revealed | 

The new plaque secretly unveiled in honour of Shankill bomber Thomas Begley

The plaque reads: “Proudly remembered by his comrades and friends.”

Today at 11:20

This is the new plaque secretly unveiled last week in tribute to Shankill bomber Thomas Begley.

As hundreds of people from across the sectarian divide gathered on the Shankill on Monday to commemorate the nine innocents who died that day 30 years ago, his fellow bomber Sean Kelly was taking part in another ceremony in Milltown Cemetery.

No recording was made of the event as supporters were told not to film it, but sources told the Sunday World that scores of republicans were present.

The plaque reads: “Proudly remembered by his comrades and friends.”

A Sunday World investigation this week revealed that ‘Bootsy’ Begley once spat in the face of loyalist terror boss Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair.

And as he did so, the IRA man yelled at the UFF leader: “You Orange bastard.”

Adair replied by threatening Begley and three of his mates, including the well-known republican Eddie Copeland.

“We’re going to get you, we’re going to get all of you, you Fenian bastards,” Adair shouted, adding that his men would be in Ardoyne within the hour.

And pointing a finger directly at Copeland, Adair – who directed operations for the UFF’s notorious ‘C Coy’ – barked: “You’re a dead man.”

The shocking sectarian exchange unfolded in public view on Belfast’s Clifton Street on the evening of August 25, 1993, although full details only emerged this week.

It happened weeks before the Frizzell Fish Shop attack which claimed nine innocent lives and sent shockwaves through the staunchly loyalist Shankill area.

Adair was driving his wife and family back from the supermarket to their home at Boundary Way on the Lower Shankill Estate when he was suddenly accosted.

His white Vauxhall had just eased to a stop at a zebra crossing near Carlisle Circus when, suddenly, another saloon car pulled up alongside it.

It contained 23-year-old IRA man ‘Bootsy’ Begley, who was sitting in the rear passenger seat.

Next to him and behind the driver was 23-year-old Copeland, a well-known republican from Ardoyne who was a hate figure for Adair and his men.

The security-conscious Adair glanced to his right through the open driver’s side window.

And just inches from him was IRA volunteer Begley, who spat on his face. Begley tried to conceal his identity by covering his face with his fingers, but the UFF boss still had a clear view of him although he didn’t know who he was.

As Adair wiped the saliva from his cheek, he felt humiliated. He had failed to recognise the young IRA man who put it there. But he knew Copeland like the back of his hand and he vowed Copeland would pay for Begley’s actions.

At 10pm that night, in a typical Adair-style reprisal attack, UFF gunmen fired shots into the Ardoyne home of Copeland’s sister.

At the time, the RUC tried to persuade Copeland to make a statement about the Clifton Street incident in the hope of bringing a “threats to kill” charge against Adair, but he declined.

It was part of a secret RUC operation to take Adair off the streets.

A month later, Adair’s men were back in Ardoyne.

This time they shot up a house which they believed Copeland shared with his mother.

But just eight weeks after the Clifton Street incident, Begley became infamous around the world as the mass murderer of innocents on Belfast’s Shankill Road.

On October 23, 1993, dressed at a delivery man, Begley walked into Frizzell’s fish shop, where he placed a box containing a primed 5lb semtex bomb on the counter.

Armed with a .38 revolver which he concealed under his white coat, fellow IRA man Sean Kelly (18) covered Begley’s back.

But three seconds later, the bomb went off. The explosion killed Begley and others inside the shop including the shop owner, 63-year-old John Frizzell, who died alongside his daughter Sharon McBride.

The building collapsed onto the street and minutes later Kelly was pulled from the rubble.

Seriously injured, he was rushed to hospital, where he was later arrested and charged with killing 10 people. Two young girls were among the dead and 57 others were injured in the blast.

A third IRA man who had driven the bomb from Ardoyne managed to escape unhurt. Days later, Copeland was shot and seriously wounded when a British soldier fired an automatic rifle at him as he attended Begley’s wake.

Adair – who turned 60 four days ago – claimed yesterday: “The UFF targeted Eddie Copeland as much at it targeted Gerry Adams. It was targeting the elite of the elite as far as republicans went.

“The list was endless, especially when it was linked to attacks on Sinn Féin offices.”

He added: “The UFF went into the heart of west Belfast as well as Ardoyne.”

He added: “That’s why the IRA kept targeting me.”

In court, Sean Kelly was convicted of nine murders and sent to jail for life. But he was released in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Shankill bomb was the culmination of a concerted campaign to kill ‘Mad Dog’ Adair. IRA sources revealed this week that the republican terror group attempted to assassinate Adair on 40 occasions.

Adair also claimed the UFF ‘C Coy’ was involved in a psychological battle with the IRA in Ardoyne.

He said: “The IRA came very close to killing me in Berlin Street on March 6, 1993. And three years later, an Ardoyne man appeared in court charged with my attempted murder.

“That night, the UFF burst into his house. I was told they had orders to shoot anything that moved. The only thing in the house was his beloved Staffy pitbull terrier and the UFF shot it dead.”

Adair added: “That was pure psychological terror – nothing else.”

‘Bootsy’ Begley – Ardoyne-born and bred – was a popular figure in the tiny Catholic enclave.

He had been at school with Copeland in his younger years and he was known as a hardworking groundsman who never missed a day.

But at the same time, Begley was also developing a secret reputation as a hardened IRA killer.

Police say he was one of two republican gunmen who, just eight months before, shot 13 bullets into 23-year-old Royal Irish Ranger Stephen Waller in his north Belfast home.

Begley was buried in the republican plot in Milltown, alongside IRA heroes including three of the 10 republican hunger strikers who died in 1981.

The loyalist response to the Shankill bomb came a week later, when a UFF gunmen killed eight people in the Co Derry village of Greysteel on Halloween night.