ARCHIVE: IRA's Former Director of Intelligence on UK Torture

FIRST AIRED: 17/12/2014. Kieran Conway, former director of intelligence for the IRA, talks to Going Underground host Afshin Rattansi about alleged British torture during the Northern Irish troubles. He says that he recognises the techniques detailed in the recent CIA torture report from his time in the IRA and the infamous ‘hooded men’ case in which detainees were made to stand in stress positions, subjected to white noise, food and water deprivation, and hooded, a case which is used to justify abuse now. He thinks torture worked ‘up to a point,’ but the confessions gained from torture, ‘some were true and some were false.’ He said that when he first joined the IRA, it never crossed his mind that they would kill an innocent civilian, but it become commonplace, because warnings were not always given when they were supposed to be, and mistakes made due to a lack of training. He says the Birmingham bombings were a disaster, and the IRA at the time said that none of the Birmingham 6 were members of the IRA and the head of the IRA at the time said those involved would be subjected to an internal inquiry and potentially shot if it was found they did it deliberately. He says the UDA and UVF were infiltrated and manipulated by the British, and the ‘British were responsible for incidents like the Dublin bombings,’ trying to provoke a response from the IRA. On the other side, members of the Garda ‘took great risks’ to assist the IRA. He thinks the settlement that was reached ‘was always available’ and describes the Troubles as a ‘futile and useless waste of lives,’ when the majority of the population would have agreed with the settlement. He implores those still attempting terrorist attacks to ‘lay down their arms’ as they ‘can’t succeed’ and don’t have the equipment or capability of the provisional IRA. With the review of the ‘hooded men’ case, he thinks if the European Court of Human Rights changes its findings, it will be ‘historically important’ in stopping other cases justifying torture by reference to it. He thinks that there needs to be an amnesty, not just for the IRA, but to soldiers, such as the bloody soldiers, to draw a line under the Troubles. And he thinks Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness have ‘misled the people’ and represent ‘just another arse in the seat of power.’

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