Jim Hanna (loyalist)
Encyclopedia
James Andrew "Jim" Hanna, also known as Red Setter, (c. 1947 – 1 April 1974) was a senior member of the Northern Irish loyalist
paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force
(UVF) until he was shot dead by fellow members, for being an alleged informer. Journalists Joe Tiernan and Kevin Myers
described him as having been the senior military leader of the UVF. Tiernan also suggested that he was part of a UVF unit that planted car bombs in Dublin in December 1972 and January 1973 which left three people dead and 133 injured. Tiernan claimed that Hanna was controlled by four British Army
Intelligence
officers who frequently visited his home in Lisburn
.
, County Antrim
, Northern Ireland
in about 1947, and was raised in the Protestant religion. Physically he was tall and red-haired, and possessed an outgoing, friendly personality. He lived in his native Lisburn where he worked as a self-employed plumbing and heating engineer. He joined the Ulster Volunteer Force
(UVF) on an unknown date, although he had come to prominence in the gun battles that took place between the Provisional Irish Republican Army
(IRA) and UVF that took place during the early 1970s at Springmartin Road (an interface marking the approximate boundary between the loyalist Highfield estate area of the Greater Shankill and the republican Ballymurphy
/New Barnsley areas). Despite being from Lisburn Hanna was a member of the Shankill Road UVF. He moved up in the ranks to eventually become a senior member of the paramilitary organisation and one of its Brigade Staff. According to journalist Joe Tiernan, he was the "head of the UVF in Northern Ireland". Kevin Myers
also maintained he was the senior military commander for the UVF. Martin Dillon
in The Dirty War stated that he was the senior UVF commander in 1973. The UVF's de jure commander Gusty Spence
had been imprisoned since 1966. Jim Hanna was no relation to Billy Hanna
of Lurgan
, who formed the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade
in 1972 and appointed himself its first commander.
Tiernan alleged that together with Ken Gibson
, a leading UVF member from East Belfast, and Billy Mitchell
, a senior man from the Shankill Road, Hanna led the Belfast UVF team that planted car bombs in Dublin. These bombings were carried out on 1 December 1972 and 20 January 1973 and caused explosions near Liberty Hall
on Eden Quay and Sackville Place, in the city centre, leaving a total of three people dead and 133 injured. Sackville Place, off Dublin's main thoroughfare, O'Connell Street
, was bombed twice, first on 1 December, then again on 20 January; the three fatalities occurred there.
The bombing unit was allegedly controlled and directed by officers from the British Army Intelligence community operating from Army Headquarters in Lisburn
. In several interviews Tiernan conducted with Mitchell in the 1990s, the latter recounted that Hanna (whom he tellingly referred to as "his boss") was "run as an agent" by four officers from Army Intelligence based at Lisburn, naming them as two captains, one lieutenant, and an SAS
officer. These men were frequent visitors to Hanna's home in Lisburn and they brought him to Army Headquarters for regular briefings on how to conduct the UVF campaign. Mitchell added that Hanna's wife had unsuccessfully tried to persuade him to emigrate to the United States with the aim of removing him from the violence of The Troubles
and his associations with the British Army. Indeed Kevin Myers, who enjoyed a close friendship with Hanna despite their political differences, had in his possession photographs that Hanna had given to him showing Hanna in his house with two leading intelligence officers from the British Army. Hanna was even posing with a regulation British Army rifle in one of the pictures, the weapon belonging to one of the two officers.
. Tiernan conducted an interview with Cathal Goulding
, the former Chief of Staff of the Official IRA
before his death in 1998 and the following allegation was made in regards to Hanna:
There was no mention in the Garda
files of the cars responsible for the two 1 December 1972 bombings as having been stopped by Gardai in Swords or anywhere in the Republic of Ireland that day. It is possible it was a reference to the Garda officer in Drogheda
who took note of the 20 January 1973 bomb car's registration number as it passed through on the way to Dublin where it detonated in Sackville Place. Kevin Myers was questioned by Mr Justice Barron's Inquiry, as the journalist had become acquainted with Hanna in the spring of 1973. He admitted that Hanna was known to have had close ties to a number of British Army officers. He stated that while it was possible Hanna had been involved in the car bombings, he suggested that Hanna was a fantasist who often embellished and even fabricated stories to "make himself seem more impressive"; therefore not everything Hanna said was necessarily credible.
A fortnight after this Myers arranged for Hanna and Mitchell to attend a metting at Lough Sheelin
with Provisional IRA Army Council
members Dáithí Ó Conaill
and Brian Keenan
. In what was a cagier meeting than that with the Officials the two groups attempted to find some ground due to Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
's Éire Nua
policy and Desmond Boal
's advocacy of a federal Ireland, as both policies included a united Ireland
as well as a significant degree of autonomy for either Northern Irleand or the province of Ulster
within that unity. However Boal's idea was one that only he and a handful of supporters held and it certainly was not a plan endorsed by the UVF thus little came of these discussions.
Following his death the UVF described him as a "Brigade Officer", who held the rank of "full colonel responsible for operation control".
Hanna's inquest, at which his UVF membership was acknowledged, suggested that his killing might have occurred because he had "offended this organisation in some way". According to the then leader of the UVF's youth wing the Young Citizen Volunteers
, who chose to remain anonymous, a power struggle of sorts followed Hanna's death as he was strongly admired by both the YCV and his former comrades in "Special Services", that is those operatives who took part in the gun battles on the Springmartin Road and other flashpoints near the republican Springfield Road. The YCV commander also claimed that the killing of Hanna eventually led to Gibson being removed from his position as head of the UVF in favour of the YCV chief, as well as the abandonment of Gibson's political arm, the Volunteer Political Party
later that year.
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force
Ulster Volunteer Force
The Ulster Volunteer Force is a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in late 1965 or early 1966 and named after the Ulster Volunteer Force of 1913. The group's volunteers undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during The Troubles...
(UVF) until he was shot dead by fellow members, for being an alleged informer. Journalists Joe Tiernan and Kevin Myers
Kevin Myers
Kevin Myers is an Irish journalist and writer. He writes for the Irish Independent and is a former contributor to The Irish Times, where he wrote the "An Irishman's Diary" opinion column several times weekly...
described him as having been the senior military leader of the UVF. Tiernan also suggested that he was part of a UVF unit that planted car bombs in Dublin in December 1972 and January 1973 which left three people dead and 133 injured. Tiernan claimed that Hanna was controlled by four British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
Intelligence
Military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
officers who frequently visited his home in Lisburn
Lisburn
DemographicsLisburn Urban Area is within Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area and is classified as a Large Town by the . On census day there were 71,465 people living in Lisburn...
.
Ulster Volunteer Force
Hanna was born in LisburnLisburn
DemographicsLisburn Urban Area is within Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area and is classified as a Large Town by the . On census day there were 71,465 people living in Lisburn...
, County Antrim
County Antrim
County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...
, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
in about 1947, and was raised in the Protestant religion. Physically he was tall and red-haired, and possessed an outgoing, friendly personality. He lived in his native Lisburn where he worked as a self-employed plumbing and heating engineer. He joined the Ulster Volunteer Force
Ulster Volunteer Force
The Ulster Volunteer Force is a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in late 1965 or early 1966 and named after the Ulster Volunteer Force of 1913. The group's volunteers undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during The Troubles...
(UVF) on an unknown date, although he had come to prominence in the gun battles that took place between the Provisional Irish Republican Army
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
(IRA) and UVF that took place during the early 1970s at Springmartin Road (an interface marking the approximate boundary between the loyalist Highfield estate area of the Greater Shankill and the republican Ballymurphy
Ballymurphy
Ballymurphy may refer to:*Ballymurphy, Belfast - an area in Belfast, northern Ireland, known for the Ballymurphy Massacre.*Ballymurphy, County Carlow - a village in County Carlow, Ireland....
/New Barnsley areas). Despite being from Lisburn Hanna was a member of the Shankill Road UVF. He moved up in the ranks to eventually become a senior member of the paramilitary organisation and one of its Brigade Staff. According to journalist Joe Tiernan, he was the "head of the UVF in Northern Ireland". Kevin Myers
Kevin Myers
Kevin Myers is an Irish journalist and writer. He writes for the Irish Independent and is a former contributor to The Irish Times, where he wrote the "An Irishman's Diary" opinion column several times weekly...
also maintained he was the senior military commander for the UVF. Martin Dillon
Martin Dillon
Martin Dillon is an author and journalist from Northern Ireland. He worked for eighteen years at the BBC and has written a number of plays and novels, but he is best known for his non-fiction books about the Troubles....
in The Dirty War stated that he was the senior UVF commander in 1973. The UVF's de jure commander Gusty Spence
Gusty Spence
Augustus Andrew "Gusty" Spence was a leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force and a leading loyalist politician. One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade but later renounced violence and joined the Progressive Unionist...
had been imprisoned since 1966. Jim Hanna was no relation to Billy Hanna
Billy Hanna
William Henry Wilson "Billy" Hanna MM was a high-ranking Northern Irish loyalist who founded and led the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force until he was killed, allegedly by Robin Jackson, who took over command of the brigade.According to RUC Special Patrol Group officer John Weir,...
of Lurgan
Lurgan
Lurgan is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is near the southern shore of Lough Neagh and in the north-eastern corner of the county. Part of the Craigavon Borough Council area, Lurgan is about 18 miles south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway...
, who formed the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade
UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade
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...
in 1972 and appointed himself its first commander.
Tiernan alleged that together with Ken Gibson
Ken Gibson (loyalist)
Kenneth "Ken" Gibson was a Northern Irish politician, who acted as the Chairman of the Volunteer Political Party which he had helped to form in 1974...
, a leading UVF member from East Belfast, and Billy Mitchell
Billy Mitchell (loyalist)
Billy Mitchell was a Northern Irish community activist and member of the Progressive Unionist Party. Mitchell was a leading member of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force and served a life sentence for his part in a double murder but later abandoned UVF membership and took up cross-community...
, a senior man from the Shankill Road, Hanna led the Belfast UVF team that planted car bombs in Dublin. These bombings were carried out on 1 December 1972 and 20 January 1973 and caused explosions near Liberty Hall
Liberty Hall
Liberty Hall , in Dublin, Ireland is the headquarters of the Services, Industrial, Professional, and Technical Union...
on Eden Quay and Sackville Place, in the city centre, leaving a total of three people dead and 133 injured. Sackville Place, off Dublin's main thoroughfare, O'Connell Street
O'Connell Street
O'Connell Street is Dublin's main thoroughfare. It measures 49 m in width at its southern end, 46 m at the north, and is 500 m in length...
, was bombed twice, first on 1 December, then again on 20 January; the three fatalities occurred there.
The bombing unit was allegedly controlled and directed by officers from the British Army Intelligence community operating from Army Headquarters in Lisburn
Lisburn
DemographicsLisburn Urban Area is within Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area and is classified as a Large Town by the . On census day there were 71,465 people living in Lisburn...
. In several interviews Tiernan conducted with Mitchell in the 1990s, the latter recounted that Hanna (whom he tellingly referred to as "his boss") was "run as an agent" by four officers from Army Intelligence based at Lisburn, naming them as two captains, one lieutenant, and an SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
officer. These men were frequent visitors to Hanna's home in Lisburn and they brought him to Army Headquarters for regular briefings on how to conduct the UVF campaign. Mitchell added that Hanna's wife had unsuccessfully tried to persuade him to emigrate to the United States with the aim of removing him from the violence of The Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
and his associations with the British Army. Indeed Kevin Myers, who enjoyed a close friendship with Hanna despite their political differences, had in his possession photographs that Hanna had given to him showing Hanna in his house with two leading intelligence officers from the British Army. Hanna was even posing with a regulation British Army rifle in one of the pictures, the weapon belonging to one of the two officers.
Meetings with the Official IRA
Tiernan's allegations regarding Hanna were published in the 2004 Second Barron Report which was the findings of an official investigation into the 1972 and 1973 Dublin bombings commissioned by Irish Supreme Court Justice Henry BarronHenry Barron
Henry Barron was an Irish judge. He sat on the Irish Supreme Court from 1997 until his retirement in 2000. He was the first Jew to hold this position....
. Tiernan conducted an interview with Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA.One of seven children born into a republican family in East Arran Street in the north inner city of Dublin, Goulding was involved as teenager in Fianna Éireann, the IRA youth wing which he joined with his...
, the former Chief of Staff of the Official IRA
Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA is an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to create a "32-county workers' republic" in Ireland. It emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of "The Troubles"...
before his death in 1998 and the following allegation was made in regards to Hanna:
"Throughout 1972/73 he [Goulding] and a number of his Official IRA colleagues held a series of meetings with UVF men, both in Belfast and Dublin, to discuss mutual working-class issues such as poverty, unemployment and bad housing. In August 1973 a meeting to discuss such issues was held in the West County Hotel outside Dublin, attended by high-powered delegations from both organisations....Towards the end of the evening, according to Goulding, Jim Hanna pulled him to one side and told him he wished to speak to him in confidence. 'He asked me if we, the Official IRA, would be willing to carry out bank robberies here in the South and they, the UVF, would claim them. Then, if we wished, they would carry out similar robberies in the North, and we could claim them. He said Army Intelligence officers he was in contact with in the North had asked him to put the proposition to us as they were anxious to bring about a situation in the South where the Dublin government would be forced to introduce internment. When I refused to accept his proposition, as we were already on ceasefire, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Look there's no problem. You see those car bombs in Dublin over the last year, well we planted those bombs and the Army provided us with the cars. There's no problem'. When I asked him how the bombings were carried out, he said the 1972 bombs were placed in false petrol tanks in both cars. He said they travelled down the main road from Belfast to Dublin and were stopped at a Garda checkpoint at Swords [North County Dublin] but because the cars were not reported stolen and the Gardai found nothing suspicious in them they were allowed to proceed".
There was no mention in the Garda
Garda
Garda may refer to:* An Garda Síochána, the national police of the Republic of Ireland* Lake Garda, a lake in northern Italy.* Garda , a commune on the shores of the Italian Lake Garda in the province of Verona....
files of the cars responsible for the two 1 December 1972 bombings as having been stopped by Gardai in Swords or anywhere in the Republic of Ireland that day. It is possible it was a reference to the Garda officer in Drogheda
Drogheda
Drogheda is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, 56 km north of Dublin. It is the last bridging point on the River Boyne before it enters the Irish Sea....
who took note of the 20 January 1973 bomb car's registration number as it passed through on the way to Dublin where it detonated in Sackville Place. Kevin Myers was questioned by Mr Justice Barron's Inquiry, as the journalist had become acquainted with Hanna in the spring of 1973. He admitted that Hanna was known to have had close ties to a number of British Army officers. He stated that while it was possible Hanna had been involved in the car bombings, he suggested that Hanna was a fantasist who often embellished and even fabricated stories to "make himself seem more impressive"; therefore not everything Hanna said was necessarily credible.
A fortnight after this Myers arranged for Hanna and Mitchell to attend a metting at Lough Sheelin
Lough Sheelin
Lough Sheelin is a limestone freshwater lough in Ireland located in County Westmeath, County Meath and County Cavan near the village of Finea and the town of Granard County Longford....
with Provisional IRA Army Council
IRA Army Council
The IRA Army Council was the decision-making body of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, more commonly known as the IRA, a paramilitary group dedicated to bringing about the end of the Union between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. The council had seven members, said by the...
members Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill was an Irish republican, a member of the IRA Army Council, vice-president of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin. He was also the first chief of staff of the Continuity IRA.-Joins IRA:...
and Brian Keenan
Brian Keenan (Irish republican)
Brian Keenan was a former member of the Army Council of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who received an 18-year prison sentence in 1980 for conspiring to cause explosions, and played a key role in the Northern Ireland peace process.-Early life:The son of a member of the Royal Air Force,...
. In what was a cagier meeting than that with the Officials the two groups attempted to find some ground due to Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is an Irish republican. He is a former chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army , former president of Sinn Féin and former president of Republican Sinn Féin.-Early life:...
's Éire Nua
Éire Nua
Éire Nua, or "New Ireland", was a political strategy of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin during the 1970s and early 1980s. It was particularly associated with the Dublin based leadership group centred around Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Dáithí Ó Conaill who were the authors of the policy...
policy and Desmond Boal
Desmond Boal
Desmond Boal is a former Unionist politician and barrister from Northern Ireland.Boal had a legal career before he entered politics in 1960. He was the Unionist member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland for the Shankill constituency between 1960 and 1972...
's advocacy of a federal Ireland, as both policies included a united Ireland
United Ireland
A united Ireland is the term used to refer to the idea of a sovereign state which covers all of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. The island of Ireland includes the territory of two independent sovereign states: the Republic of Ireland, which covers 26 counties of the island, and the...
as well as a significant degree of autonomy for either Northern Irleand or the province of Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
within that unity. However Boal's idea was one that only he and a handful of supporters held and it certainly was not a plan endorsed by the UVF thus little came of these discussions.
Killing
On 1 April 1974, Hanna was found dead inside an abandoned car in Mansfield Street off the Shankill Road, Belfast. He had been shot eight times in the head at close range. Hanna and his girlfriend had been waiting in the car outside the Rumford Street drinking club, a favoured haunt of loyalists on the Shankill; she had been shot in both legs. There were rumours that Ken Gibson had organised the assassination; however, there were also allegations that Hanna was killed by the UVF for having been an informer. Suspicions had been raised by the fact that the security forces had unearthed a UVF arms dump near the drinking club two days earlier and Hanna's name quickly came into the frame as he was well-known for his relationships with British Army personnel.Following his death the UVF described him as a "Brigade Officer", who held the rank of "full colonel responsible for operation control".
Hanna's inquest, at which his UVF membership was acknowledged, suggested that his killing might have occurred because he had "offended this organisation in some way". According to the then leader of the UVF's youth wing the Young Citizen Volunteers
Young Citizen Volunteers
The Young Citizen Volunteers of Northern Ireland had its first meeting just prior to the signing of the Solemn League and Covenant , opposing Home Rule, in Belfast City Hall on September 10, 1912...
, who chose to remain anonymous, a power struggle of sorts followed Hanna's death as he was strongly admired by both the YCV and his former comrades in "Special Services", that is those operatives who took part in the gun battles on the Springmartin Road and other flashpoints near the republican Springfield Road. The YCV commander also claimed that the killing of Hanna eventually led to Gibson being removed from his position as head of the UVF in favour of the YCV chief, as well as the abandonment of Gibson's political arm, the Volunteer Political Party
Volunteer Political Party
The Volunteer Political Party was a loyalist political party launched in Northern Ireland on 22 June 1974 by members of the then recently legalised Ulster Volunteer Force . The Chairman was Ken Gibson from East Belfast, an ex-internee and UVF chief of staff at the time...
later that year.