A FORMER IRA Volunteer says a recently discovered photograph of him lying shot and wounded on the ground in a notorious British army barracks has transported him back nearly 50 years to that fateful day.
Hector McNeill received the photo from a friend. The image, taken by a British soldier, was printed contemporaneously in a British army publication. He said looking back at the black and white photo of his younger self at the age of 25 lying shot and bleeding from a leg wound "knocked him for six" and brought back painful memories of that day, the events of which would eventually see him being sentenced to 15 years in the H-Blocks – five of them on the blanket.
"I couldn’t believe it when I received it," he said, looking thoughtfully at the photo in his hand. "It was like a gold nugget. But then the whole flashback came right back and hit me again. I never thought I would see something like that, of me lying shot. When I first looked at it the shock of it – it all came back... the whole incident came rushing back to me."
Hector vividly remembers the day that was to change his young life forever.
"That was the morning of the 9th of August 1976 and it was a fantastic summer’s morning," he recalled. "Things had been pretty hectic that week leading up to the 9th of August which was the anniversary of the introduction of internment. There were a lot of things happening.
"I was sent on a sniping mission – there were two of us. We waited on a British army patrol coming, there was one set up at Culmore Gardens. I opened fire on the British army and the British army returned fire on me and I ran down Tullagh Park.
"When the shots rang out a British army patrol came around the corner in two open jeeps – that was a 12-man patrol, six in each jeep, four in the back and two in the front. They opened fire and I opened fire, but my gun jammed and that’s when I fell and I lost the weapon."
Hector McNeill looks back on his younger self wounded
Wounded, Hector managed to crawl into a house in Tullagh Park.
"I banged a door and the woman opened it and let me in. I was wearing a ski mask at the time. I crawled behind, I think it was a settee, and took the ski mask off and just then they came bursting in the door. 'Where is he? Where is he?' they were shouting. The woman said: 'Don’t be hurting him.' And they pulled me out of the house right on to the front path by the back of the neck, by the shirt. They trailed me down to the jeep and fired me on to the jeep."
Hector said the soldiers drove directly to the Silver City British army base which stood on what is now Glassmullin Green. The huge structure was christened Silver City by locals as it was clad in corrugated iron.
"I naively thought I was being brought to the hospital but I was brought to Silver City where they pulled me off the jeep like a bag of potatoes and started beating me with the butts of their rifles and jabbing the muzzles of the guns into my ribs," Hector said.
The beating only stopped when "a big tall, skinny, blond-haired" Intelligence Officer got rid of the troops around him. But he then started demanding the whereabouts of another IRA Volunteer.
"Soon after that I was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital. On my way to the Royal my leg was jumping, the pain was terrible – I never felt anything like it before or since."
A chance encounter in the hospital allowed a relieved Hector to get a message to his family that he was still alive.
"I got into the hospital and was transferred on to a trolley bed and taken to the theatre. I recognised one of the orderlies, he was wheeling me down to the theatre and I was able to tell him to tell my mother that I was alright. 'Tell her I'm sound,' I said. 'Tell her I'm okay.'"
I ask him about the picture and what he’s going to do with it.
“I’m going to frame it,” he said, “and put it on my wall.”
The part of the caption attached to the photograph in the British army publication reads: "Taking quick aim, the commander fired two shots, one hitting the gunman in the leg, and the gunman fell. Nevertheless, he was able to make some attempt to escape but the patrol captured him in Tullagh Park a short distance round the corner. The Armalite was recovered and the man is now in hospital under police guard."
