred that the police devoted more resources to penalising them for exposing this fact than to apprehending the murderers.
The book, “Shooting Crows” penned by Trevor Birney, marries heartfelt confessional prose with hard-hitting investigative reporting. Birney and McCaffrey, likened to the crows, were prosecuted and accused of misappropriating a document from the Police Ombudsman; a leak from a whistleblower, an invaluable tool often depended upon by exploratory journalism.
The charges hinged on a law necessitating a plaintiff, an aggrieved party to make an accusation. The individual feeling wronged was the man they had exposed as the undercover agent within the group, a serial killer benefiting from state immunity.
The book initiates with a reluctant narration of the law enforcement’s raid on Birney’s residence, his family, friends, and his slow, horrifying comprehension that their motive transcended merely hunting for the document to confiscating all technological devices and leading Birney away in handcuffs. The narrative then delves into a comprehensive historic review of loyalist brutality and alleged complicity. This comprises a narrative of guns being sourced from South Africa right under the nose of security personnel. A significant number of subsequent homicides have been linked back to these firearms.
Desmond De Silva has provided clear insight into the mechanics of collusion through his compilation of documents relating to solicitor Pat Finucane’s murder in 1987. The fundamental premise maintained that both the army and police governing loyalists to genuine terrorist threats would yield a twofold advantage. It would result in fewer unjust murders of innocent Catholics and buy the police and army time to step in by giving real terrorists a longer readiness timeframe. However, the fallacy in this situation is that the killings of innocent Catholics persist unabated.
The Royal Ulster Constabulary’s special branch’s emphasis remained predominantly on intelligence collection rather than evidence gathering, enabling the infiltration and hindrance of paramilitary outfits. This approach proved a source of irritation for routine detectives tasked with probing crimes. A detective, as described here, was successful in nabbing criminals by keeping his investigative methods undercover from Special Branch. Another officer reports to Birney that he simply acquiesced to the constraints put upon him, including one police department’s withholding of evidence from another.
Birney concentrates on collusion involving loyalist groups, with several sources citing the protection of agents, even in situations where attacks were given the green light. Over the last year, books such as Henry Hemming’s “Four Shots in the Night” (Quercus) and Richard O’Rawe’s “Stakeknife’s Dirty War” (Merrion) have been published. Jon Boucher’s report on Stakeknife, an IRA infiltrator during the Kenova inquiry, is also noted.
The latter section of the book recounts the personal narrative of Birney and McCaffrey’s daring rebuttal of their arrest and in defence of their journalistic integrity. Legal advice warned them of the potential £2 million fine and lengthy prison terms if their challenge were to fail. However, their arrest warrants were humiliatingly reversed for the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Durham police force leading the inquiry.
Birney’s poignant writing style cleverly intertwines personal experiences and gritty journalism. At times his writing gives the impression of a potential passion for sports journalism that was missed.
Some aspects are similar to Martin Doyle’s Dirty Linen, which intensely explores the experiences of a shattered community. However, the cultural and historical canvas in Doyle’s work, intimate narratives woven through real events and analysis, is the linen industry. In contrast, Birney utilises football, both Gaelic and Soccer, as his motif that seamlessly ushers us into the terrifying night at the Heights Bar. A World Cup match between Ireland and Italy held every eye captive when brutal, armed men stormed in and attacked the unsuspecting crowd.
The latest publication by Malachi O’Doherty is titled ‘How To Fix Northern Ireland’, published by Atlantic in 2023.