FROM THE ARCHIVES:Two men were shot dead in Belfast in unconnected attacks on October 16th, 1990, one by the UDA, the other by the IRA. Northern Editor Mark Brennock spoke to one of the new widows. – JOE JOYCE
AT AROUND 10 o’clock on Tuesday night, Mary McGuinness heard an unmerciful screeching, roaring and crying in her hallway. It was her three children.
She knew then that her husband, Dermot, was dead, because she had never heard the children cry like that before. She had already suspected that Dermot was the man who had been shot, but now she knew.
Just an hour earlier it was like any other week night. Dermot had called into the off-licence where she worked at 8.40. He bought a bottle of wine, and a packet of peanuts for their little boy.
He said he had to fly home to put one of the children to bed, he made his customary joke (he was always a man for the joke, says Mary) and out he went. “Take care of yourself – see you at nine o’clock”, was the last thing he said to her.
Five minutes later a man was trying to pull him into a car. Dermot fell, the man shot him, and jumped into a car that sped away. Dermot McGuinness was dead when they got him to hospital.
Immediately afterwards, someone ran into the off-licence saying that a man had been shot near Mary’s house.
She wondered if Dermot had got home all right. Then a girl came in and said the man was wearing grey trousers, a loose jumper and brown shoes. “That’s my Dermot,” said Mary.
She walked past the police cordon towards her house. She had already phoned home but there was no answer. Someone said that the man who was shot was a young fella.
Dermot was 42, but was very youthful looking .
Once home, she sent one of her sons to the Mater hospital. “I know that’s daddy, she told him. The neighbours knew the state she was in and came into the house.
Ten minutes later the unmerciful screeching, roaring and crying started in the hallway.
She was calm and dignified as she told her story yesterday, just 12 hours after her husband was killed.
“I haven’t been able to cry.
I’m doing the best to stand up
for the children. It’s what
Dermot would want. I know he’s guiding me and he’ll see me through this.”
She gave her view of the reasons for the death of her husband, and for the death of Stephen Craig, killed less than a mile away less than an hour later:
“My husband Dermot was an innocent man who in my opinion was shot for his faith. About 15 minutes after Dermot was shot, a Protestant man was shot on the Antrim Road for the same reason.
“Dermot and this man were both admitted to the same hospital, and were basically side by side when they died. I know what that family is suffering just as we are suffering.
“Our tears are all the same – there is absolutely no difference.”
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