The Five Demands

Rinvenuto cadavere una figura chiave del Provisional IRA degli anni ’80

Il corpo esanime di Gerry ‘Whitey’ Bradley (57 anni) è stato scoperto a bordo in un’auto a Carrifergus Marina, mercoledì 27 ottobre.
Il repubblicano fu una figura chiave del Provisional IRA negli anni ’80. Nel 1994 fu incarcerato per il tentato omicidio di un agente del Royal Ulster Constabulary.
La sua vita cambiò radicalmente rotta con la pubblicazione del libro ‘Insider’. “Se si voleva scrivere un libro, essi (i leaders del Provisional IRA) si aspettavano che venisse consegnata loro una copia per procederne alla censura prima della messa in pubblicazione”, ha rivelato l’ex prigioniero dell’Ira Gerard Hodgins.
Gerry Bradley omise di farlo, e da allora venne bollato come informatore.
“Avevo capito che viveva sotto una pressione notevole – era stato respinto dalla Provisional, era stato ostracizzato ed erano state messe in circolazioni voci di corridoio secondo cui era un informatore e un traditore”, ricorda Hodgings.
“Per un uomo non essere più trattato come tale da suoi ex compagni, per quanto mi riguarda, non mi sorprende che possa essersi tolto la vita (….) sei automaticamente tagliato fuori da ogni struttura sociale che una volta guidavi o da persone che conosci tutta la tua vita, sia che si tratti di amici o compagni, improvvisamente ti guardano in modo diverso”.
La notizia della morte di Gerry Bradley giunge due giorni dopo  le rivelazioni ‘dall’oltre tomba’ di Brendan Hughes sul coinvolgimento di Gerry Adams nell’omicidio di Jean McConville, e in concomitanza alla divulgazione dei sospetti che collegherebbero i servizi segreti alla morte di un ex membro del Real IRA, Kieran Doherty.

La scomparsa di Gerry Bradley (Video)

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IRA gunman turned author found dead (U TV)
Gerry ‘Whitey’ Bradley, from the New Lodge in north Belfast, was found dead in a car at Carrickfergus marina on Wednesday.
It is understood the 57-year-old had suffered from depression, having been ostracised by his former comrades over what they saw as a betrayal.
“If you wanted to write a book, they (the Provisional IRA leadership) would expect to be presented with a copy for them to censor before it goes to publication,” former IRA prisoner Gerard Hodgins told UTV.
“Gerry Bradley’s mistake was he wrote a book without going to them and asking their permission.”
A key player in the IRA in the 1980s, Gerry Bradley had been an operations officer and quarter-master and then ran the paramilitary organisation’s finance department.
He was jailed in 1994 for the attempted murder of a senior RUC officer.
But after the publication of his book, Insider, graffiti branding him an informer appeared on walls around his home and he was forced to leave the area.
“I understood he had been under considerable pressure – he’d been rejected by the Provisionals, he had been ostracised and whispering campaigns were put out about him being an informer and a tout,” Mr Hodgins told UTV.
“So for a man to end up being treated like that by former comrades, a part of me is not surprised he took his own life.
“It has a massive effect – you’re automatically cut off from every social structure that you once moved in or socialised in. People who you’ve known your whole life, either as friends or comrades, suddenly look upon you differently.”
Gerry Bradley’s death came just hours after operations he had been linked to were made the subject of a television programme featuring the last interview with former IRA man Brendan Hughes, who died two years ago.
Former IRA prisoner Richard O’Rawe told UTV he did not believe writing a book – particularly a personal account of someone’s experiences – made them a traitor.
He too had been ostracised for a number of years after writing Blanket Men, his account of the H Block hunger strikes.
“You have to ask yourself – are they (the leadership) the only ones allowed to write books? Is history never to be recorded properly?” he said.
“It’s no coincidence that Gerry felt compelled to write his book. And bear in mind, Gerry Bradley put no one in prison, Gerry Bradley’s book resulted in no one doing a minute in jail – to my knowledge anyway.
“But it’d be difficult not to conclude that it was the start of the downward spiral for him.”