I guess as he was a journalist he got the details of his death from official police sources and was a writer on NI until his death.
You
guess. Down the many years of the Northern Ireland Troubles too many ignorant people have also guessed and innocent people have died as a result. Spouting about human rights and justice is fine but why apply it only to the security forces?
Have you ever heard of Police Sgt Ovens? No, I thought not. In 1956 he was just an ordinary bobby (peeler to us) who went to investigate a reported incident at the Coalisland water supply tower. He was blown to bits by an IRA bomb ... yes, this campaign began 60 years ago.
How about an inquiry into the 1978 bombing of the Collie Dog Club dinner at La Mon Hotel which incinerated 12 people? My wife would have been there but she had the flu that week. Her friend was identified by the frame of her artificial leg. Questions about this horrific attack remain unanswered.
Have you heard of Bloody Friday? No, I thought not. Ten people lost their lives when bombs went off around central Belfast, including a bus station and opposite my own office which was spattered with bits of people. No inquiry there, then?
Having lived through 50 years of this I hold no brief for either side in this conflict, one's as bad as the other and they're still at it. But I am certain that had it not been for the brutal British soldiery now being investigated for doing their best in impossible situations our civil war would have been as brutal as those now in the Mideast. I could fill 20 pages of this thread with similar incidents for which nobody will ever be held to account, but I try to forget about it. Could I ask you to do the same and cease from ill-informed "guesses" and speculation which can still cause distress to those who were here?