An Ardoyne Legend: Paddy Murphy

Paddy Murphy

An old friend & comrade of mine, Paddy Murphy passed away last week, so sorry to have not known about his untimely death but due to a recent illness of my own, I haven't been out and about much. 

How to describe Paddy? Well, as the title states, he was an Ardoyne Legend and a real character at that. Throughout the late Eighties, Paddy and I lived close to one another and we had regular yarns on our way to buy the Newspapers and Belfast Baps in the mornings. I didn't know much about his personal life at this time, suffice to say that he lived alone and had no children. He was well-read and was politically astute. His home in Velsheda Park, Ardoyne was raided during the Summer of 1989 by the British Army and RUC, where they seized a Wheelie-Bin full of explosives and a number of other items. He was immediately arrested and taken to the notorious Castlereagh Interrogation Centre in East Belfast and later appeared in Court charged in connection with the find. 

The Provisional IRA Unit in Ardoyne had been using his house to store explosives prior to having them transported to the City Centre for use against commercial targets. Paddy's security was compromised by a British Agent who passed on the information to the Crown Forces. The Agent was later exposed as Alexander (Sandy) Lynch, an informer who regularly fed his handlers information in return for money. 

Within a few months, I too was arrested after a gun attack in the Bone area against the RUC and found myself in Crumlin Road Gaol a few days later. As the Screws walked me to my cell, I noticed the name; Murphy on the Cell card outside the door and was pleasently surprised to see Ould Paddy when they opened the door. It was handy being doubled-up with someone else from Ardoyne and as we were locked-up 23 hours each and everyday, there was plenty to talk about. I never knew Paddy was adopted from a Belfast Orphanage in the Fifties by an Ardoyne couple who couldn't have children of their own. They raised Paddy as their own and gave him a decent life compared to what he would have experienced in the home. He grew up not knowing his real Parents or if he had any brothers and sisters and seemed a lonely type of character. 

After leaving school, he joined the British Army and was stationed in Germany during the Cold War for a year or so. He fled immediately after the same Army murdered fourteen innocent Irish citizens in Derry on Bloody Sunday, 1972 and returned home. He moved to Dublin and joined the Irish Army, he was part of the United Nations Task Forces in various African Countries throughout the Seventies. Paddy left and it wasn't long before he was back in his native Ardoyne. He joined Provisional Sinn Fein and helped in the Struggle as much as he could. He also did a lot of good work for Political Prisoners and for his local community, although he left S/F because he felt their socialism was too vague in practise and policy. 

He continued learning his native language and became a fluent speaker and regularly visited the Donegal Gaeltacht to indulge in his passion. Paddy also found his faith restored in socialism by enrolling in the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) and was pretty active in many of it's campaigns during the Eighties. Although, his membership was ended when he was arrested and charged in relation to the bomb find in his Ardoyne home. Paddy was eventually sentenced to eight years imprisonment for the explosives in a Non-Jury Diplock Court, however unlike many of his comrades he served the remainder of his sentence in Magilligan Gaol in County Derry and not the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. 

After his release, his health deteriorated and he had a number of strokes. Despite his physical health, he still held strong opinions and core Irish Republican and Socialist principles. Like most of his friends and comrades in Ardoyne, he never accepted the huge compromises the Provisionals made, nor did he agree calling the killers of the two British Soldiers at Masserene and the RUC/PSNI member in Lurgan as Traitors to the Irish people. 

I'd just like to pay tribute to Paddy and hope he now has peace where he is, Oiche Mhaith Chara!