Loyalists hand back IRA plaques
Suzanne Breen, Sunday World
Plaques honouring IRA members killed during the Troubles in west Belfast were stolen by loyalists and placed on top of an Eleventh night bonfire.
But they were then returned to republicans. Loyalist youths crossed the peaceline at night and entered the IRA garden of remembrance in St James, off the Falls Road.
They stole plaques from the garden which commemorates the 10 H-Block hunger-strikers and local IRA and Sinn Féin members who died during the conflict.
The youths then crossed back into the loyalist Donegall Road. They placed the plaques on top of a bonfire in the Village area.
The young loyalists boasted about their night-time invasion of the Falls and how the plaques were due to go up in flames that night.
What they didn’t reckon on was the UDA being contacted, intervening, and having the mementoes returned.
The Sunday World has learned that when local Sinn Féin figures found out that the plaques were missing, they telephoned senior figures in the UDA and interfacing workers operating between the Falls and the Village.
The republican plaques were recovered from the top of the bonfire. They were then ferried back across the peaceline to St James.
Local republicans said the return of the plaques showed the trust and good working relationship there now is between senior Provo and UDA leaders.
One source said: “Young lads on both sides of the divide were laying into each other during the riots on the Donegall Road.
“But that’s not the whole story. At a leadership level, the IRA and the UDA get on well and can do business together and sort out problems.” It is understood an apology was offered, and accepted, because some of the plaques were damaged.
