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8 What to Do with the Paramilitaries? A Cease-Fire Murder In March 2005 I interviewed Mark Langhammer, then a borough-level councillor (Labour) for Newtownabbey, an area just north of Belfast. Until then, most of my interviews had been with Loyalist paramilitaries, exprisoners , and community workers. Many of the men I spoke with seemed genuinely committed to peace, and it is clear that several had put themselves at great personal risk to promote a progressive notion of Loyalism. Although I found their efforts laudable, they were nonetheless difficult to square with ongoing Loyalist paramilitary violence. I wanted to speak with someone who would provide a contrasting view. I sought out Councillor Langhammer because he is a fierce critic of Loyalist paramilitaries. In a white paper titled “Cutting with the Grain,” Langhammer described Loyalist paramilitaries as “unhinged, apolitical and unpoliced” (2003, 3). He was equally dismissive of Loyalist political efforts, noting that the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) “has not produced any ‘research’ worthy of the name” (3). Langhammer is also no stranger to paramilitary violence. In September 2002 the UDA fitted the bottom of his car with a bomb. Fortunately, the device exploded while the car sat in the driveway, and no one was injured. The UDA had planted the bomb to protest Langhammer’s support for a PSNI drop-in clinic in Rathcoole. As the Belfast Telegraph remarked, the clinic was “viewed as a challenge to the paramilitary power” in the area (Gordon 2005b). Langhammer is also familiar with paramilitary violence because it has affected his constituents. When we met in 2005, Councillor Langhammer told me that paramilitary violence in his district had escalated since the peace accord was signed. 189 From the Good Friday Agreement on, my political constituency was the biggest killing field in Northern Ireland—there were more murders in my constituency than anywhere else, bar none. One of the crimes he singled out for me was the murder of Raymond McCord . Now, in my own constituency there was a murder in 1997 of a young man called Raymond McCord that was drugs related. Raymond McCord was murdered by members of the UVF who were also police informers. And the police knew about that. That’s under investigation now. Or I should say that assertion is under investigation by the ombudsman. The twenty-two-year-old McCord, a former radar operator in the Royal Air Force, was killed in November 1997. His body was discovered in a quarry in Ballyduff, Newtownabbey. Police surmise McCord was beaten to death and describe the manner of his death as “vicious and brutal” (Connolly 1997a). The day after McCord’s body was found, the Belfast Telegraph spoke to the murdered man’s father, who is also named Raymond McCord. The senior McCord suggested that his son’s murder could be the result of a longstanding UDA vendetta against him. In 1992 the UDA had ordered a punishment beating for the senior McCord. His legs, arms, and nose were broken and two of his ribs were cracked (Hall 1997).1 The elder McCord spoke publicly about his attack at the time and claims that the UDA has never let him, or his family, forget it. Several years later the senior McCord recounted his ordeal to investigators with Human Rights Watch: The UDA rules by terror in Protestant areas. I refused to join them when I was seventeen, and over the years they decided to make me an example. . . . The beating they gave me in February was the worst beating in my area in twenty years. I’ve charged them with my beating—I’m the first person in twenty years to do that. They attacked me outside a bar with flagstones. They dropped flagstones on my arms and legs and kicked my face while I was lying on the ground. Their usual weapons are baseball bats. (Hall 1997, 60) When McCord spoke to the press after his son’s murder, he acknowledged the murder could have been committed by someone else, but he “challenged Loyalist paramilitaries to deny involvement” (Connolly 1997a). Later that night the UFF issued a statement denying responsibility for the murder (Connolly 1997c). A week later an anti-intimidation group told the Belfast Telegraph that it had been notified by reliable sources that people connected to the UVF were 190 Chapter 8 冷 1 The Belfast Telegraph reported that the punishment beating occurred earlier, in 1990 (Connolly 1997a). [3.139.72.78] Project MUSE (2024-04...

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