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£350k of victims' cash paid out to ‘B-Specials' in last decade

Former B-Special and Ulster Unionist MP Ken Maginnis has defended the payments
Former B-Special and Ulster Unionist MP Ken Maginnis has defended the payments Former B-Special and Ulster Unionist MP Ken Maginnis has defended the payments

NATIONALIST politicians have condemned the payment of hundreds of thousands of pounds to an association representing former members of the 'B-Specials'.

The controversial police unit was part of the Ulster Special Constabulary, which was disbanded by the British government in April 1970 – just months after the start of the Troubles.

Almost exclusively Protestant in its membership, it suffered no fatalities before it was closed down.

However, more than £353,000 from victims' funds has been paid to 18 branches of the Ulster Special Constabulary Association (USCA) since 2005.

Since 2013 the Victims and Survivors Service (VSS) has awarded more than £28,100 to a USCA branch in North Antrim, while over £9,600 has been paid to the group’s Omagh branch.

The VSS was set up in 2012 by the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister and absorbed the victims’ functions of the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund, which delivered support to individuals, and the Community Relations Council, which administered funding to organisations.

Of the total of £353,000, around £315,000 was paid to USCA branches across the north by the Community Relations Council between 2005 and 2013.

The VSS has previously refused to say what cash claimed by the association has been used for.

However, it is understood the majority of the money is spent on social support and reintegration programmes.

The VSS website says that funding is available to organisations for health and well-being services and social support services.

Figures show that between 2005/06 and 2012/13 the branch that received most money was in Lisnaskea, which secured almost £70,000.

The lowest payment was made to the association’s Enniskillen branch which received £490.

The average payout for each branch has been £1,640 but only two branches, north Antrim and Omagh, have received money since VSS took over the main funding role.

Former East Derry assembly member John Dallat, who has been strongly critical of the B-Specials in the past, condemned the payments last night.

“This is shocking news which will astonish older people like me who remember the ‘B’ men as a sinister organisation that helped by its very presence to prop up a rotten and corrupt form of government at Stormont for 40 years,” he said.

“And in the dying days of that government were on the streets helping to suppress the outbreak of civil rights which demanded nothing more than votes and houses and jobs for Catholics.”

However, former Ulster Unionist Party MP and member of the B-Specials Ken Maginnis defended the funding.

Now aged 78, Lord Maginnis served in the unit between 1958 and 1965 before later joining the UDR.

He said that while the B-Specials suffered no fatalities in the Troubles - some members did lose their lives during previous decades - many of those who went on to join the UDR were targeted.

“There was a continuum from the B-Specials to the UDR and there were a lot of UDR men who were B-Specials," he said.

“50 per cent of casualties had been in the B-Specials and some of them had moved on to the UDR.

“Between 1972-78 they would have taken a lot of casualties. There was a continuum there that would be taken into account.”

The Ulster Special Constabulary was made up of three sections - known as the A, B and C Specials - and was closed down after a recommendation in the Hunt report, published after violence erupted across the north in August 1969.

Members shot dead 30-year-old John Gallagher in the back in Armagh in August 1969 during trouble after a Civil Rights Association meeting.

No-one was ever charged.

Set up in 1920, the 'Specials' were also responsible for numerous deaths during that period and members are believed to have been involved in the McMahon killings in 1922, when six members of a Catholic family were shot dead in north Belfast.

A spokeswoman for the VSS said the USCA is a voluntary organisation and applications are “assessed in line with the published application procedure”.

“It is VSS practice to verify the full grant expenditure allocated to each group,” she said.

“VSS is content that all monies paid to funded organisations have been used in line with the agreed contracts.”