Billy McKee ( ga, Liam Mac Aoidh; 12 November 1921 – 11 June 2019) was an Irish republican and a founding member and leader of the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...

Early life

McKee was born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

on 12 November 1921, and joined the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...

(IRA) in 1939. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the IRA carried out a number of armed actions in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

known as the Northern Campaign. McKee was arrested and imprisoned in

Crumlin Road Gaol HMP Belfast, also known as Crumlin Road Gaol, is a former prison situated on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. Since 1996 it is the only remaining Victorian era former prison in Northern Ireland. It is colloquially known as ' ...

until 1946 for his role in this campaign. In 1956, the IRA embarked on another armed campaign against

partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

, known as the Border Campaign. McKee was again arrested and

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

for the duration of the campaign. He was released in 1962. Upon release, he became

Officer Commanding The officer commanding (OC), also known as the officer in command or officer in charge (OiC), is the commander of a sub-unit or minor unit (smaller than battalion size), principally used in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. In other countries, t ...

(OC) of the IRA's Belfast Brigade. However, he resigned this position in 1963, after a dispute with other republicans after McKee acceded to a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) demand that he not fly an

Irish tricolour The national flag of Ireland ( ga, bratach na hÉireann), frequently referred to in Ireland as 'the tricolour' () and elsewhere as the Irish tricolour is a vertical tricolour of green (at the hoist), white and orange. The proportions of the ...

during a republican march. He was succeeded by Billy McMillen. As the 1960s went on, McKee drifted away from the IRA. He grew very disillusioned with the organisation's increasing emphasis on

socialism Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...

and reformist politics over "armed struggle". McKee was a devout

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

, who attended

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

daily. As a result, he was very uncomfortable with what he felt were "communist" ideas coming into the republican movement.

IRA split

During the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969, severe rioting broke out in Belfast between

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the Briti ...

nationalists Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

, Protestant

loyalists Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...

, and the RUC. McKee was highly critical of the IRA's failure to defend Catholic areas during these disturbances. On 14 August 1969 McKee,

Joe Cahill , birth_date = , death_date = , birth_place = Belfast, Ireland , death_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland , image = Joe Cahill.png , caption = Cahill, early 1990s. , allegiance = Provisional Irish Republican ...

and a number of other Irish Republican activists occupied houses at Kashmir Street, however, being poorly armed they failed to prevent Irish Catholics in Bombay Street and parts of Cupar Street and Kashmir Street being driven from their homes in the sectarian rioting that had engulfed parts of the city. In the aftermath of the riots, McKee accused Billy McMillen, the IRA's Belfast commander, and the

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

-based IRA leadership, of having failed to direct a clear course of action for the organization in civil disturbances. On 22 September 1969 McKee and a number of other IRA men arrived with weapons at a meeting called by McMillen and tried to oust him as head of the Belfast IRA. They did not succeed, but announced that they would no longer be taking orders from the IRA leadership in Dublin. In December 1969 the IRA split into the

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

which was composed of traditional militarists like McKee, and the

Official IRA The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA (OIRA; ) was an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a "workers' republic" encompassing all of Ireland. It emerged ...

which was composed of the remnants of the pre-split Marxist leadership and their followers. McKee sided with the Provisionals and joined the Army Council in September 1970.

Provisional IRA

McKee became the first OC of the

Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade The Belfast Brigade of the Provisional IRA was the largest of the organisation's brigades, based in the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. The nucleus of the Belfast Brigade emerged in the divisions within Belfast republicans in the closing month ...

. From the start, there was intermittent feuding between McKee's men and his former comrades in the Official IRA, as they vied for control of nationalist areas. However, the Provisionals rapidly gained the upper hand, due to their projection of themselves as the most reliable defenders of the Catholic community. McKee himself contributed greatly to this image by an action he undertook on 27 June 1970 (see

Battle of St Matthew's The Battle of St Matthew's or Battle of Short Strand was a gun battle that took place on the night of 27–28 June 1970 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was fought between the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and Ulster loyalists in ...

). Rioting broke out in the

Ardoyne Ardoyne () is a working class and mainly Catholic and Irish republican district in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. It gained notoriety due to the large number of incidents during The Troubles. Foundation The village of Ardoyne was founded in ...

area of north Belfast after an Orange Order parade, and three Protestants were killed in gun battles between the Provisional IRA and loyalists. In response, loyalists prepared to attack the vulnerable Catholic enclave of

Short Strand The Short Strand ( ga, an Trá Ghearr) is a working class, inner city area of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a mainly Catholic and Irish nationalist enclave surrounded by the mainly Protestant and unionist East Belfast. It is on the east ba ...

in east Belfast. When McKee heard about this, he drove to Short Strand with some men and weapons and took up position at St Matthew's Church. In the ensuing five-hour gun battle, McKee was wounded and one of his men was killed, along with at least four Protestants. On 15 April 1971 McKee, along with Proinsias Mac Airt, was arrested by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

when found in possession of a hand gun. He was charged and convicted for possession of the weapon and imprisoned in

Crumlin Road Prison HMP Belfast, also known as Crumlin Road Gaol, is a former prison situated on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. Since 1996 it is the only remaining Victorian era former prison in Northern Ireland. It is colloquially known as ' ...

, and Joe Cahill took over as OC of the Belfast Brigade. In 1972, McKee led a hunger strike protest in an effort to win recognition of IRA prisoners as

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s. Republicans who were interned already had special status, but those convicted of crimes did not. When McKee was close to death,

William Whitelaw William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, (28 June 1918 – 1 July 1999) was a British Conservative Party politician who served in a wide number of Cabinet positions, most notably as Home Secretary from 1979 to 1983 and as ''de fac ...

conceded

Special Category Status In July 1972, William Whitelaw, the Conservative British government's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, granted Special Category Status (SCS) to all prisoners serving sentences in Northern Ireland for Troubles-related offences. This had be ...

which, although not officially awarding political status, was tacit recognition of the political nature of the incarceration. McKee was released on 4 September 1974 and resumed his position as OC of the Belfast Brigade. At this time the Provisional IRA called a ceasefire and McKee was involved, with

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh Ruairí Ó Brádaigh (; born Peter Roger Casement Brady; 2 October 1932 – 5 June 2013) was an Irish republican political and military leader. He was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) from 1958 to 1959 and again from 1960 to ...

in secret peace talks in Derry with the

Northern Ireland Office The Northern Ireland Office (NIO; ga, Oifig Thuaisceart Éireann, Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of State for N ...

. He was also involved in talks with Protestant clergy in Feakle, County Clare in December 1974, where he voiced his desire to end the violence. However, in the same period, McKee authorised a number of sectarian attacks on Protestants as well as renewed attacks on rival republicans in the Official IRA. For this he was heavily criticised by a group of Provisional IRA activists grouped around

Gerry Adams Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. ...

.Moloney, pp. 166–168.

Later life

A faction led by Adams managed to get McKee voted off the

IRA Army Council The IRA Army Council was the decision-making body of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group dedicated to bringing about independence to the whole island of Ireland and the end of the Union between Northern Ireland and Grea ...

in 1977, effectively forcing him out of the leadership of the organisation. McKee's health suffered in this period and he did not resume his IRA activities. He joined Republican Sinn Féin after a split in

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

in 1986. In later years McKee,

Brendan Hughes Brendan Hughes (June 1948 – 16 February 2008), also known as "The Dark", and "Darkie" was a leading Irish republican and former Officer Commanding (OC) of the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was the leader ...

and

Tommy McKearney Tommy McKearney (born 1952) is a former Irish volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army who took part in the 1980 hunger strike. Background McKearney was born in Lurgan in the north-east of County Armagh, but he was raised in The Moy ...

were critical of the

Belfast Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

and of the reformist politics of Sinn Féin. In 2016 he sent a message of support to the launch of the hardline new Republican party Saoradh, reportedly the political wing of the New IRA. Billy McKee died on 11 June 2019, aged 97. His funeral took place on 15 June 2019 in west

. His coffin was carried on a gun carriage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKee, Billy 1921 births 2019 deaths Irish anti-communists Irish Republican Army (1922–1969) members Irish republicans interned without trial Paramilitaries from Belfast Prisoners accorded Special Category Status Provisional Irish Republican Army members Republican Sinn Féin members Republicans imprisoned during the Northern Ireland conflict