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Who Killed Rosemary Nelson?
At Last, the Full Story of the Conspiracy Behind the Assassination of Northern Ireland's Top Human Rights Lawyer.
By Neil Root, Ian Hitchings John Blake Publishing Ltd
Copyright © 2011 Neil Root/Ian Hitchings
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84358-518-3
CHAPTER 1
A LAWYER IN THE LAIR
In the same year that Pat Finucane was executed in North Belfast, 30-year-old Rosemary Nelson set up the first solicitor's office run by a woman in Lurgan, the small town where she was born to the south-west of Belfast. Independent of spirit and dedicated to her law practice that soon took on staff, Rosemary built up a fine reputation in her local community. It was only later that her fame would spread far wider.
Rosemary's practice also helped run an advice and health centre on a Lurgan housing estate. As her sister Caitlin told the Irish News in March 2003, 'There were all types of people going to her. There were a lot of separations, domestic disputes. Women who were in difficult situations. And she would have gone out of her way for people. She would not just treat them as clients.' Rosemary would often do extra work for clients free of charge, becoming involved in their problems, and this commitment to those in need made her very popular and trusted.
Rosemary Nelson had a remarkable skill for empathy. She could relate to other people and their feelings, a key skill for a solicitor dealing with families. Like all of us, Rosemary's life experiences made her the person she became.
Rosemary Magee was born on Lurgan's Shore Road on 4 September 1958. Her family was well established in the area and, like in any very small town, the inhabitants were familiar with each other and knew each other's business. It is a flat landscape on the south-east shore of Lough Neagh, and the name Lurgan comes from the Irish 'an Lorgain' meaning 'the long ridge' where the oldest part of the town still sits today. At the time of the 1961 census, just three years after Rosemary's birth, Lurgan, Armagh, had a population of 17,872, and 40 years later in 2001 this had only grown to 23,534, small by any standards. The town's origins were as a Plantation of Ulster settlement in the early seventeenth century and, in 1610, the lands of Lurgan were gifted to Lord William Brownlow, an Englishman. By 1619, the Brownlow family had built a castle, and records held with the Craigavon Historical Society show that at that time the streets were already paved and there were 42 houses, as well as a watermill and windmill.
In 1639, William Brownlow became MP for Armagh in the Irish Parliament. Two years later, during the Irish Rebellion, Brownlow's castle was destroyed and he and his family were imprisoned for a year, their land being given to two Irish families – the O'Hanlons and the McCanns. But the Brownlows did go back to Lurgan after their liberation by Lord Conway and continued to be a presence in the town, Brownlow himself dying in 1660. From that period onwards, Lurgan became a textile town, producing linen, and this remained the main local employer until the late twentieth century when clothing production in the developing world meant that it was no longer profitable to produce it in towns such as Lurgan.
Lurgan would also play a significant role in the Troubles in Northern Ireland from the 1960s on. Along with the nearby towns of Craigavon and Portadown, it became part of what was known as the 'murder triangle' because of the amount of fatalities which took place there. Lurgan is unusual in Northern Ireland (although not unique) for having a long history of a significant support base for both Republicans and Loyalists and therefore the potential for respective dissident activities, which continues to this day. As recently as 14 August 2010, a bomb planted by dissident Republicans exploded in a public bin in Lurgan and injured three children.
There is an expression in Northern Ireland: 'to have a face as long as a Lurgan spade', meaning to look miserable. This is not literal and has its disputed origins in far more obscure roots. Those wide Lurgan streets where Rosemary Magee was born in 1958 on Shore Road had far from a 'miserable' new arrival. Rosemary would grow into a woman of spirit, great humour and determination.
But Rosemary developed into a warm and extrovert child against the odds, and perhaps it was partly those odds that made her different from other children. She was born with a large strawberry birthmark down the left side of her face. This singled her out from other children but did not make her introverted, due to the love and support of her mother and father, four sisters and two brothers, of whom Rosemary was the middle child. She attended Tannaghmore Primary School, where her own children would later go, and did well there with her schoolwork, as well as making a close circle of friends. These were the strong foundations of Rosemary's later highly respected place in the Lurgan community.
From the age of ten, she began a number of skin-graft operations to have the birthmark removed from her face. The medical procedures of the times meant that this involved prolonged and painful surgery after which she would be hospitalised and would need several recuperation periods of up to 15 weeks. This meant that she missed a great deal of school, but, despite this, at St Michael's Grammar School where she went after Tannaghmore, she regularly got top grades. Rosemary was a bright girl with a lively, inquisitive mind, all attributes that would make her a highly effective lawyer.
It is even more impressive that she continued to succeed academically and remained a cheerful, outgoing personality because the surgeries did remove the birthmark, but unfortunately paralysed the left side of her face. For the rest of her life, her face would noticeably droop down on that side, her left eye pulled down out of alignment with the right. This would have destroyed the confidence of many young women at a very self-conscious time in their lives, but not Rosemary. She was swiftly becoming one of life's survivors, but whose great tenacity would also lead her into treacherous waters in the future.
Rosemary appeared unaffected by her disfigurement, and this was no doubt largely due to the loving support of her family and friends. However, on a deeply personal or even subconscious level, it must have made her something of an outsider. Any developing person would be similarly affected. We are conditioned to fit into our society and anything that makes us different singles us out, especially in early years. It is to Rosemary's great credit that she turned a difficult start into a positive future, and one of considerable achievement.
There was a positive side-effect, however, and one that would make her the woman and lawyer she became: Rosemary developed a great empathy and understanding of others, particularly those who were persecuted and in distress. But again, ultimately, this would also lead her to take on more, perhaps, than any individual might reasonably have done in her situation.
Rosemary's childhood was a happy one, though, apart from dealing with her disfigurement psychologically and emotionally. She was a lively and inquisitive girl growing up at the height of the Troubles in a place where they could not be ignored. Her family told the Irish News in 2003 that she was not 'political', rather 'politically aware'. This was not unusual in that time and place, as every child had to understand the basics of the Troubles, although not the great complexities. To survive took knowledge, and Rosemary was no different in arming herself with it. But Rosemary was also interested in current affairs on the international stage, not just in Northern Ireland.
Rosemary did well at secondary school and was able to speak fluent Irish, and would speak it with her brother Eunan, who would later go on to teach the Irish language. They were the only members of the family who could speak it, and they would use it as a 'secret' language between them and then get told off for doing it. Her teenage summers were spent with the family on idyllic holidays in beautiful Co Donegal, part of a well-balanced childhood.
With a probing mind and a thirst for knowledge, it was little wonder that Rosemary went on to Queen's University, Belfast. She studied Law there, and it was soon obvious that she had found a subject and a vocation brilliantly suited to her personality and intellect. She graduated from there with a good degree in 1981, and went on to work for two law firms, along the way meeting her future husband Paul Nelson, with whom she would have three children: Gavin, Christopher and Sarah.
In 1989, Rosemary Nelson opened her own legal practice at 8 William Street, Lurgan, and became a pioneer as the first woman to do so in the town. She was very hard working and took her job very seriously, but also greatly valued her family and always tried to balance her work and family life. If she had been born in a town in another part of the country, Rosemary Nelson would probably have spent her career as a well-respected solicitor dealing in everyday domestic issues. Instead, she became an internationally renowned human rights lawyer, the cost of which was representing some very controversial clients and cases in a troubled time and place.
Rosemary Nelson's transition from representing ordinary clients with everyday problems and disputes to defending high-profile, politically dissident clients was a slow and organic one. To understand this, it needs to be reiterated that Lurgan was in the middle of the Troubles and had been for decades. With such a divided Roman Catholic and Protestant community (although some locals have overcome this divide for many years), there were bound to be approaches to Rosemary to take on more controversial cases. The fact that she agreed to act as a lawyer in these cases is controversial in itself, however.
There would later be claims that Rosemary was more than just a lawyer. Although she did, in fact, represent both Republican and Loyalist clients, it was the former that made the headlines. Along with an allegation that she had had an affair with her most high-profile Republican client and allegedly had even passed information about pending cases to the IRA itself, there is a grey area which cannot be ignored and will be explored in this book.
Rosemary Nelson's personality is also key to her accepting these clients, of course. Her family has attested that she found it impossible to turn away anyone in need, irrespective of their alleged activities and ties. She had a strong sense of justice and a good lawyer pursues that above all else, especially when there are suspected human rights abuses, just as a good doctor's mission is to treat and cure the sick. Whether Rosemary did more than this (as the authorities and Loyalists claim) is another 'grey area' in these hugely complex circumstances.
Perspective must be kept, however – Rosemary's practice continued to represent ordinary people with their problems throughout the 1990s. But it is the more divisive clients that changed her life and that of her family. As her brother Eunan told the Irish News in 2003 about his sister, 'She certainly wasn't naïve, but maybe underestimated the way things would develop. I think she would then want to follow it to its logical end.' Four key cases illustrate this growing controversy surrounding her client base.
Colin Duffy, a Lurgan man, has always admitted to being a mainstream Republican but strongly denied being an IRA member. However, according to the Sunday World newspaper, MI5 'placed him at the top of a dissident Republican cell in the Craigavon and Lurgan areas of Co Armagh'. Back in January 1990, when he was in his early twenties, Duffy and his friends Sam Marshall and Tony McCaughey were at McCaughey's house when it was raided by the RUC. Arrested and charged with having ten bullets in their possession, Duffy and Marshall were granted bail the following month, but McCaughey wasn't released on bail until March. The conditions of their bail were that they had to sign on at the local Lurgan RUC barracks twice a week. They went to their first signing together on 7 March but, as they left the barracks, a red Maestro car followed them, this car also being seen by independent witnesses. Tony McCaughey later described the driver as being smartly dressed in a dark suit and white shirt. Then the Maestro passed them, swiftly followed by a red Rover, and this car would pass them again on their way towards Lurgan town centre. The Rover was finally seen parked.
Duffy, Marshall and McCaughey were now very concerned and chose to follow a different route, but then two masked men jumped out of the Rover and opened fire on them. Sam Marshall was hit and therefore unable to run. The gunmen finished Marshall off on the ground with two shots to the head. Duffy and McCaughey were very lucky to escape unscathed.
It has never been proven that there was a tip-off, although the time of their bail signings were known only to them, their solicitor and the RUC. The Rover car was discovered burned out close to the M1 motorway.
Four years later, in 1994, RUC Inspector Alan Clegg divulged in an extradition hearing in the United States that the red Maestro had been an intelligence services car. He also added that on the fateful night it was part of an RUC surveillance operation, one of three cars, one of which had belonged to the RUC.
Sam Marshall's family is still campaigning for a full open inquest into his death, and Rosemary Nelson supported their cause. Republican supporters of Colin Duffy cite his knowledge of what happened that night as a motivation for individual officers from the RUC, and subsequently the PSNI, allegedly hounding Duffy in order to get him off the streets and prevent him from giving evidence in any such inquest. But, of course, as with any political viewpoint, this has to be approached in a balanced way, allowing for partisan agendas.
Three years after Sam Marshall's murder, Colin Duffy was again in the spotlight. On 24 June 1993, an Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldier, 57-year-old John Lyness, was shot dead outside his home in Lime Grove, Lurgan, by the IRA. Lyness had retired from the UDR the previous year after 20 years of service. Lyness had just parked his car and, seeing his two killers approach, was able to pull out his 'personal protection weapon', but the gunmen shot first. Colin Duffy was soon charged with the murder. It was at this time that Rosemary Nelson began representing Colin Duffy.
One of the key witnesses against Duffy was a Unionist/Loyalist called Lindsay Robb. Robb gave evidence at the trial from behind a screen, saying that he saw Duffy in the vicinity of Lime Grove at the time of the shooting. Duffy would go on to serve three years in prison before Rosemary got him out in 1996, after Lindsay Robb was unmasked as an Ulster Voluntary Force (UVF) member and arrested for gun-running on their behalf in Scotland, Rosemary winning her argument that Robb's evidence was no longer credible.
In 2000, Robb would make dramatic allegations about RUC involvement in Duffy's conviction. Robb said that RUC Special Branch had approached the UVF, asking them to give them a 'clean' witness to frame Duffy. Robb said that Special Branch had insinuated that they would 'go easy' on the UVF and their operations in Mid-Ulster if this service was provided. Robb explained that a senior member of the UVF had come to him and asked him to testify against Duffy, which he did.
Colin Duffy said, 'If the RUC were prepared to collude with Loyalists to take me out in 1993, then it is reasonable to assume that members of the British Crown forces were involved in the UVF's attempt to take me out in 1990. This was not the first or last time RUC Special Branch or some other section of the British Crown forces were in contact with Loyalist paramilitaries.'
However, Lindsay Robb told the Sunday Herald in 2000, 'My evidence against Duffy was part of a deal struck with loyalist terrorists – namely the UVF – and the RUC. I want to make it clear that my evidence was not perjured. I stand by the fact that I saw Duffy in the vicinity of the murder, but I would not have come forward without the request of the UVF following approaches made by the RUC.' Therefore, Robb was maintaining his account of the murder of John Lyness, although it must be borne in mind that his evidence had been found not to be credible subsequent to the original trial. But his allegations about RUC collusion with the UVF are very concerning. Rosemary Nelson echoed this allegation of RUC collusion in 1997, years before the outpourings of the Loyalist Lindsay Robb. She brought up the alleged collusion in the 1990 murder of Sam Marshall, too, in support of his family's campaign.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Who Killed Rosemary Nelson? by Neil Root, Ian Hitchings. Copyright © 2011 Neil Root/Ian Hitchings. Excerpted by permission of John Blake Publishing Ltd.
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