‘RA flick | 

‘RA flick | 

Man in ‘secret’ IRA film was shot along with three others by his former comrades

In one scene, McGuinness shows a gun and bullets to a group of children.

Ciaran O’Neill

Sat 30 Mar 2024 at 18:06

A former IRA man involved in a secret film about the organisation was later shot – along with three other men – by his ex-comrades after being accused of robbing a shop using IRA weapons.

In 1972, Tony Devine was filmed travelling around Derry in a car with Martin McGuinness as part of ‘The Secret Army’ film.

In one scene, McGuinness shows a gun and bullets to a group of children.

The film also shows McGuinness along with an IRA unit as they prepare a car bomb which later exploded in Derry city centre, injuring more than 20 people.

However, apart from a few small-scale screenings, ‘The Secret Army’ was never broadcast widely and its contents remained hidden for decades.

A copy of the film was found by a researcher with the BBC Spotlight team in 2018. Excerpts of it were broadcast the following year as part of a major documentary series marking the 50th anniversary of the start of the Troubles.

A new BBC documentary released this week, also called ‘The Secret Army’, digs deeper into the story around the film.

It’s been suggested the film may have been part of efforts by intelligence services in the US and Israel to keep tabs on the IRA.

The makers of the new programme tracked down Tony Devine, who spoke for the first time about his involvement in the film.

At the time it was made, Devine was a senior member of the IRA in Derry.

However, he also reveals in the programme that he was shot in both legs by the IRA in 1984 because “I did something I shouldn’t have”.

As a result, he was dismissed from the IRA.

In the new documentary, Devine admits he had previously been part of IRA teams that carried out similar punishment-style shootings on other people.

“You pick somebody up and you warn them and then you let them go,” he said in the 1972 film.

“You pick them up again for committing another crime. You tar and feather them and if this fails and you pick them up a third time, you’re only left with one alternative – you shoot them in the legs.”

When the irony of what happened to him in 1984 was put to him in the new documentary by BBC journalist Darragh MacIntyre, Devine said: “I mean, you have to take your oil. You can’t say to somebody it’s not right for you to do it and then I go and do it.

“Everything was above board. If you stepped out of line in any way at all you were punished for it.”

The Sunday World can today reveal more details about the 1984 attack on Devine.

He was one of four men shot in an alleyway at Rathowen Park in the Creggan area of Derry on November 23, 1984.

One of the men, believed to be Devine, was in their 30s, while the other three were in their early 20s.

Two of the men were from Creggan, with the others from the Rosemount and Shantallow areas of Derry.

All four were shot in the legs during the attack which happened at around 6.30pm.

After hearing the gunshots, residents found the men lying in the alleyway.

They helped treat their wounds until ambulance crews arrived on the scene.

The RUC described the shootings as “barbaric”.

The Derry Brigade of the IRA admitted responsibility for the so-called “kneecappings”.

In a statement to a local newspaper, the IRA said it had “never relinquished the right to carry out punishment shootings”.

The statement did not put forward any suggested reason as to why the four men had been shot.

However, it added: “The people shot were not juveniles but mature adults who were quite aware of the consequences of their actions”.

Sources have told the Sunday World the 1984 shootings were linked to an “unauthorised robbery” by republicans. Sources said he may have got as little as £500 in the robbery.

In the new programme, Devine describes Martin McGuinness as his “hero”, but the two men never spoke again after he was shot in 1984. “I am really sorry I let Martin down,” Devine said.

“Martin McGuinness was a brilliant guy, he really was.”

The 1972 film was made by John Bowyer Bell, a US academic who had published a book about the IRA, also called ‘The Secret Army’, in 1970.

Bowyer Bell was regarded as an expert on terrorism throughout the world and had written a large number of books on the subject.

It was through contacts made while writing the book about the IRA that Bowyer Bell is understood to have been allowed to follow members of the terror group for the subsequent film.

As well as the footage of McGuinness and the IRA team making the bomb in Derry, other IRA members are filmed making another bomb in the Andersonstown area of Belfast.

A teenage girl, identified in the new programme as the now-deceased 17-year-old Geraldine Hughes, is filmed phoning in a warning about the bomb which exploded a short time later at Queen’s University.

“I mean, if you beat somebody often enough and long enough, of course they are going to fight back and that’s exactly what we did.”

‘The Secret Army’ shows Devine in the passenger seat of a car being driven in the Bogside by McGuinness.

Devine tells the filmmakers barricades around the ‘Free Derry’ area are manned by “vigilantes”.

“We weren’t used to talking to film crews and they asked Martin would he drive around and show them the area and explain stuff to them.

“And Martin says I’ll only do it if you go with me. I said alright. I think Martin actually asked me to do the talking.”

The programme also reveals the director of the 1972 film, Zwy Aldouby, had a background with Israeli intelligence.

It’s suggested Israel may have been interested in the IRA at the time because of their emerging links to Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who went on to supply the terrorist group with huge amounts of weapons.

In light of the new information, Devine is amazed IRA leaders ever allowed the film to be made. “Knowing what I know now, never in a million years should they have been allowed to film,” he said.