Brian McDermott | |
---|---|
Born | 1962or1963 |
Died | 2 September 1973 (aged 10) Ormeau Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Nationality | British |
Brian McDermott was a 10-year-old schoolboy who disappeared in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1973. He was last seen at Ormeau Park on 2 September 1973. [1] He failed to return to his home on Well Street in the lower Woodstock Road area of Cregagh, Belfast. [1] A week after he went missing, the River Lagan was lowered and a sack containing some of his remains was found. [1]
In 1982, a possible link between the death of Brian McDermott and the abuse scandal at Kincora Boys' Home was discussed by Jim Prior, Michael Havers, senior civil servant Sir William Bourne, and Quintin Hogg, [2] [3] who at the time was the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Lord Chancellor. Papers concerning this meeting were released in 2013. [2] [3]
Brian's brother, William, was 16 at the time of his disappearance. He was considered a suspect and questioned in 1976 and again in 2004. [4] William denies the allegations and is estranged from the rest of his family. [4] He admits confessing in 1976, but says that the confession was coerced. [4] He changed his name by deed poll to avoid the stigma of being a suspect in his brother's murder. [4] Brian's murder remains unsolved. [5]
The Shankill Butchers were an Ulster loyalist paramilitary serial killer gang – many of whom were members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) – that was active between 1975 and 1982 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was based in the Shankill area and was responsible for the deaths of at least 23 people, most of whom were killed in sectarian attacks.
Joseph Alan Johnston Campbell was a Northern Irish Pentecostal pastor and Orangeman from Belfast. He founded and served as pastor and director of the Restored Open Bible Ministries in Northern Ireland. He was an author on Bible studies, a lecturer in the British Israelism movement and an advocate of white supremacy. Strongly opposed to Catholicism, Campbell published anti-Catholic literature and argued that the white Celto Anglo Saxon peoples of the world represent the lost tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel. He was known in Historicist circles due to his denial of the Westminster Confession of Faith, while Fundamentalist Protestants rejected his teachings as not being biblical.
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Martin Dillon is an Irish author, journalist, and broadcaster. He has won international acclaim for his investigative reporting and non-fiction works on the Troubles, including his bestselling trilogy, The Shankill Butchers, The Dirty War and God and the Gun, about the Northern Ireland conflict. The historian and scholar, Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien, described him as "our Virgil to that Inferno". The Irish Times hailed him as "one of the most creative writers of our time".
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Hugh Leonard Thompson Murphy was a Northern Irish loyalist and UVF officer. As leader of the Shankill Butchers gang, Murphy was responsible for the murders of mainly Catholic civilians, often first kidnapping and torturing his victims. Due to a lack of evidence, Murphy was never brought to trial for these killings, for which some of his followers had already received long sentences in 1979.
John Colin Wallace is a British former member of Army Intelligence in Northern Ireland and a psychological warfare specialist. He refused to become involved in the Intelligence-led 'Clockwork Orange' project, which was an attempt to smear various individuals including a number of senior British politicians in the early 1970s. Wallace also attempted to draw public attention to the Kincora Boys' Home sexual abuse scandal several years before the Royal Ulster Constabulary intervened.
The Kincora Boys' Home was a boys' home in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, that was the scene of serious organised child sexual abuse. It caused a scandal and led to an attempted cover-up in 1980, with allegations of state collusion.
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Joshua Cardwell, JP (1910–1982) was a Unionist politician in Northern Ireland.
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Arlene Arkinson was a 15-year-old Northern Irish teenager who disappeared on 14 August 1994. Her body has never been found. Robert Howard, a convicted murderer and sex offender, was found not guilty of her murder in 2005. However a 2021 inquest found him responsible for her murder.