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Times
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Times
Ronald Appleton obituary: chief prosecutor during the Troubles
Short, mild-mannered and bespectacled, Ronald Appleton was not obviously a heroic type, but in his own courageous way he did much to preserve the rule of law in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. As the province's senior crown prosecutor for 22 years from 1977, he secured the convictions in jury-less Diplock courts of some of the conflict's most infamous terrorists: the Shankill Butchers, the loyalist gunman Michael Stone, the Provisional IRA's Shankill Road bomber Sean Kelly and the Irish National Liberation Army's Dominic 'Mad Dog' McGlinchey, to name but a few. He did so at considerable personal risk. He was a target of the province's paramilitary organisations, both republican and loyalist, and was compelled to live in conditions of intense security: a 24-hour armed guard, a fortified home and an armoured car. His fairness, honesty and diligence impressed even those whose convictions he secured, and it is unclear why he was never appointed as a High Court judge — a glaring omission that was said to have hurt him. It may have been because the authorities needed to appoint more judges from the nationalist community, and Appleton was regarded as a moderate unionist. He was also considered a bit of an outsider — a highly principled prosecutor who was not afraid to criticise judges and refused to go along with some of the politically inspired legal shenanigans of that era. More recently, Irish newspapers have claimed that Robert Lowry, Northern Ireland's chief justice during the 1970s and 1980s, disliked both Catholics and Jews — and Appleton was Jewish. He was offered an MBE, but he apparently considered it a sop and turned it down. Ronald Appleton was born in Belfast in 1927. His father, David, was of Lithuanian descent and a door-to-door salesman of picture frames who had been a teenage merchant seaman before serving with the Royal Australian Navy during the First World War. His mother, Sophie, was born near Kyiv, but her family fled Ukraine's pogroms when she was an infant. Appleton was raised in north Belfast and educated at Belfast High School, surviving a German bomb that damaged the family home during the Second World War. He read law at Queen's University Belfast, where he headed its socialist society and clashed with the vice-chancellor when he invited a prominent international left-winger to speak. Initially as a barrister he worked mostly on civil cases, but became increasingly involved in terrorism trials involving both loyalists and republicans as the Troubles deepened. Most notably, he refused an invitation to prosecute three men accused of shooting Constable Victor Arbuckle during a loyalist riot in Belfast's Shankill Road in 1969 because they faced the death penalty if convicted. Arbuckle was the first member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary to die in the Troubles. He instead agreed to defend Tommy Rowntree, the lead defendant and a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force. In what proved to be Northern Ireland's last death penalty case, all three defendants were acquitted of murder, but subsequently jailed for firearms offences. 'I could feel the rope around my neck,' Rowntree told Appleton afterwards. In 1963 Appleton married Shoshana Schmidt, a film producer's assistant whom he had met on a trip to Israel, and they went on to have five children — Michael, now a psychotherapist, Dallia, a lawyer, Dudi, a film-maker, Philip, an HR technology consultant, and Sophie, who works for a car rental company. Despite his growing family he prepared meticulously for each case and routinely worked into the small hours — once walking straight through a glass door in his home because he was so preoccupied with his work. In 1977 he was asked to become Northern Ireland's senior crown prosecutor — a post he accepted only after Lowry had privately assured him it would not hurt his chances of becoming a judge. His first big terrorism trial came two years later when he secured the convictions of the so-called Shankill Butchers, a loyalist gang responsible for the brutal sectarian murders of at least two dozen Catholics, most chosen at random. Eleven men were convicted for 19 murders and received 42 life sentences — a record for a criminal trial in Britain. Martin Dillon, the author of a book on the Butchers, described Appleton as 'one of the outstanding lawyers of his generation'. In 1984 Appleton secured the extradition of Dominic 'Mad Dog' McGlinchey, the murderous leader of the Irish National Liberation Army, from Ireland — an unprecedented feat at that time. He then secured McGlinchey's conviction for murdering the elderly mother of an RUC reservist, but the conviction was subsequently overturned on appeal. From his prison cell McGlinchey sent Appleton a message saying that he had had a fair trial, and that his only regret was that Appleton had prosecuted — not defended — him. In 1989 Appleton secured the conviction of Michael Stone, a loyalist who killed three mourners at an IRA funeral in west Belfast's Milltown Cemetery. Stone, who received prison sentences totalling 684 years, later sent Appleton an abstract painting, which he hung in his lavatory. Shortly after Stone's cemetery attack a crowd attending the funeral of one of his victims seized two British corporals, Derek Wood and David Howes, who had inadvertently driven into the procession. Both were shot. Appleton secured life sentences for Henry Maguire and Alex Murphy, two of those most closely involved in the killings, though he could not prove that either had fired the fatal shots. In another celebrated case, Appleton secured nine life sentences for Sean Kelly, one of two IRA men who killed nine people, including women and children, and injured 50 more when they bombed a fish shop on the Shankill Road in 1993. Appleton did not win every case. In 1980 he prosecuted Edward Manning Brophy, a senior IRA man accused of organising the bombing of La Mon House hotel near Belfast in which 12 people died. To Appleton's dismay, Brophy was cleared because he had relied on 'confessions' the defendant made while in custody. Nor was every case a terrorist trial. In 1992 he secured the conviction of Frederick Bushell, the former Lotus executive who helped to mastermind the DeLorean Motor Company fraud. After stepping down as senior crown prosecutor in 1999 Appleton helped to set up a pro bono lawyers' group and an organisation called Thanksgiving Square, which created a place of reflection beside Belfast's Lagan River after the Troubles. He helped to sustain Belfast's dwindling Jewish community as its president for 14 years. He also reached out to former adversaries, on occasion inviting them to dinner at his home. One such guest was David Ervine, the former loyalist paramilitary whom Appleton had helped to convict for bomb-making but later became a peacemaker. Ervine's first words to Appleton were: 'You look different without a wig on.' Ronald Appleton KC, senior crown prosecutor of Northern Ireland during the Troubles, was born on December 29, 1927. He died on April 6, 2025, aged 97
The Guardian
04-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ronald Appleton obituary
As the leading prosecutor in many notorious terrorist trials, Ronald Appleton's list of cases from the savage years of Northern Ireland's Troubles ensured he developed unparalleled experience in bringing those accused of politically inspired violence to justice. His high-profile hearings included cases against the IRA unit responsible for the La Mon House restaurant bombing that killed 12 people in 1978, the loyalist Shankill Butchers gang in 1979 and the gunman Michael Stone, who shot dead three mourners at a republican funeral in 1998. The Shankill Butchers were members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) responsible for torturing and murdering more than 20 mainly Catholic victims. In 1979 Appleton, who has died aged 97, helped secure 42 life sentences for them, the largest number ever handed down in a UK trial. Martin Dillon, author of The Shankill Butchers, the definitive book on the subject, described him as 'one of the outstanding lawyers of his generation'. He was the prosecutor in several controversial 'supergrass trials' that relied on statements from disaffected members of paramilitary organisations who became informants – including Christopher Black, a former IRA man whose testimony led to the conviction in 1983 of 22 members of the IRA's Belfast Brigade, who were sentenced to a total of more than 4,000 years in prison. Appleton believed Black's evidence, but the supergrass system collapsed several years later after a judge ruled that another informer's testimony was 'unworthy of belief'. Appleton was dedicated to and intensely focused on his work, to the extent that he once walked into a glass door while absorbed in legal papers. Personally modest, he learned to live behind the high-security darkened windows, bullet-proof glass and personal protection officers that were necessary to guarantee his safety. His name appeared on kill lists drawn up by the IRA, the UVF and even, according to his family, the Palestinian militant faction Black September. Born in Belfast to Jewish parents – David, whose family was originally from Lithuania, and Sophie (nee Barnes), who had come from Ukraine – he attended Belfast high school before going on to study law at the city's Queen's University, where he organised the student Socialist Society. His decision to become a barrister was partially due to his headmaster, who suggested the job would help to overcome his shyness. After college he joined the Bar of Northern Ireland (also known as the Bar Library), where counsel trained and practised, and there he was influenced by the example of Barney Fox, the first Jewish member of the Bar Library, who became his pupil master. Initially he took on insurance cases because he had contacts in that industry, but later he switched to crime, which he found more interesting. Once established as a successful defence barrister, Appleton married Shoshana Schmidt in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1963. The eruption of political violence in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s meant his expertise in meticulous case preparation was even more in demand. The attorney general of Northern Ireland, Sir Basil Kelly, tried repeatedly to recruit him for prosecution work, but he was reluctant to accept because he was opposed to the death penalty, which still existed in Northern Ireland, and was also wary of being drawn into what he saw as the establishment. In 1969, the year he took silk, he turned down a brief to prosecute a group of loyalists accused of murdering Constable Victor Arbuckle – the first RUC officer to be killed during the Troubles – in a riot on the Shankill Road. Instead he chose to defend Thomas Roundtree, one of the accused, who was acquitted but served time for arms possession. It proved to be the last death penalty trial in Northern Ireland. Asked what it was like defending under the shadow of the hangman, Appleton later explained it was like any other case: he would have breakfast, consult with colleagues and go into court. The only difference was that on his way he would visit the toilets and throw up. The abolition of the death penalty in Northern Ireland in 1973 led him to reassess his position. Appleton was committed to the delivery of justice with scrupulous fairness. He disapproved of internment without trial. In the mid-1970s, against a background of escalating violence, he therefore agreed to begin prosecuting. His son Dudi said the only time he saw him angry was if there was a suspicion of a police officer fabricating testimony. He would prefer to let something slip out in court if he had doubts about evidence – even if it undermined his own case. In 1977 he was appointed senior crown prosecutor for Northern Ireland – a position he held for the next 22 years. Any hopes of subsequently being promoted to the high court bench as a judge were dashed by Belfast's judicial selections. There were suggestions of anti-semitic prejudice, but he evidently lost out to competing interests. At home, Appleton hosted dinners for professionals, friends and politicians from across the religious divide. Sometimes he even invited those he had helped convict, such as the UVF leader David Ervine. In retirement he was active as a school governor, president of the Belfast Jewish Community, chair of the local lawyers' pro bono unit and a founder of Thanksgiving Square, a memorial marking the end of the Troubles. He is survived by his wife, their five children, Michael, Dallia, Dudi, Philip and Sophie, and three grandchildren. Ronald Appleton, barrister and public prosecutor, born 29 December 1927; died 6 April 2025
Irish Independent
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Revealed: Shankill Butcher's cousin leads far-right protests in Dublin and Limerick
A loyalist ex-prisoner and cousin of a notorious Shankill Butchers cut-throat killer is leading Irish far-right protests, it has been revealed.
Irish Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The Flats: Excellent post-Troubles documentary that illuminates how trauma can nag away for decades
The Flats Director : Alessandra Celesia Cert : 15A Starring : Joe McNally Running Time : 1 hr 54 mins There is plenty to ponder during this excellent documentary on post-Troubles life in the largely republican New Lodge district of Belfast, but, among all the trauma, the most telling moment is perhaps a harmless exchange, carried on as Queen Elizabeth II's coffin is loaded on to an aircraft, between the charming Jolene and two older neighbours. Nonchalantly puzzled as to her status, she wonders if they are 'half-Irish and 'half-British'. Her friend explains: 'We're full Irish, but they stole our identity.' When God Save the King (as I suppose it already was by then) comes on, one neighbour turns his back while the other puts her hands over her ears. 'It's only a bit of music,' says Jolene, puzzled. For many of her generation these symbols matter less than they once did. Most of Alessandra Celesia's film focuses on a man who, raised among the worst of the atrocities, understandably finds it harder to set aside the old unhappiness. Joe McNally, an intense middle-aged man who has served time as an 'ordinary decent criminal', remembers the murder of his uncle, then just a teenager, by the Shankill Butchers. McNally has never been able to shake the image of a plaster on the corpse's nose – placed to cover up the exit wound from a shot to the back of the head. Now, he rails against the drug dealers who moved in when the paramilitaries went elsewhere. It's now nearly as bad as Dublin, argues McNally. READ MORE [ Trauma of the Troubles: 'I threw my first petrol bomb when I was nine. I felt like a man after that' Opens in new window ] In her treatment of McNally, Celesia offers a moving, rigorous character study of how trauma can nag away for decades. The desperation with which he hangs on to a famous phrase by Bobby Sands ultimately becomes a little unnerving. 'Our revenge will be the laughter of our children,' he repeats in the manner of a fraught mantra. The Flats keeps most of its focus tight on the subjects, but allows the occasional tasteful re-enactment. You could, at a stretch, see parallels here with Joshua Oppenheimer's approach in The Act of Killing, but here Celesia is in complete sympathy with her subjects. It is not all gloom. Jolene, a fine singer with a good line in Ulster wit, gestures to a happier and less fraught future. Her Irish passport will, she clarifies, allow her to skip the queues at the airport. So there is that. In cinemas from May 23rd
