Hugh Torney

:"For the Australian rules footballer also named Hugh Torney see Hugh Torney (footballer)Hugh Torney (1955 - 3 September 1996) was an Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) member who was active in defending the INLA and Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) against attacks by the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO) which was comprised of former INLA disgruntled or expelled members in the mid-1980s.These attacks by IPLO caused a widespread fear amongst young and even former seasoned campaigners from having any links with the republican socialist movement. The adoption by Sinn Féin of many previously solely IRSP policies and an ostracising of "erps" (i.e., barring from pubs and clubs - refusing access to political platforms, etc) was fundamental in the Irish Republican Socialist Movement's (IRSM) decline after the 1987 series of attacks on it.

Nicknamed "Cueball Torney", he became Chief Of Staff in the mid-late eighties much by default rather than by design. Loyalist random sectarian murders were bearing heavily on the Catholic/Nationalist community and Torney struggled to hold back reactionary elements within his grouping during a time when sectarian atrocities were commonplace. A competent military operator, Torney oversaw the re-organisation of the movement's political wing (the IRSP) as being more important than the military structuring of the INLA. "The Starry Plough" newspaper re-emerged as a vehicle for socialist republican and Marxist discussion( A policy which had been advocated in Ta Powers analysis). Paradoxically,Torney and Gino Gallagher had combined to pull off one of the most successful INLA operations of The Troubles with the clinical execution of several identified leaders of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) on the Shankill Road, including their military leader Trevor King amongst others.

Torney in 1995 stated in a Dublin court that there was a "de facto" INLA ceasefire being observed which although it was a non-consultative decision with the membership was generally regarded as the case following Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) recent "cessation of hostilities". There was a subsequent coup d'etat and he was replaced as Chief Of Staff by Gino Gallagher in his absence (formerly the Prisoner Relations Officer of the IRSP and a feared gunman.) Torney and his gang (known as the INLA-GHQ) assassinated Gallagher in January 1996.

The events that followed saw the deaths of Torney along with his allies IRSP/INLA founder member John Fennell, Dessie McCleery and Fra Shannon as well as 9 year old Barbara McAlorum who was killed by pro-Gallagher gunmen seeking her brother Kevin (Gino's alleged killer). Kevin was later killed in 2004, and this has been linked to the INLA although their ceasefire has not been viewed as being "breached". Others who died or were killed either directly or indirectly were Mark "Sharkey" McNeill, Briege McGreevey and Brendan Gallagher.

References

* [http://www.irishnews.com] 5 September 1996