I was 3 years their Junior at St. Columb’s College when it was announced that some Senior students were going to Cambridge University back in December of 1970 – Declan ‘Dekkie’ Morgan among them.
I knew Ian “Sausage” Doherty [rear, far right] very well since he was a neighbour adjacent to Clarendon Street who had all of us kids playing cricket in “the lane” in Clarendon Street and in Brooke Park for some years.
Ian’s family ran Doherty’s Butchers where a trainee Martin McGuinness was very briefly employed.
Ian later became Chairman of Derry City F.C.
But snooty tall Dekkie Morgan was not someone to like or know – we Juniors at St. Columb’s College were then some of the last years who were subject to the overarching powers of the Prefects or Monitors – Senior students who were empowered to oversee and order around any Juniors offending against St. Columb’s College’s very many rules and regulations.
One of the primary regulations then was that St. Columb’s College students were prohibited from entering “Wee Johnnie’s” shop just up Bishop ‘Street from the front gates of St. Columb’s – it was “out of bounds“.
In Wee Johnnie’s, students could not only purchase individual cigarettes – they could also congregate in the interior front of the shop and smoke them like ‘corner boys’ – even while drinking penny or ha’penny sassparillas [sarsaparillas]…
This sort of thing was Unacceptable to St. Columb’s College.
On one of the only occasions we Juniors braved all and entered the cloud of cigarette smoke in Wee Johnnie’s to see what the rebel Seniors were doing in there, it was subject to a Prefect raid where most names were taken and persons were encouraged to leave – all of the power of the Prefects was based on their relation to The President of St. Columb’s College – the Very Reverend Monsignor Coulter – who would not retreat from expelling any student he felt disrespected his authority – or by delegation – the authority of his chosen Prefects.
So Seniors like Dekkie Morgan could rely on the fact that they had the total backing of the President of St. Columb’s College, Monsignor Coulter, a priest who gave his all to overcome his snobbery, but failed.
What were Dekkie Morgan’s origins that could have propelled him – in his retirement – to oppose every Victims’ grouping in Northern Ireland [and the hypocritical Irish Government] by attempting to drive forward a totally rejected British Tory government Legacy policy by heading up the so-called Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery?
Independent of – say – the propelling British Tory government?
Morgan’s Rag and Bone and Scrap Yard
In the heart of the Bogside – only a few yards from the corner that would later become Free Derry corner – was Morgan’s Rag and Bone and Scrap Yard – situated at 42-48 Lecky Road adjacent to Nelson Street – trading as James Morgan and Company.
The stench of damp, mouldy rotting bales of rags and paper was overpowering even out on the street – I remember it better and worse than the smells of the Gasyard further up the Lecky Road.
Morgan’s Rag Yard was a foul cesspit of dank putrid odours true enough…
People were encouraged to bring any scrap metal or bundles of rags or paper to sell for cash to Stephen Morgan.
Stephen Morgan – father of our Dekkie – was regularly described in The Derry Journal as a “well known Derry businessman” whose scrap metal and rag and bone business thrived on the rot and decay of Derry City allowing him also to have offices on the Quays by the docks.
Later, Morgan bought the old disused RUC station at the bottom of Westland Street where it joined the Lecky Road – to increase his storage space for scrap metal.
Business from Derry’s decay and rot was good, nay, very good indeed.
What’s more, the business allowed Morgan to buy a home in a quiet cul-de-sac a few hundred yards from the old Protestant Seminary of Magee College – at 2 Dill Park – a world away from the depressed terraced one-storey houses of the Bogside and Brandywell whence orginated most of the material feeding his Rag & Bone & Scrap business.
But Stephen Morgan was a bit of a Del Boy character who was regularly before the Courts having been caught in acts of petty criminal dealings or else suing for monies.
Shortly after Dekkie’s birth, Stephen Morgan got the Probation Act for receiving stolen goods, namely purchasing stolen lead from ‘fictitious persons’.
Six months later, Stephen Morgan was back before the courts for another stolen lead case for which he was convicted and fined.
Morgan littered waste areas of lower Westland Street with rejected scrap metal which proved a hazard to local children out playing.
Morgan’s Rag and Bone Yard employees, injured at work, sued Stephen Morgan.
At a time when no self-respecting family would ever want to be before a court, Stephen Morgan was a regular.
Morgan was charged with making false representations to the National Assistance Board.
Even his wife, Anne Patricia Morgan, came before the courts and was convicted of a driving offence.
When Stephen Morgan was not being prosecuted, he was in court suing.
The local legal fraternity was doing well out of Stephen Morgan’s penchant for court cases.
It’s hardly surprising that Stephen Morgan’s progeny should grow up with an interest in the courts and the Law.
But Stephen Morgan had the common touch – he served Derry City Football Club in various roles for many years, finally as Chairman.
He was a pillar of “The Catholic Club” at the bottom of Asylum Road, even donating The Morgan Cup for Bridge competitions.
He would present Beauty Pageant prizes.
Stephen Morgan’s wife was for decades a stalwart of Derry Feis – the annual cultural festival involving schools – there is still a Bursary and Cup in her name.
For all Stephen Morgan’s Del Boy side and increasing financial success, he had and kept the common touch.
Young Declan Charles Morgan Esquire
In the hallowed environs of St. Columb’s College, no-one would ever have connnected snooty Declan Charles Morgan Esquire – or Dekkie – with the rotting foul smelling rag and bone and scrap metal business a mile away in the Bogside.
Instead, Declan Charles Morgan was infinitely cocooned from that horror by a combination of Money, Dill Park address and his own inborn sense of superiority allied to the St. Columb’s College authorities’ eternal respect for Wealth and the offspring of the rising Catholic Merchant Class.
But Declan Charles took a minute’s worth of interest in local politics.
Eamonn McCann recalls that Dekkie acted out a moment of rebellion by canvassing for the then Chairman of the Derry Labour Party – Eamonn McCann.
But Dekkie quickly transferred his politics to the Social Democratic and Labour Party, winning an Information Gathering trip to the Netherlands.
A year later, newly called to the bar, Peterhouse Cambridge graduate Declan Charles Morgan Esquire left behind the theatre of politics and the democratic, constitutional “task and future of socialism”.
Those were the years to keep a legal head well down to escape an IRA execution – to keep silent as the IRA slaughtered Catholic and Protestant judges, magistrates, barristers and their family members – wives, daughters, children…
A time when a newly-fledged legal eagle was wise to keep the head well down to survive the IRA slaughter.
It beggars belief that the IRA’s blaggards now run bleating to the cover of the Law to decry descriptors upsetting to them.
The Rt Hon Sir Declan Morgan’s Betrayal of Victims
The Right Honourable Sir Declan Dekkie Morgan, Privy Councillor to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, retired in 2021.
He got all the valedictory remarks about a tenure as Lord Chief Justice from both political leaders and legal colleagues that were to be expected.
Among other compliments, they praised his concern for victims in relation to inquests.
They spoke of him in this manner because they thought he was RETIRING at 70 years of age.
He RETIRED with his reputation intact, unscathed and with nobody attacking it.
This is a prize not everyone in Northern Ireland enjoys – think of the recently resigned Chief Constable – anybody remember his name?
[Simon Byrne – WHO?]
But Dekkie wouldn’t stay retired – the lure of septuagenarian work, more income, more power, more service – if you want to call it that as well – the lure of once more acting as St. Columb’s College Prefect/His Majesty’s Privy Councillor Monitor of rebellious Victims’ Groupings across Northern Ireland – the lure of Never Retiring was too much for our Declan.
Declan couldn’t just **** off and die quietly as all must eventually do.
Offered the Big Carrot of the Tory Government’s latest Quango – CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF THE INDEPENDENT COMMISSION FOR RECONCILIATION & INFORMATION RECOVERY – Dekkie couldn’t say NO.
Declan Morgan was fully aware of the British Government’s secretive administrative Amnesty deal with the IRA – from the OTR letters to the determination not to prosecute any IRA terrorist atrocities – even including the raft of murders that were committed by the IRA AFTER 1998.
I mean, Mark Durkan declared that everybody knew what was going on – details were PUBLISHED, he said.
Declan Morgan was fully aware of the Irish Government’s secretive Amnesty deal with the IRA – the decision to cease all investigations and prosecutions of IRA terrorist atrocities.
I mean, former Minister for Justice Michael McDowell told us what we really already knew…
Who ever thought that IRA leaders were going to admit to horrendous Human Rights atrocities when both the British and Irish governments said they needn’t bother, that the IRA’s Human Rights’ atrocities could simply be disappeared behind secretive administrative Amnesty deals, with leading Jurists looking on and sayin’ nuthin?
Well known IRA leaders – well known to everyone – who together as members of the IRA Army Council have become Ireland’s most prolific Mass Murderers – have been LAUNDERED clean by the secret administrative amnesties and have been able to go about IRA Army Council business unhindered.
Gerry Adams need never admit to his 3 decades of leadership of a campaign of Mass Murder and Human Rights atrocities because he got secret assurances and a deal.
Martin McGuinness – another leading Mass Murderer – likewise got secret assurances and a deal.
Documents recently publicised from Kew show that IRA’s leaders – Gerry Adams and Gerry Kelly – expressly told the governments that IRA volunteers would not be admitting to anything – anything at all – and that both the Irish and British government accepted this as part of the “Peace Process”.
The IRA’s mass of Human Rights atrocities have been totally disappeared and the IRA’s murderers and bombers were told expressly that they need never admit to anything.
Information Recovery Sources
There are really only two sources of information about Human Rights atrocities in Northern Ireland – the greater number being those of Terrorists – and/or about Human Rights atrocities involving the Security Forces – the British Government – these being many fewer in number.
Source 1 – the Terrorists.
Source 2 – the British Government, RUC, Security Services.
The Great Majority of the Terrorists will not be telling anything at all – these are the IRA’s Terrorists.
Working on my own knowledge of the IRA since 1970, I have my own rough estimates of the percentage of IRA Volunteers alive and dead and within and without the jurisdiction of the British Tory Government’s Quango ICRIR since the Provisional IRA was formed.
Well over half of the IRA’s murderers and bombers active since 1970 are already dead and gone and won’t be cooperating with Declan’s Tory Quango.
These include IRA Chiefs of Staff such as Eamon O’Doherty, Seamus Twomey, Martin McGuinness and Kevin McKenna who “operated” back in the heyday of IRA murders and bombings – the 1970s.
I can think of SCORES of dead IRA Volunteers from Derry and Belfast and South Armagh – they won’t be talking.
About a third of the IRA’s murderers and bombers either moved out of the jurisdiction of Northern Ireland – whether to the haven of the Irish Republic or to the United States – or else were already living in and operating from the Irish Republic – some of these were mentioned in OTR lists handed to the British government by Gerry Kelly, but many were not.
Many of the IRA Claudy bombers, for instance, skedaddled to the Irish Republic and to the United States.
Many wanted IRA volunteers, bombers and murderers such as Rita O’Hare, Marlene Coyle, Kieran McMorrow, Marian Coyle, Eddie Gallagher, Dugdale, Fr. James Chesney, Raymond Francis McElhennon, Michael Christopher Hayes (Birmingham Pub Bomber) – crossed into the haven of the Irish Republic.
Those IRA Volunteers who left the jurisdiction and settled elsewhere – who are now older – have no intention of ever returning to Northern Ireland.
Many IRA Volunteers who left the jurisdiction also left the IRA to make new lives – they don’t want to have anything to do with their past IRA crimes. They don’t want anything to do with the IRA either.
They are all elderly now. Some keep in touch with me and some of them are already showing early signs of Alzheimers. They won’t be talking to Declan’s Tory Quango.
Many IRA leaders – such as the early 1970s IRA GHQ Director of Operations for England Bombings – Kevin Mallon – have always lived [openly] in the Irish Republic.
Kevin lives in salubrious Howth Hill. He won’t be talking.
Many IRA gunrunners and Libyan participants – such as “the Padre” Patrick Ryan – have similarly lived in the Irish Republic and won’t ever be talking with Declan’s Tory Quango.
Many of the IRA’s border killers of innocent Protestants, part-time UDR soldiers and RUC Reservists, police and soldiers – have always lived in the Irish Republic border areas – outside the jurisdiction of Declan’s Tory Quango. They won’t be talking.
IRA leaders and negotatiors Gerry Adams and Gerry Kelly have assured the Governments that IRA Volunteers in the jurisdiction will not be making admissions, even with the promise of immunity.
Did you get that, Declan? Are you clear on that point? The IRA is quite clear on that point, but you need to wake up and smell that IRA’s No Speakey Coffee.
However, there are always exceptions to these IRA leader assurances and to my estimates – there may be a few IRA veterans who are willing to talk with Declan’s Quango as a poor form of Sacramental Confession, but I would be shocked – shocked I say – if the number of these ever amounted to even anything like 5% of the IRA’s ranks of murderers and bombers still alive and in the jurisdiction.
What threats might they or their families face from the extant IRA Army Council or from the IRA Army Council’s related IRA Dissident friends if they break ranks and blether?
Who wants a bullet in the brain at this point? An under-car bomb?
The IRA has kept no records in a form similar to the British Government’s Kew document repository – so anything that proven IRA liars might say is entirely unprovable – and not open to peer review.
What family in its right mind would believe anything from proven liar IRA terrorist sources, sources not subject to any peer review?
Are there any Victims out there so stupid as to believe anything the IRA might say?
British Government, RUC and Security Service Sources
For decades now, IRA and Pro-IRA and Pro-Sinn Féin lawyers and “Human Rights” activists [seriously?] have been claiming that British Government, RUC and Security Service intelligence material is not to be trusted – has been “collusive” and inacccurate – has been sourced by torture, ill-treatment and bedevilled by bias.
The IRA “supergrasses” were discredited.
The IRA Agents – such as Steak Knife – have been discredited.
Who is going to believe discredited, biased, “collusive” material recorded back in the day by the disbanded/rebranded Royal Ulster Constabulary and Special Branch – [we are constantly reminded by IRA Lawfarers]?
What IRA family is going to accept any of this material as TRUE after decades of IRA efforts to discredit it?
Is it actually TRUE anyway?
Who knows?
How independent is The Right Honourable Sir Declan Morgan, Privy Councillor and sworn Servant to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II?
Can The Right Honourable Sir Dekkie Morgan, Privy Councillor, who has now taken it upon himself to force feed Victims of Terrorism the British Tory Government’s Unwanted and Unpalatable Snake Oil medicine, be regarded as Independent?
If The Right Honourable Sir Declan attempts to use Police Style Powers of investigation and coercion of unwilling IRA Volunteers – he opens himself – in his retirement years – to the risk of the assassin’s bullet or under-car bomb – so is he willing to put himself and his family at risk for the British Tory Government’s Quango Force-Fed Snake Oil treatment of Victims of Terrorism?
Is he willing to become the IRA Dissidents’ Supreme Target on behalf of a Snake Oil policy that the British Labour Party has said it might dump immediately upon being elected to government?
Declan Morgan’s first “retirement” gained him praise – an unlikely outcome for his upcoming second “retirement”.
Declan – RESIGN!
Peter Sheridan – “with the full powers and privileges of a constable“
Former Royal Ulster Constabulary officer Peter Sheridan is now being touted as the ICRIR “Constable” with unspecified coercive and investigative “powers and privileges of a constable” – eh?
The threat element of the ICRIR is now being embodied in former RUC and PSNI veteran Sheridan – akin to a cheap Western – if you don’t cooperate with Morgan or Sheridan they’re gonna get you!
Peter Sheridan spent some years giving us all the vomitous sight on TV and on various platforms of an RUC officer sucking up to and smiling over active IRA terrorist commanders who – at that time – were still murdering citizens on the streets and importing guns from the United States and training FARC narco-terrorists in Colombia.
While Twice Constable Peter was smiling and joking with Amnestied Mass Murderer Martin McGuinness, believe it or not Victims of IRA terrorist atrocities – such as the Claudy Bombings victims – were contacting me asking for help to get McGuinness to tell them why their family members were slaughtered.
And/or Lowry Mathers, who asked me if he would ever get justice for Martin McGuinness’ murder of his Census Collector wife, Joanne Mathers.
How desperate were they when they had to turn to me for help, Peter?
Do you not recognize that your smiling collusion with unrepentant, untried, uncooperative IRA terrorist leaders was terribly hurtful to Victims of IRA terrorism, or to Victims in general?
After many years of drinking the “Peace Process” Kool-Aid, Peter has come to the conclusion that everyone – I mean everyone – who participated in acts of terrorism or suffered from acts of terrorism might as well now be joined together in a horrific matriterminology – “FORMER COMBATANTS”…
We all have our likes and dislikes.
I have to say, Peter – nothing personal – that nothing has made me want to HEAVE the contents of my Ulster fry more than your obsequious fraternisation with unrepentant, boastful AMNESTIED Mass Murderers.
Your inability to describe Terrorists as Terrorists will be your shameful epitaph.
Are you, Peter Sheridan, seriously telling victims of IRA terrorism that after years of your sucking up to Terrorists – [COMBATANTS?????] that you are now going to put back on your ICRIR Constable gun and investigate and coerce Terrorists to admit to Human Rights atrocities after the British and Irish and American governments have already sworn to the Terrorists that they need say nothing?
And if you do – unbelievably – attempt to coerce an Amnestied IRA Terrorist [you will never actually do this, having been so affable and friendly to Terrorists] do you not think that an angry IRA Terrorist or a related and friendly Dissident IRA Terrorist will not attempt to shoot you dead or blow you up with an under-car bomb? Even if only to make the point that the IRA Hasn’t Gone Away You Know?
Your old chuckling pal Martin McGuinness is dead and gone and with all of his horrendous murders and bombings untold.
Whatever relationship you had with Martin is dead and gone.
Have you seriously considered the risks that you and your England-based colleagues are undertaking in this unspecified Constable role on behalf of the Brit Tory Government?
Honestly, for all that I think you will be risking your own and others’ lives more than you think right now, you could not ever be regarded as Independent, since you have endevoured to be the Terrorists Open Door to public acceptability without accountability.
How could a Commission appointed by a Brit Tory government against the wishes of every Victims’ grouping in Northern Ireland and every political party – even against the hypocritical wishes of the Secret-Amnesty-Donating Irish government – ever be regarded as Independent?
Finally, your Spanish Volunteer, Rogelio Alonso, I’m sure will have informed you that only two weeks ago Judge of the National Court Manuel García Castellón has proceeded to prosecute the former members of the ETA Executive Committee José Javier AR, “ Kantauri ”; Miguel AI, “ Mikel Antza ”; María SI, “ Anboto ” and Ignacio GA, “Iñaki de Rentería”, for the kidnapping and murder of the PP councilor of Ermua Miguel Ángel Blanco in July 1997.
Neither he nor you have highlighted on your Commission pages how differently the Spanish Government has established a Peace Process for ETA Terrorists where ETA prisoners still serve their sentences and leaders of ETA are still being prosecuted for kidnapping and murder carried out by their underlings.
Have you made Alonso and your England-based colleagues fully aware of the threat and risks of IRA Dissident activity – which was only very recently trumpeted as so dangerous as to disallow any form of border surveillance between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland?
If the IRA Dissidents only recently very nearly murdered Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell, might they not also seek to kill persons being described now as “Constables” of the ICRIR?
Since not a single Victims’ grouping supports your endeavour, and since all political parties disagree with the activities of you and your colleagues, how could anyone wish the ICRIR well?
If you had any empathy for Victims of terrorism – apart from your much-publicised empathy for Terrorists/”Combatants” – you would take the only moral course really open to you and RESIGN…
The Irish Peace Process 
Thank U Shane👍
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