Victims group pays former B-Specials £13k
Posted By: April 18, 2016
Controversial RUC unit was disbanded just months after start of Troubles
Connla Young. Irish News (Belfast). Monday, April 18, 2016
The Ulster Special Constabulary Association has been awarded victims funding
East Derry assembly member John Dallat is concerned that the Ulster Special Constabulary Association has been awarded funding from a victims’ group
ALMOST £13,000 has been paid to former members of the B-Specials by a victim-support group even though the controversial police unit was disbanded just months after the Troubles began.
Two branches of the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) Association recently received the handout from the Victims and Survivors Service (VSS).
The B-Specials were part of the Ulster Special Constabulary which was disbanded by the British government in April 1970.
The unit suffered no loss of personnel as a result of the Troubles although some members were killed during previous republican campaigns.
The USC comprised three units known as the A, B and C Specials and was disbanded after a recommendation in the Hunt report, published after serious disorder across the north in August 1969.
Many former members of the B-Specials later joined the RUC Reserve and UDR which were set up to replace it.
The VSS delivers funding through the Victims Support Programme to organisations that provide services and support to victims and survivors of the
Troubles.
A small grant scheme organised by the charity recently allocated more than £9,630 to the USCA North Antrim branch and £3,200 to the association in Omagh, Co Tyrone.
A spokeswoman for the VSS refused to reveal what the cash will be used for.
East Derry MLA John Dallat, pictured, said he is concerned that the USCA has received funding.
“I have to ask myself where this all ends,” he said.
“Do we go back to the Black and Tans with money or will common sense prevail and the money intended for people genuinely affected by the Troubles are the beneficiaries of taxpayers’
money?
“How do the relatives of victims feel about sharing money going to an organisation which exists to keep alive the memory of the B-Specials, an organisation which had a dreadful reputation from its inception in 1920.
“Even in the lead-up to the recent Troubles they played their part in creating tension at checkpoints set up and focusing only on Catholics even if those Catholics happened to be their next-door neighbours.”
The B-Specials were almost exclusively Protestant. Nationalists viewed them as a sectarian paramilitary force and the strong arm of the old Stormont unionist regime.
Set up in 1920, the unit carried out numerous revenge killings and reprisals around this time and members are believed to have been involved in the McMahon killings in 1922, when six members of a Catholic family were shot dead in north Belfast.
B-Specials were also suspected of involvement in the shooting of several Catholics in 1969 including father-of-three John Gallagher (30) in Armagh after a Civil Rights Association meeting.
Several other security-force-
linked groups have received funds from the VSS including the RUC George Cross Association in Armagh which received £16,000 and the UDR regimental Association in Enniskillen which was awarded more than £19,7000.
Other organisations which offer support to Troubles victims also received awards including WAVE Trauma Centre (£1.5 million), Relatives for Justice (almost £500,000) and the Pat Finucane Centre (more than £71,000).
A spokeswoman for the VSS said: “The VSS does not comment on applications for funding made by individual organisations.“
The USCA could not be contacted for comment.
