The Committee by Sean Mc Philemy

boojangles · March 21, 2011, 07:59:30 PM

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/character-assassination-by-committee-715751.html

Never heard of this book until yesterday. Just ordered it on Amazon. Has anybody read it? What about Jim Sands? Reliable source?

Aoise · March 21, 2011, 08:12:43 PM

This book was banned a few years back. I think Trimble went to court over it! Wouldn't doubt a thing said in it - dirty days indeed, I'm glad to see the back of them!

wanderer · March 21, 2011, 08:15:57 PM

I read it a few years ago. Hard to know what to make of it, if even a page or chapter is true its sensational stuff.
But personally find it a wee bit far fetched that something as big as what is claimed could possibly stay hidden for so long without more than one member blowing the lid on it

Tony Baloney · March 21, 2011, 08:20:22 PM

Found in the Fiction section.

Newbridge Exile · March 21, 2011, 08:24:38 PM

It was indeed banned here at a time alright, wasn't sure what to make of it to be honest , some of it seemed far fetched but then again?

boojangles · March 21, 2011, 08:29:04 PM

Anybody read The Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the Murder Triangle by Joe Tiernan? Details a huge amount of RUC, UDR and Loyalist collusion.

mylestheslasher · March 21, 2011, 08:54:06 PM

I bought that committee book back in the banned days from the states. Mad stuff but to be honest I was not convinced it was true but then again who the hell knows what dirty deeds were going on?

Sandino · March 21, 2011, 09:03:08 PM

I have read this book in the distant past. I too don't know how much of it is true. One has has to remember that at the time of writing collusionwas denied point blank and a lot of what was written has now been proved as being fact. The future will show just how much was true. Be it fact or fiction its agood read.

tyssam5 · March 21, 2011, 09:39:34 PM

Quote from: boojangles on March 21, 2011, 07:59:30 PM

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/character-assassination-by-committee-715751.html

Never heard of this book until yesterday. Just ordered it on Amazon. Has anybody read it? What about Jim Sands? Reliable source?

They're making them young these days!

Ulick · March 21, 2011, 09:54:04 PM

The Prentice brothers for Portadown (car dealers and uncles of 'Swinger' Fulton) won a libel case against McPhilemy for alleging they were members of 'The Committee'. However McPhilemy won libel cases against the Sunday Times and the Sunday Express who claimed the allegations made in the book were untrue. Trimble then successfully sued Amazon for selling the book online.

The circumstances surrounding a lot of the murders he deals with have since been proven to be true and there is now no doubt there was high level collusion happening which facilitated them but I don't think he proves the existence of 'The Committee', simply due to a lack of corroborating sources. It is possible that Sands was involved enough to get all of the details of the murders and then spice up the story with his Committee conspiracy. On the other hand I witnessed many of the f**kers named in the book openly associating with each other in Lurgan town centre on the "Loyalist Day of Action" in the wake of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. So it makes you think that if they were comfortable to hijack lorries, block roads and drive fork lift trucks through Wellworths front window in full public view, what were they up to in secret?

JUst retired · March 22, 2011, 07:00:24 AM

Quite right Ulick. I remember that day allright. The forklift driver was a retired B special turned traffic warden employed by the police at that time.

lynchbhoy · March 22, 2011, 09:19:08 AM

bought the book on amazon in the mid/late 0's. A few months later it was not to be found for sale anywhere ! Friends got it on ebay after this.
Good read (apart from the heavy going courtroom stuff in the middle).
A hell of a lot of this stuff has turned out to be true.
Collusion was rife. No shock there. I would believe this 'committee' existed in some form.

mylestheslasher · March 22, 2011, 11:09:02 AM

Quote from: Ulick on March 21, 2011, 09:54:04 PM
The Prentice brothers for Portadown (car dealers and uncles of 'Swinger' Fulton) won a libel case against McPhilemy for alleging they were members of 'The Committee'. However McPhilemy won libel cases against the Sunday Times and the Sunday Express who claimed the allegations made in the book were untrue. Trimble then successfully sued Amazon for selling the book online.

The circumstances surrounding a lot of the murders he deals with have since been proven to be true and there is now no doubt there was high level collusion happening which facilitated them but I don't think he proves the existence of 'The Committee', simply due to a lack of corroborating sources. It is possible that Sands was involved enough to get all of the details of the murders and then spice up the story with his Committee conspiracy. On the other hand I witnessed many of the f**kers named in the book openly associating with each other in Lurgan town centre on the "Loyalist Day of Action" in the wake of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. So it makes you think that if they were comfortable to hijack lorries, block roads and drive fork lift trucks through Wellworths front window in full public view, what were they up to in secret?

Just a small correction, they libel case he took was because they claimed he "intentionally" told untruths about people. The court found he did not intentionally tell untruths but they did not say that what he said was true.