SINN FÉIN SAID the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) was engaging in “propaganda” when republicans were accused of hiding “spiked metal weapons” ahead of the annual 12 July parade in Ardoyne in 2002 – and photos backed up the party’s stance. 

A previously confidential file and photos, released as part of the State Papers this month, shed light on the disagreement between Sinn Féin and the PSNI at a crucial point in the peace process.

Every year, the Orange Order and marching bands take part in hundreds of parades to mark the Battle of the Boyne, when Protestant William of Orange (King Billy) defeated Catholic King James II in 1690.

The parades now typically pass off peacefully, but violence has previously broken out at events – particularly in mainly Catholics areas such as Ardoyne. In 2002, a review of the Good Friday Agreement was underway and tensions were high.

On 16 July 2002, Irish official Tom Lynch sent a fax to colleagues detailing what had happened the previous Friday.

In the run-up to the parade, the PSNI said they had found “spiked weapons” on the roofs of shops in the Ardoyne area of Belfast.

British soldiers outside shops in Ardoyne in July 2002 State Papers / Department of Justice State Papers / Department of Justice / Department of Justice

In the fax, Lynch said he was examining a claim by then-Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan that the PSNI “had information that republican paramilitaries were planning a large scale attack on the parade as it passed the Ardoyne shops at the Crumlin Road/Ardoyne Road intersection”.

The PSNI claimed to have “discovered an array of weapons”, including 20ft-long iron pipes and 80 “spiked metal missiles” on shop roofs. Police said they also found several crates of bottles, “which they believed were to be used as petrol bombs”, at the rear of the shops.

Commenting on the discovery, then-Chief Inspector Colin Taylor said the missiles seized in the area would have been used by republicans in an attack on the police.

It appears that these items had been stashed there for an attack on the police, army and possibly the general public.

“There are things there that have been specifically made for nothing other than to injure members of the security forces. The discovery of the spiked metal implements is especially sinister,” Taylor is quoted as saying.

‘Propaganda’

However, Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly gave a different version of events.

Speaking to Lynch, Kelly accused the PSNI of engaging in “black propaganda” over allegations of a planned attack by the IRA.

Lynch informed officials that Kelly gave him photographs purportedly showing members of the British Army at 5am on 12 July dismantling anti-theft security barriers on the shop roofs. Kelly said there were no “spiked metal weapons”, that the items were anti-theft barriers.

Inspector Colin Taylor in the Irish News newspaper State Papers / Dept of Justice/Irish News State Papers / Dept of Justice/Irish News / Dept of Justice/Irish News

“At the time, in the absence of any details of the weapons which the PSNI were claiming to have “discovered”, I was of the view that the photographs of themselves were not conclusive,” Lynch wrote.

“However, photographs appeared in yesterday’s Irish News which show Inspector Colin Taylor displaying the “weapons discovered” by the PSNI on the roofs of the Ardoyne shops.”

Lynch said the “weapons” in the photos were “clearly” the same iron pipes the British Army were seen dismantling from the roofs of the shops. He said it “seems to me” that the photos backed up Kelly’s stance and that no such weapons had been “stashed there for an attack”.

The Journal has asked the PSNI for comment on the content of the files. 

State Papers reference number: 2022/49/23