Michael McGoldrick | |
---|---|
[1] | |
Born | 18 June 1965 |
Died | 8 July 1996 31) | (aged
Cause of death | Homicide |
Resting place | St Coleman's Cemetery, Lurgan [2] |
Education | Queen's University Belfast |
Children | 2 |
Michael John McGoldrick (18 June 1965 – 8 July 1996) was a taxi driver murdered by the Loyalist Volunteer Force during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. [3]
McGoldrick was born to Northern Irish parents in Glasgow, Scotland. He had graduated two days before the murder with a degree in English & Politics from Queen's University Belfast, and hoped to become a teacher. He had a daughter Emma with his wife, Sadie, and a son on the way. McGoldrick worked as a taxi driver in Lurgan, Northern Ireland part-time to finance his studies. [4]
In July 1996, the Drumcree standoff increased tensions between the loyalist and nationalist populations of Northern Ireland, and particularly the Craigavon area. [5] The Troubles saw more than 3,600 people killed in a 30-year period, the majority of whom were civilians murdered by combatants. [6] On 7 July, members of the loyalist Orange Order were blocked by police from marching down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown. [7] The annual march had been contentious, with loyalists passing through a majority nationalist community holding banners and playing drums and pipes. [8] It was claimed to be sectarian and supremacist, and had been accompanied by violence in previous years. [9]
As a response, the Mid-Ulster brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force led by Billy Wright sought to unilaterally break the ceasefire the group was operating under, and murder civilians from nationalist areas. One plan was to kidnap three priests from the local parochial house and shoot them unless the march went ahead. [10] Instead members of the brigade, as a "birthday present" to leader Wright, [11] preyed on the province's taxi services which, because of previous murders during The Troubles, had grown unofficially segregated serving mainly the same communities as the drivers. [12] A taxi was ordered in the late evening from the Minicabs depot in Lurgan under the name "Lavery" going from the local cinema to Aghagallon and McGoldrick responded to the call. When the radio controller got no response later in the early morning, he assumed McGoldrick had clocked off for the night. Early the next morning he was found slumped over the wheel of his taxi. He had been shot five times in the head. [13]
The murder drew significant attention from regional and national media, as it had the distinct appearance of paramilitary type execution during a ceasefire. The Ulster Volunteer Force stood down the brigade a month later, [14] with leader Billy Wright forming the alternative Loyalist Volunteer Force. The splinter organisation engaged in a feud with the Ulster Volunteer Force, its last murders being of Ulster Volunteer Force members and other loyalists. [15] Wright was killed less than 18 months after McGoldrick's death by the Irish National Liberation Army in Long Kesh prison, and his group disbanded in August 1998.
Clifford George McKeown was ultimately found guilty of the murder of McGoldrick. He was represented in court by former DUP member Jim Allister QC. [16] McKeown was already serving 12 years for gun possession at the time of the trial. After his sentencing, Allister said McKeown would be appealing against the conviction. [16]
As of October 2022, McKeown is serving a life sentence for the murder. [17] After the guilty verdict was delivered, the victim's father, Michael McGoldrick Snr, said he felt no bitterness towards his son's killer. "The hurt in our country has to stop," he said. [18] McKeown later confessed to journalist Nick Martin-Clark that two youths assisted in the murder. They ordered the taxi, and one of them asked McGoldrick to stop at the roadside to let him urinate. McKeown, who had allegedly followed with his lights switched off, slipped close to the back of the taxi and shot McGoldrick. [19] The murder weapon was found in 2006 in the possession of William James Fulton, who is currently[ when? ] serving a life sentence for murder and orchestrating terrorism. [20]
The Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) was an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed by Billy Wright in 1996 when he and his unit split from the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) after breaking its ceasefire. Most of its members came from the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade, which Wright had commanded. In a two-year period from August 1996, the LVF waged a paramilitary campaign in opposition to Irish republicanism and the Northern Ireland peace process. During this time it killed at least 14 people in gun and bomb attacks, almost all of them Catholic civilians killed at random. The LVF called off its campaign in August 1998 and decommissioned some of its weapons, but in the early 2000s a loyalist feud led to several killings. Since then, the LVF has been largely inactive, but its members are believed to have been involved in rioting and organized crime. In 2015, the security forces stated that the LVF "exists only as a criminal group" in Mid-Ulster and Antrim.
William Stephen Wright, known as King Rat, was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary leader who founded the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) during The Troubles. Wright had joined the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in his home town of Portadown around 1975. After spending several years in prison, he became a Protestant fundamentalist preacher. Wright resumed his UVF activities around 1986 and, in the early 1990s, replaced Robin Jackson as commander of that organisation's Mid-Ulster Brigade. According to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), Wright was involved in the sectarian killings of up to 20 Catholics but was never convicted for any.
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group based in Northern Ireland. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former Royal Ulster Rifles soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during The Troubles. It declared a ceasefire in 1994 and officially ended its campaign in 2007, although some of its members have continued to engage in violence and criminal activities. The group is a proscribed organisation and is on the terrorist organisation list of the United Kingdom.
Sporadic feuds erupted almost routinely between Northern Ireland's various loyalist paramilitary groups after the ethno-political conflict known as the Troubles began in 1969. The feuds have frequently involved conflicts between and within the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) as well as, later, the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).
The Combined Loyalist Military Command is an umbrella body for loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland set up in the early 1990s, recalling the earlier Ulster Army Council and Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee.
This article recounts the violence and other effects related to The Troubles in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Much of it has been related to the Drumcree parade dispute.
The Troubles in Lurgan recounts incidents during the Troubles in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.
William James Fulton, known as Jim Fulton, is a Northern Irish loyalist. He was a volunteer in the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), the paramilitary organisation founded in 1996 by Billy Wright and later commanded by his brother Mark "Swinger" Fulton until the latter's death in 2002.
Mark Fulton was a Northern Irish loyalist. He was the leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), having taken over its command following the assassination of Billy Wright in the Maze Prison in 1997 by members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).
This is a timeline of actions by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group since 1966. It includes actions carried out by the Red Hand Commando (RHC), a group integrated into the UVF shortly after their formation in 1972. It also includes attacks claimed by the Protestant Action Force (PAF), a covername used by the UVF. Most of these actions took place during the conflict known as "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland.
Harris Boyle was an Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldier and a high-ranking member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary organisation. Boyle was implicated in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, and took part in the attack at Buskhill, County Down when an armed UVF gang wearing British Army uniforms ambushed The Miami Showband at a bogus military checkpoint. The popular Irish cabaret band was driving home to Dublin after a performance in Banbridge. He was one of the two gunmen killed when the bomb they were loading onto the band's minibus exploded prematurely. He is sometimes referred to as Horace Boyle.
Mark Fulton was a Northern Irish loyalist. He was the leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), having taken over its command following the assassination of Billy Wright in the Maze Prison in 1997 by members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).
Muriel Gibson was a leading Northern Irish loyalist who was a member of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). The organisation was founded in 1996 by Billy Wright. She was acquitted of murdering a Catholic council worker, Adrian Lamph, in 1998, but convicted in January 2007 and sentenced to eight years imprisonment for destroying evidence following the 1998 murder, impeding the arrest and prosecution of his killers, and LVF membership. She was also found guilty of withholding information regarding a shooting, possession of firearms, detonators and pipe bombs.
UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade formed part of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force in Northern Ireland. The brigade was established in Lurgan, County Armagh in 1972 by its first commander Billy Hanna. The unit operated mainly around the Lurgan and Portadown areas. Subsequent leaders of the brigade were Robin Jackson, known as "The Jackal", and Billy Wright. The Mid-Ulster Brigade carried out many attacks, mainly in Northern Ireland, especially in the South Armagh area, but it also extended its operational reach into the Republic of Ireland. Two of the most notorious attacks in the history of the Troubles were carried out by the Mid-Ulster Brigade: the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the Miami Showband killings in 1975. Members of the Mid-Ulster Brigade were part of the Glenanne gang which the Pat Finucane Centre has since linked to at least 87 lethal attacks in the 1970s.
Richard Jameson, was a Northern Irish businessman and loyalist, who served as the leader of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force's (UVF) Mid-Ulster Brigade. He was killed outside his Portadown home during a feud with the rival Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), the breakaway organisation founded by former Mid-Ulster UVF commander Billy Wright after he and the Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade were officially stood down by the Brigade Staff in August 1996.
Jackie Mahood is a Northern Irish former loyalist activist with both the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Progressive Unionist Party (PUP). He later split from these groups and became associated with the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), founded in 1996 by Billy Wright.
Robin Andrew King, is a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary leader who served as the commander of the Ulster Protestant Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). A close friend of the organisation's founder Billy Wright, King took over as leader following the death of Mark "Swinger" Fulton, who had succeeded Wright when he was assassinated by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in December 1997.
The Central Bar bombing was a bomb attack on a pub in the town of Gilford near Portadown in County Down in Northern Ireland on 31 December 1975. The attack was carried out by members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) using the covername "People's Republican Army" although contemporary reports also said the "Armagh unit" of the "People's Republican Army" had claimed responsibility. Three Protestant civilians were killed in the bombing.
On 14 November 1991 the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, shot dead three civilians in Craigavon, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The three men were driving home from work at the Hyster forklift factory.
The Charlemont pub attacks were co-ordinated militant Loyalist paramilitary attacks on two pubs in the small village of Charlemont, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) on 15 May 1976. The attacks have been attributed to the Glenanne gang which was a coalition of right-wing Loyalist paramilitaries and subversive members inside the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the Ulster Defense Regiment (UDR) and the British Army.
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