The Story of Tony Doris

Kevin Toolis starts the second chapter of his book Rebel Hearts with the story of Tony Doris, an IRA member killed in an SAS (Special Air Service, defined by Toolis as “a small but elite unit of the British Army that specialized in the ambush and assassination of IRA men on active service”) ambush in 1991.

Toolis, a proclaimed Republican, admits, “Tony was a killer” (49). However, the undeniably view of this book is that Tony Doris was a hero. To use Doris’s words, “Tony was judged to be a republican terrorist, a gunman intent on sectarian massacre. But to his friends, family, and the community in Meenagh Park, Tony was not an aggressor, not a terrorist killer, but their defender” (49). He was defending them from the constant harassment that the Catholics (those suspected to be in the IRA or not) in Meenagh Park receive from the armed UDR (Ulster Defense Regiment).

Now Toolis has a definite bias, which he has stated outright, so thus, I know I must be weary of his claims. However, the atmosphere of Northern Ireland as Toolis describes it (with armed British army men carrying around and pointing guns before asking questions, interrogating Catholic schoolchildren), sounds quite brutal to say the least. When asked, Doris’s family could not explain why he joined. “In their minds, the mere description of life in Coalisland was sufficient to explain why Tony had joined the IRA.” I found this fact quite interesting. That it’s a no-brainer for some of the Catholics of Northern Ireland to join the IRA, what seems to be universally condemned as a terrorist organization. However, after reading just part of Toolis’s book, I feel like I am beginning to understand the mindset of these people.

This mindset revolves largely around the history of the issue. Toolis points out, “In other countries and in other lands, history happens and then dies…in Ireland, history does not die” (36). This seems incredibly true. The fact that many Irishmen can recall how the English pushed them off their land, forced them onto the worst bits of real estate in the country, and essentially damned them and their ancestors to lives of poverty are sources of much anger amongst the Irish people. Couple this with the way that Toolis describes the Northern Ireland of the 1980/1990s, and it makes for some understandably irate Irishmen.

However, while Toolis’s bias is clear, I do believe he brings up a good point when it comes to the Ulster Volunteer Force. The UVF is an illegal Protestant paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. Unlike the IRA, they are never brought in for questioning, convicted of murder, raided, or jailed. Daniel McShane, a friend of Tony Doris, claims, “The UVF go out to intentionally shoot innocent people. The IRA intentionally go out to pick on the British Government…There are casualties in all wars but the IRA do not mean to have innocent casualties” (50). Obviously, this can be debated. However, it seems to me the UVF commit largely the same crimes as the IRA, but are not punished. The reasons for this are quite obvious. But the fact that the world doesn't condemn them like they do the IRA seems like an outrageous double standard.

I shall leave you with this final thought to chew on. A few weeks after the death of Tony Doris, a mock St. Valentine’s Day card was dropped onto the family’s front garden by British soldiers. It read: “Tony loves the SAS. From Her Majesty’s Forces. May you rot in hell Tony. Ha, Ha, Ha!” (39).