Well woke up this morning and still half sleeping I vaguely recalled a conversation between my daughter ( Autumn ) and wife (Simone). I can’t remember much of the conversation but I did hear hair mentioned and a shopping list being put together. The plan was to purchase a list of items which would enhance and make Autumn’s hair grow longer, stronger and healthier. There were also a number of vitamins and other beauty products.
Not my Daughter – but nice hair!
Getting random shopping lists is a regular occurrence with a teenage daughter and I though nothing more until the wife showed me the list – which I have scanned and posted below……
Daughter’s Shopping list
Now I’m no expert , but I was still rather surprised and slightly worried to see item number nine on the list , under the heading “food & drink”
Oysters…
Oysters
OYSTER ?
I mean is she going to eat them ? or does she have to wash her hair in them. Do they have to be a particular breed of Oyster or will any do? ?
And are there more than one type of Oyster available to purchase?
As these questions drifting about my mind I tried to recall my lifetime knowledge of Oysters and I’m afraid that it only amounted to a distasteful memory of eating something that was cold , slimy and felt similar to swallowing (and I feel sick even saying this) a mouthful of Phlegm. Not that I’ve ever swallowed a mouthful of phlegm, I assure you.
Scanning the rest of column one everything else seemed to a reasonable request and I moved onto the second column. All was going well and fitting in with the “hair” and healthy living theme until I came to the last item on the list.
Spongebob washing his hair
Spongbob Square Pants ?
Well you could have blown me over with a feather.
She’s 16 years old and is dating her first serious (not in my eyes) boyfriend and all her time, energy and daily moods swings are dependent on this relationship running smoothly – Which I am sad to admit is not always the case.
I’m starting to depress myself now – so I’ll just go along with the list and make a fatherly contribution to my beautiful daughters emotional wellbeing. Because – I know if I don’t get everything on the list I’ll be in for a hissy fit and dirty looks over the dinning table.
The Red Hand of Ulster (Irish: Lámh Dhearg Uladh) is an Irish Gaelic symbol used in heraldry[1] to denote the Irish province of Ulster. It is shown in two forms, as a dexter (right) hand (used as a symbol in Ulster) and a hand baring a blue or red sinister looking cross (used in the coats of arms of baronets). It is an open hand coloured red, with the fingers pointing upwards, the thumb held parallel to the fingers, and the palm facing forward. It is less commonly known as the Red Hand of O’Neill.
Its origins are said to be attributed to the mythical Irish figure Labraid Lámh Dhearg of the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology (Red Hand Labraid), and appear in other mythical tales passed down from generation to generation in the oral tradition. The symbol is rooted in Irish Gaelic culture and is particularly associated with the Uí Néillclan of Ulster
Dexter hand
The form in common use in Ulster today is an open right hand coloured red, with the fingers pointing upwards, the thumb held parallel to the fingers, and the palm facing forward.
Sinister hand
The form used on a canton or escutcheon within the coat of arms of a baronet of England, Ireland, Great Britain or the United Kingdom, is blazoned as follows: A hand sinister couped at the wrist extended in pale gules.
King James I of England established the hereditary Order of Baronets in England on 22 May 1611, in the words of Collins (1741):
“for the plantation and protection of the whole Kingdom of Ireland, but more especially for the defence and security of the Province of Ulster, and therefore for their distinction those of this order and their descendants may bear (the Red Hand of Ulster) in their coats of arms either in a canton or an escutcheon at their election”
Such baronets may also display the Red Hand of Ulster on its own as a badge, suspended by a ribbon below the shield of arms.[6] Baronets of Nova Scotia, unlike other baronets, do not use the Red Hand of Ulster, but have their own badge showing the Saltire of St Andrew. It must also be noted that the left hand version of the symbol has been used by the Irish National Foresters, the Irish republican Irish Citizen Army and the Federated Workers Union of Ireland.
Mythical origins
It is generally accepted that this Irish Gaelic symbol originated in pagan times and was first associated with the mythical figure Labraid Lámh Dhearg or Labraid Lámderg (Labraid of the Red Hand) of the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology.
According to one myth, the kingdom of Ulster had at one time no rightful heir. Because of this it was agreed that a boat race should take place and that “whosoever’s hand is the first to touch the shore of Ireland, so shall he be made the king”.
One potential king so desired the kingship that, upon seeing that he was losing the race, he cut off his hand and threw it to the shore—thus winning the kingship. The hand is most likely red to represent the fact that it would have been covered in blood. According to some versions of the story, the king who cut off his hand belonged to the Uí Néill clan, which apparently explains its association with them. Another variation of this story concludes that it was none other than Niall of the Nine Hostages who severed his own hand in order to win his crown from his brother.
A different myth tells of two giants who engaged in battle. One had his hand cut off by the other, and a red imprint of the hand was left on the rocks.
Usage
Coat of Arms of Monaghan
The Red Hand symbol is believed to have been used by the Uí Néill clan during its Nine Years’ War (1594–1603) against the spread of English control. The war cryLámh Dhearg Abú! (Red Hand to victory!) was also associated with the Uí Néill.
Coats of arms used by those whose surnames are of Uí Néill descent – Ó Donnghaile, Ó Cathain, Mac Aodha, Ó Dálaigh, Ó Máeilsheáchlainn and Ó Catharnaigh, to name just a few – all feature the Red Hand in some form, recalling their common descent. On the Ó Néill coat of arms featuring the Red Hand, the motto is Lámh Dhearg Éireann (Red Hand of Ireland).
The arms of the chiefs of the Scottish Clan MacNeil (of Barra) contain the Red Hand; the clan has traditionally claimed descent from Niall of the Nine Hostages. Many other families have used the Red Hand to highlight an Ulster ancestry. The head of the Guinness family, the Earl of Iveagh, has three Red Hands on his arms granted as recently as 1891.
Arms of de Burgh: Or, a cross gules
After Walter de Burgh became Earl of Ulster in 1243 the de Burgh cross was combined with the Red Hand to create a flag that represented the Earldom of Ulster and later became the modern Flag of Ulster. During the plantation of Ulster it was part of the arms of The Irish Society; sales of baronetcies originally helped fund the plantation so baronets of England and of Ireland and later baronets of Great Britain and of the United Kingdom were allowed to augment their arms with a “hand gules”.
The Red Hand is present on a number of Ulster counties crests such as Antrim, Cavan, Londonderry, Monaghan and Tyrone. It was later included in the now abolished Government of Northern Ireland flag. It is also used by many other official and non-official organisations throughout the province of Ulster and Ireland.
The former flag of the Northern Ireland government (1953–1972)
Crest of Ulster GAA
Ulster Rugby
Badge worn by baronets of the United Kingdom
Thank you!
My autobiography: A Belfast Child is now available to pre-order on Amazon , launch date is 30th April.
Image bel… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…— A Belfast Child (@ABelfastChild1) January 19, 2020
Ebola virus disease (EVD; also Ebola hemorrhagic fever, or EHF), or simply Ebola, is a disease of humans and other primates caused by ebolaviruses. Signs and symptoms typically start between two days and three weeks after contracting the virus with a fever, sore throat, muscular pain, and headaches. Then, vomiting, diarrhea and rash usually follow, along with decreased function of the liver and kidneys. At this time some people begin to bleed both internally and externally.[1] The disease has a high risk of death, killing between 25 and 90 percent of those infected, with an average of about 50 percent.[1] This is often due to low blood pressure from fluid loss, and typically follows six to sixteen days after symptoms appear.[2]
The virus spreads by direct contact with body fluids, such as blood, of an infected human or other animals.[1] This may also occur through contact with an item recently contaminated with bodily fluids.[1] Spread of the disease through the air between primates, including humans, has not been documented in either laboratory or natural conditions.[3]Semen or breast milk of a person after recovery from EVD may still carry the virus for several weeks to months.[1][4]Fruit bats are believed to be the normal carrier in nature, able to spread the virus without being affected by it. Other diseases such as malaria, cholera, typhoid fever, meningitis and other viral hemorrhagic fevers may resemble EVD. Blood samples are tested for viral RNA, viral antibodies or for the virus itself to confirm the diagnosis.[1]
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Ebola Virus Outbreak 2014: Dying at the Hospital Door
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Control of outbreaks requires coordinated medical services, alongside a certain level of community engagement. The medical services include rapid detection of cases of disease, contact tracing of those who have come into contact with infected individuals, quick access to laboratory services, proper healthcare for those who are infected, and proper disposal of the dead through cremation or burial.[1][5] Samples of body fluids and tissues from people with the disease should be handled with special caution. Prevention includes limiting the spread of disease from infected animals to humans. This may be done by handling potentially infected bush meat only while wearing protective clothing and by thoroughly cooking it before eating it. It also includes wearing proper protective clothing and washing hands when around a person with the disease.[1] No specific treatment or vaccine for the virus is available, although a number of potential treatments are being studied. Supportive efforts, however, improve outcomes. This includes either oral rehydration therapy (drinking slightly sweetened and salty water) or giving intravenous fluids as well as treating symptoms.[1]
The length of time between exposure to the virus and the development of symptoms (incubation period) is between 2 to 21 days,[1][12] and usually between 4 to 10 days.[13] However, recent estimates based on mathematical models predict that around 5% of cases may take greater than 21 days to develop.[14]
Recovery may begin between 7 and 14 days after first symptoms.[16] Death, if it occurs, follows typically 6 to 16 days from first symptoms and is often due to low blood pressure from fluid loss.[2] In general, bleeding often indicates a worse outcome, and blood loss may result in death.[15] People are often in a coma near the end of life.[16]
Those who survive often have ongoing muscular and joint pain, liver inflammation, decreased hearing, and may have continued feelings of tiredness, continued weakness, decreased appetite, and difficulty returning to pre-illness weight.[16][23] Problems with vision may develop.[24]
Additionally they develop antibodies against Ebola that last at least 10 years, but it is unclear if they are immune to repeated infections.[25] If someone recovers from Ebola, they can no longer transmit the disease.[25]
Cause
EVD in humans is caused by four of five viruses of the genus Ebolavirus. The four are Bundibugyo virus (BDBV), Sudan virus (SUDV), Taï Forest virus (TAFV) and one simply called Ebola virus (EBOV, formerly Zaire Ebola virus).[26] EBOV, species Zaire ebolavirus, is the most dangerous of the known EVD-causing viruses, and is responsible for the largest number of outbreaks.[27] The fifth virus, Reston virus (RESTV), is not thought to cause disease in humans, but has caused disease in other primates.[28][29] All five viruses are closely related to marburgviruses.[26]
Ebolaviruses contain single-stranded, non-infectious RNAgenomes.[30]Ebolavirus genomes contain seven genes including 3′-UTR–NP–VP35–VP40–GP–VP30–VP24–L–5′-UTR.[21][31] The genomes of the five different ebolaviruses (BDBV, EBOV, RESTV, SUDV and TAFV) differ in sequence and the number and location of gene overlaps. As with all filoviruses, ebolavirus virions are filamentous particles that may appear in the shape of a shepherd’s crook, of a “U” or of a “6,” and they may be coiled, toroid or branched.[31][32] In general, ebolavirions are 80 nanometers (nm) in width and may be as long as 14,000 nm.[33]
Their life cycle is thought to begin with a virion attaching to specific cell-surface receptors such as C-type lectins, DC-SIGN, or integrins, which is followed by fusion of the viral envelope with cellular membranes.[34] The virions taken up by the cell then travel to acidic endosomes and lysosomes where the viral envelope glycoprotein GP is cleaved.[34] This processing appears to allow the virus to bind to cellular proteins enabling it to fuse with internal cellular membranes and release the viral nucleocapsid.[34] The Ebolavirus structural glycoprotein (known as GP1,2) is responsible for the virus’ ability to bind to and infect targeted cells.[35] The viral RNA polymerase, encoded by the L gene, partially uncoats the nucleocapsid and transcribes the genes into positive-strand mRNAs, which are then translated into structural and nonstructural proteins. The most abundant protein produced is the nucleoprotein, whose concentration in the host cell determines when L switches from gene transcription to genome replication. Replication of the viral genome results in full-length, positive-strand antigenomes that are, in turn, transcribed into genome copies of negative-strand virus progeny.[36] Newly synthesized structural proteins and genomes self-assemble and accumulate near the inside of the cell membrane. Virions bud off from the cell, gaining their envelopes from the cellular membrane from which they bud from. The mature progeny particles then infect other cells to repeat the cycle. The genetics of the Ebola virus are difficult to study because of EBOV’s virulent characteristics.[37]
Transmission
Life cycles of the Ebolavirus
It is believed that between people, Ebola disease spreads only by direct contact with the blood or body fluids of a person who has developed symptoms of the disease.[38][39][40] Body fluids that may contain Ebola viruses include saliva, mucus, vomit, feces, sweat, tears, breast milk, urine and semen.[25] The WHO states that only people who are very sick are able to spread Ebola disease in saliva, and whole virus has not been reported to be transmitted through sweat. Most people spread the virus through blood, feces and vomit.[41] Entry points for the virus include the nose, mouth, eyes, open wounds, cuts and abrasions.[25] Ebola may be spread through large droplets; however, this is believed to occur only when a person is very sick.[42] This contamination can happen if a person is splashed with droplets.[42] Contact with surfaces or objects contaminated by the virus, particularly needles and syringes, may also transmit the infection.[43][44] The virus is able to survive on objects for a few hours in a dried state, and can survive for a few days within body fluids outside of a person.[25][45]
The Ebola virus may be able to persist for more than 3 months in the semen after recovery, which could lead to infections via sexual intercourse.[46][47] Ebola may also occur in the breast milk of women after recovery, and it is not known when it is safe to breastfeed again.[4] The virus was also found in the eye of one patient in 2014, two months after it was cleared from his blood.[48] Otherwise, people who have recovered are not infectious.[43]
The potential for widespread infections in countries with medical systems capable of observing correct medical isolation procedures is considered low.[49] Usually when someone has symptoms of the disease, they are unable to travel without assistance.[50]
Dead bodies remain infectious; thus, people handling human remains in practices such as traditional burial rituals or more modern processes such as embalming are at risk.[49] 69% of the cases of Ebola infections in Guinea during the 2014 outbreak are believed to have been contracted via unprotected (or unsuitably protected) contact with infected corpses during certain Guinean burial rituals.[51][52]
Health-care workers treating people with Ebola are at greatest risk of infection.[43] The risk increases when they do not have appropriate protective clothing such as masks, gowns, gloves and eye protection; do not wear it properly; or handle contaminated clothing incorrectly.[43] This risk is particularly common in parts of Africa where the disease mostly occurs and health systems function poorly.[53] There has been transmission in hospitals in some African countries that reuse hypodermic needles.[54][55] Some health-care centers caring for people with the disease do not have running water.[56] In the United States the spread to two medical workers treating infected patients prompted criticism of inadequate training and procedures.[57]
Human-to-human transmission of EBOV through the air has not been reported to occur during EVD outbreaks,[3] and airborne transmission has only been demonstrated in very strict laboratory conditions, and then only from pigs to primates, but not from primates to primates.[38][44] Spread of EBOV by water, or food other than bushmeat, has not been observed.[43][44] No spread by mosquitos or other insects has been reported.[43] Other possible methods of transmission are being studied.[45]
The apparent lack of airborne transmission among humans is believed to be due to low levels of the virus in the lungs and other parts of the respiratory system of primates, insufficient to cause new infections.[58] A number of studies examining airborne transmission broadly concluded that transmission from pigs to primates could happen without direct contact because, unlike humans and primates, pigs with EVD get very high ebolavirus concentrations in their lungs, and not their bloodstream.[59] Therefore, pigs with EVD can spread the disease through droplets in the air or on the ground when they sneeze or cough.[60] By contrast, humans and other primates accumulate the virus throughout their body and specifically in their blood, but not very much in their lungs.[60] It is believed that this is the reason researchers have observed pig to primate transmission without physical contact, but no evidence has been found of primates being infected without actual contact, even in experiments where infected and uninfected primates shared the same air.[59][60]
Initial case
Bushmeat being prepared for cooking in Ghana. In Africa, wild animals including fruit bats are hunted for food and are referred to as bushmeat.[61][62] In equatorial Africa, human consumption of bushmeat has been linked to animal-to-human transmission of diseases, including Ebola.[63]
Although it is not entirely clear how Ebola initially spreads from animals to humans, the spread is believed to involve direct contact with an infected wild animal or fruit bat.[43] Besides bats, other wild animals sometimes infected with EBOV include several monkey species, chimpanzees, gorillas, baboons and duikers.[64]
Animals may become infected when they eat fruit partially eaten by bats carrying the virus.[65] Fruit production, animal behavior and other factors may trigger outbreaks among animal populations.[65]
Evidence indicates that both domestic dogs and pigs can also be infected with EBOV.[66] Dogs do not appear to develop symptoms when they carry the virus, and pigs appear to be able to transmit the virus to at least some primates.[66] Although some dogs in an area in which a human outbreak occurred had antibodies to EBOV, it is unclear whether they played a role in spreading the disease to people.[66]
Reservoir
The natural reservoir for Ebola has yet to be confirmed; however, bats are considered to be the most likely candidate species.[44] Three types of fruit bats (Hypsignathus monstrosus, Epomops franqueti and Myonycteris torquata) were found to possibly carry the virus without getting sick.[67] As of 2013, whether other animals are involved in its spread is not known.[66] Plants, arthropods and birds have also been considered possible viral reservoirs.[1]
Bats were known to roost in the cotton factory in which the first cases of the 1976 and 1979 outbreaks were observed, and they have also been implicated in Marburg virus infections in 1975 and 1980.[68] Of 24 plant and 19 vertebrate species experimentally inoculated with EBOV, only bats became infected.[69] The bats displayed no clinical signs of disease, which is considered evidence that these bats are a reservoir species of EBOV. In a 2002–2003 survey of 1,030 animals including 679 bats from Gabon and the Republic of the Congo, 13 fruit bats were found to contain EBOV RNA.[70] Antibodies against Zaire and Reston viruses have been found in fruit bats in Bangladesh, suggesting that these bats are also potential hosts of the virus and that the filoviruses are present in Asia.[71]
Between 1976 and 1998, in 30,000 mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and arthropods sampled from regions of EBOV outbreaks, no Ebola virus was detected apart from some genetic traces found in six rodents (belonging to the species Mus setulosus and Praomys) and one shrew (Sylvisorex ollula) collected from the Central African Republic.[68][72] However, further research efforts have not confirmed rodents as a reservoir.[73] Traces of EBOV were detected in the carcasses of gorillas and chimpanzees during outbreaks in 2001 and 2003, which later became the source of human infections. However, the high rates of death in these species resulting from EBOV infection make it unlikely that these species represent a natural reservoir for the virus.[68]
EBOV is thought to infect humans through contact with mucous membranes or through skin breaks.[38] Once infected, endothelial cells (cells lining the inside of blood vessels), liver cells, and several types of immune cells such as macrophages, monocytes, and dendritic cells are the main targets of infection.[38] Following infection with the virus, the immune cells carry the virus to nearby lymph nodes where further reproduction of the virus takes place.[38] From there, the virus can enter the bloodstream and lymphatic system and spread throughout the body.[38] Macrophages are the first cells infected with the virus, and this infection results in programmed cell death.[33] Other types of white blood cells, such as lymphocytes, also undergo programmed cell death leading to an abnormally low concentration of lymphocytes in the blood.[38] This contributes to the weakened immune response seen in those infected with EBOV.[38]
Endothelial cells may be infected within 3 days after exposure to the virus.[33] The breakdown of endothelial cells leading to blood vessel injury can be attributed to EBOV glycoproteins. This damage occurs due to the synthesis of Ebola virus glycoprotein (GP), which reduces the availability of specific integrins responsible for cell adhesion to the intercellular structure and causes liver damage, leading to improper clotting. The widespread bleeding that occurs in affected people causes swelling and shock due to loss of blood volume.[75] The dysfunction in bleeding and clotting commonly seen in EVD has been attributed to increased activation of the extrinsic pathway of the coagulation cascade due to excessive tissue factor production by macrophages and monocytes.[13]
After infection, a secreted glycoprotein, small soluble glycoprotein (sGP or GP) is synthesized. EBOV replication overwhelms protein synthesis of infected cells and the host immune defenses. The GP forms a trimeric complex, which tethers the virus to the endothelial cells. The sGP forms a dimeric protein that interferes with the signaling of neutrophils, another type of white blood cell, which enables the virus to evade the immune system by inhibiting early steps of neutrophil activation. The presence of viral particles and the cell damage resulting from viruses budding out of the cell causes the release of chemical signals (such as TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8), which are molecular signals for fever and inflammation.
The VP24 and VP35 structural proteins of EBOV play a key role in this interference. When a cell is infected with EBOV, receptors located in the cell’s cytosol (such as RIG-I and MDA5) or outside of the cytosol (such as Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3), TLR7, TLR8 and TLR9), recognize infectious molecules associated with the virus.[35] On TLR activation, proteins including interferon regulatory factor 3 and interferon regulatory factor 7 trigger a signaling cascade that leads to the expression of type 1 interferons.[35] The type 1 interferons are then released and bind to the IFNAR1 and IFNAR2 receptors expressed on the surface of a neighboring cell.[35] Once interferon has bound to its receptors on the neighboring cell, the signaling proteins STAT1 and STAT2 are activated and move to the cell’s nucleus.[35] This triggers the expression of interferon-stimulated genes, which code for proteins with antiviral properties.[35] EBOV’s V24 protein blocks the production of these antiviral proteins by preventing the STAT1 signaling protein in the neighboring cell from entering the nucleus.[35] The VP35 protein directly inhibits the production of interferon-beta.[76] By inhibiting these immune responses, EBOV may quickly spread throughout the body.[33]
Diagnosis
When EVD is suspected in a person, his or her travel and work history, along with an exposure to wildlife, are important factors to consider with respect to further diagnostic efforts.
The specific diagnosis of EVD is confirmed by isolating the virus, detecting its RNA or proteins, or detecting antibodies against the virus in a person’s blood. Isolating the virus by cell culture, detecting the viral RNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)[13] and detecting proteins by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) are methods best used in the early stages of the disease and also for detecting the virus in human remains. Detecting antibodies against the virus is most reliable in the later stages of the disease and in those who recover.[79]IgM antibodies are detectable two days after symptom onset and IgG antibodies can be detected 6 to 18 days after symptom onset.[13] During an outbreak, isolation of the virus via cell culture methods is often not feasible. In field or mobile hospitals, the most common and sensitive diagnostic methods are real-time PCR and ELISA.[80] In 2014, with new mobile testing facilities deployed in parts of Liberia, test results were obtained 3–5 hours after sample submission.[81] In 2015 a rapid antigen test which gives results in 15 minutes was approved for use by WHO. It is able to confirm Ebola in 92% of those affected and rule it out in 85% of those not affected.[82]
People who care for those infected with Ebola should wear protective clothing including masks, gloves, gowns and goggles.[88] The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend that the protective gear leaves no skin exposed.[89] These measures are also recommended for those who may handle objects contaminated by an infected person’s body fluids.[90] In 2014, the CDC began recommending that medical personnel receive training on the proper suit-up and removal of personal protective equipment (PPE); in addition, a designated person, appropriately trained in biosafety, should be watching each step of these procedures to ensure they are done correctly.[89] In Sierra Leone, the typical training period for the use of such safety equipment lasts approximately 12 days.[91]
The infected person should be in barrier-isolation from other people.[88] All equipment, medical waste, patient waste and surfaces that may have come into contact with body fluids need to be disinfected.[90] During the 2014 outbreak, kits were put together to help families treat Ebola disease in their homes, which include protective clothing as well as chlorine powder and other cleaning supplies.[92] Education of those who provide care in these techniques, and the provision of such barrier-separation supplies has been a priority of Doctors Without Borders.[93]
Ebolaviruses can be eliminated with heat (heating for 30 to 60 minutes at 60 °C or boiling for 5 minutes). To disinfect surfaces, some lipid solvents such as some alcohol-based products, detergents, sodium hypochlorite (bleach) or calcium hypochlorite (bleaching powder), and other suitable disinfectants may be used at appropriate concentrations.[64][94] Education of the general public about the risk factors for Ebola infection and of the protective measures individuals may take to prevent infection is recommended by the World Health Organization.[1] These measures include avoiding direct contact with infected people and regular hand washing using soap and water.[95]
Bushmeat, an important source of protein in the diet of some Africans, should be handled and prepared with appropriate protective clothing and thoroughly cooked before consumption.[1] Some research suggests that an outbreak of Ebola disease in the wild animals used for consumption may result in a corresponding human outbreak. Since 2003, such animal outbreaks have been monitored to predict and prevent Ebola outbreaks in humans.[96]
If a person with Ebola disease dies, direct contact with the body should be avoided.[88] Certain burial rituals, which may have included making various direct contacts with a dead body, require reformulation such that they consistently maintain a proper protective barrier between the dead body and the living.[97][98][99] Social anthropologists may help find alternatives to traditional rules for burials.[100]
Transportation crews are instructed to follow a certain isolation procedure should anyone exhibit symptoms resembling EVD.[101] As of August 2014, the WHO does not consider travel bans to be useful in decreasing spread of the disease.[50] In October 2014, the CDC defined four risk levels used to determine the level of 21-day monitoring for symptoms and restrictions on public activities.[102] In the United States, the CDC recommends that restrictions on public activity, including travel restrictions, are not required for the following defined risk levels:[102]
having been in a country with widespread Ebola disease transmission and having no known exposure (low risk); or having been in that country more than 21 days ago (no risk)
encounter with a person showing symptoms; but not within 3 feet of the person with Ebola without wearing PPE; and no direct contact of body fluids
having had brief skin contact with a person showing symptoms of Ebola disease when the person was believed to be not very contagious (low risk)
in countries without widespread Ebola disease transmission: direct contact with a person showing symptoms of the disease while wearing PPE (low risk)
contact with a person with Ebola disease before the person was showing symptoms (no risk).
The CDC recommends monitoring for the symptoms of Ebola disease for those both at “low risk” and at higher risk.[102]
In laboratories where diagnostic testing is carried out, biosafety level 4-equivalent containment is required.[103] Laboratory researchers must be properly trained in BSL-4 practices and wear proper PPE
Isolation
Isolation refers to separating those who are sick from those who are not. Quarantine refers to separating those who may have been exposed to a disease until they either show signs of the disease or are no longer at risk.[104] Quarantine, also known as enforced isolation, is usually effective in decreasing spread.[105][106] Governments often quarantine areas where the disease is occurring or individuals who may transmit the disease outside of an initial area.[107] In the United States, the law allows quarantine of those infected with ebolaviruses.[108]
Contact tracing
Contact tracing is considered important to contain an outbreak. It involves finding everyone who had close contact with infected individuals and watching for signs of illness for 21 days. If any of these contacts comes down with the disease, they should be isolated, tested and treated. Then the process is repeated by tracing the contacts’ contacts.[109][110]
Management
No specific treatment is currently approved.[111] The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises people to be careful of advertisements making unverified or fraudulent claims of benefits supposedly gained from various anti-Ebola products.[112][113]
Standard support
A hospital isolation ward in Gulu, Uganda, during the October 2000 outbreak
Treatment is primarily supportive in nature.[114] Early supportive care with rehydration and symptomatic treatment improves survival.[1] Rehydration may be via the oral or by intravenous route.[114] These measures may include management of pain, nausea, fever and anxiety.[114] The World Health Organization recommends avoiding the use of aspirin or ibuprofen for pain due to the bleeding risk associated with use of these medications.[115]
If hospital care is not possible, the World Health Organization has guidelines for care at home that have been relatively successful. In such situations, recommendations include using towels soaked in bleach solutions when moving infected people or bodies and applying bleach on stains. It is also recommended that the caregivers wash hands with bleach solutions and cover their mouth and nose with a cloth.[116]
EVD has a high risk of death in those infected which varies between 25 percent and 90 percent of those infected.[1][117] As of September 2014[update], the average risk of death among those infected is 50 percent.[1] The highest risk of death was 90 percent in the 2002–2003 Republic of the Congo outbreak.[118]
Death, if it occurs, follows typically six to sixteen days after symptoms appear and is often due to low blood pressure from fluid loss.[2] Early supportive care to prevent dehydration may reduce the risk of death.[119]
Ebola can stay in some body parts like the eyes,[121] breasts, and testicles after infection.[122][123] Sexual transmission after recovery has been suggested.[124][125]
Increase over time in the cases and deaths during the 2013–2015 outbreak
In March 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a major Ebola outbreak in Guinea, a western African nation.[126] Researchers traced the outbreak to a one-year-old child who died December 2013.[127][128] The disease then rapidly spread to the neighboring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is the largest Ebola outbreak ever documented, and the first recorded in the region.[126] On 8 August 2014, the WHO declared the epidemic to be an international public health emergency. Urging the world to offer aid to the affected regions, the Director-General said, “Countries affected to date simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their own. I urge the international community to provide this support on the most urgent basis possible.”[129] By mid-August 2014, Doctors Without Borders reported the situation in Liberia’s capital Monrovia as “catastrophic” and “deteriorating daily”. They reported that fears of Ebola among staff members and patients had shut down much of the city’s health system, leaving many people without treatment for other conditions.[130] In a 26 September statement, the WHO said, “The Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of West Africa is the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times. Never before in recorded history has a biosafety level four pathogen infected so many people so quickly, over such a broad geographical area, for so long.”[131]
Intense contact tracing and strict isolation techniques largely prevented further spread of the disease in the countries that had imported cases, but in the most severely affected countries, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, this disease is ongoing. As of 27 September 2015[update], 28,424 suspected cases and 11,311 deaths have been reported;[11][132] however, the WHO has said that these numbers may be underestimated.[133] Because they work closely with the body fluids of infected patients, healthcare workers have been especially vulnerable to catching the disease; in August 2014, the WHO reported that ten percent of the dead have been healthcare workers.[134]
In September 2014, it was estimated that the countries’ capacity for treating Ebola patients was insufficient by the equivalent of 2,122 beds; by December there were a sufficient number of beds to treat and isolate all reported Ebola cases, although the uneven distribution of cases was resulting in serious shortfalls in some areas.[135] On 28 January 2015, the WHO reported that for the first time since the week ending 29 June 2014, there had been fewer than 100 new confirmed cases reported in a week in the three most-affected countries. The response to the epidemic then moved to a second phase, as the focus shifted from slowing transmission to ending the epidemic.[136] On 8 April 2015, the WHO reported a total of only 30 confirmed cases, the lowest weekly total since the third week of May 2014.[137]
As of 15 October 2014, there have been 17 cases of Ebola treated outside Africa, four of whom have died.[138]
In early October, Teresa Romero, a 44-year-old Spanish nurse, contracted Ebola after caring for a priest who had been repatriated from West Africa. This was the first transmission of the virus to occur outside Africa.[139] On 20 October, it was announced that Teresa Romero had tested negative for the Ebola virus, suggesting that she may have recovered from Ebola infection.[140]
On 19 September, Eric Duncan flew from his native Liberia to Texas; 5 days later he began showing symptoms and visited a hospital, but was sent home. His condition worsened and he returned to the hospital on 28 September, where he died on 8 October.[141] Health officials confirmed a diagnosis of Ebola on 30 September—the first case in the United States.[57] On 12 October, the CDC confirmed that a nurse in Texas who had treated Duncan was found to be positive for the Ebola virus, the first known case of the disease to be contracted in the United States.[142] On 15 October, a second Texas health-care worker who had treated Duncan was confirmed to have the virus.[143] Both of these people have since recovered.[144]
On 23 October, a doctor in New York City, who returned to the United States from Guinea after working with Doctors Without Borders, tested positive for Ebola. His case is unrelated to the Texas cases.[145] The person has recovered and was discharged from Bellevue Hospital Center on November 11.[144] On 24 December 2014, a laboratory in Atlanta, Georgia reported that a technician had been exposed to Ebola.[146]
In 2000, Uganda had an outbreak affecting 425 and killing 224; in this case the Sudan virus was found to be the Ebola species responsible for the outbreak.[1]
In 2003 there was an outbreak in the Republic of the Congo that affected 143 and killed 128, a death rate of 90 percent, the highest death rate of a genusEbolavirus outbreak to date.[149]
In 2004 a Russian scientist died from Ebola after sticking herself with an infected needle.[150]
Between April and August 2007, a fever epidemic[151] in a four-village region[152] of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was confirmed in September to have cases of Ebola.[153] Many people who attended the recent funeral of a local village chief died.[152] The 2007 outbreak eventually affected 264 individuals and resulted in the deaths of 187.[1]
On 30 November 2007, the Uganda Ministry of Health confirmed an outbreak of Ebola in the Bundibugyo District in Western Uganda. After confirmation of samples tested by the United States National Reference Laboratories and the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization confirmed the presence of a new species of genusEbolavirus, which was tentatively named Bundibugyo.[154] The WHO reported 149 cases of this new strain and 37 of those led to deaths.[1]
The WHO confirmed two small outbreaks in Uganda in 2012. The first outbreak affected 7 people and resulted in the death of 4 and the second affected 24, resulting in the death of 17. The Sudan variant was responsible for both outbreaks.[1]
On 17 August 2012, the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported an outbreak of the Ebola-Bundibugyo variant[155] in the eastern region.[156][157] Other than its discovery in 2007, this was the only time that this variant has been identified as responsible for an outbreak. The WHO revealed that the virus had sickened 57 people and claimed 29 lives. The probable cause of the outbreak was tainted bush meat hunted by local villagers around the towns of Isiro and Viadana.[1][158]
In 2014, an outbreak of Ebola virus disease occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Genome-sequencing has shown that this outbreak was not related to the 2014–15 West Africa Ebola virus outbreak, but was of the same EBOV species, the Zaire species.[159] It began in August 2014 and was declared over in November of that year with a total of 66 cases and 49 deaths.[160] This is the 7th outbreak in the DRC, three of which occurred during the period when the country was known as Zaire.[161]
1976
CDC worker incinerates medical waste from Ebola patients in Zaire in 1976.
Sudan outbreak
The first known outbreak of EVD was identified only after the fact, occurring between June and November 1976 in Nzara, South Sudan,[26][162] (then part of Sudan) and was caused by Sudan virus (SUDV). The Sudan outbreak infected 284 people and killed 151. The first identifiable case in Sudan occurred on 27 June in a storekeeper in a cotton factory in Nzara, who was hospitalized on 30 June and died on 6 July.[21][163] Although the WHO medical staff involved in the Sudan outbreak were aware that they were dealing with a heretofore unknown disease, the actual “positive identification” process and the naming of the virus did not occur until some months later in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[163]
On 26 August 1976, a second outbreak of EVD began in Yambuku, a small rural village in Mongala District in northern Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo).[164][165] This outbreak was caused by EBOV, formerly designated Zaire ebolavirus, which is a different member of the genusEbolavirus than in the first Sudan outbreak. The first person infected with the disease was village school headmaster Mabalo Lokela, who began displaying symptoms on 26 August 1976.[166] Lokela had returned from a trip to Northern Zaire near the Central African Republic border, having visited the Ebola River between 12 and 22 August. He was originally believed to have malaria and was given quinine. However, his symptoms continued to worsen, and he was admitted to Yambuku Mission Hospital on 5 September. Lokela died on 8 September, 14 days after he began displaying symptoms.[167][168][169]
Soon after Lokela’s death, others who had been in contact with him also died, and people in the village of Yambuku began to panic. This led the country’s Minister of Health along with Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seko to declare the entire region, including Yambuku and the country’s capital, Kinshasa, a quarantine zone. No one was permitted to enter or leave the area, with roads, waterways, and airfields placed under martial law. Schools, businesses and social organizations were closed.[170] Researchers from the CDC, including Peter Piot, co-discoverer of Ebola, later arrived to assess the effects of the outbreak, observing that “the whole region was in panic.”[171][172][173] Piot concluded that the Belgian nuns had inadvertently started the epidemic by giving unnecessary vitamin injections to pregnant women, without sterilizing the syringes and needles. The outbreak lasted 26 days, with the quarantine lasting 2 weeks. Among the reasons that researchers speculated caused the disease to disappear, were the precautions taken by locals, the quarantine of the area, and discontinuing the injections.[170]
During this outbreak, Dr. Ngoy Mushola recorded the first clinical description of EVD in Yambuku, where he wrote the following in his daily log: “The illness is characterized with a high temperature of about 39 °C (102 °F), hematemesis, diarrhea with blood, retrosternal abdominal pain, prostration with “heavy” articulations, and rapid evolution death after a mean of 3 days.”[174]
The virus responsible for the initial outbreak, first thought to be Marburg virus, was later identified as a new type of virus related to marburgviruses. Virus strain samples isolated from both outbreaks were named as the “Ebola virus” after the Ebola River, located near the originally identified viral outbreak site in Zaire.[21] Reports conflict about who initially coined the name: either Karl Johnson of the American CDC team[175] or Belgian researchers.[176] Subsequently a number of other cases were reported, almost all centered on the Yambuku mission hospital or having close contact with another case.[166] 318 cases and 280 deaths (an 88 percent fatality rate) occurred in Zaire.[177] Although it was assumed that the two outbreaks were connected, scientists later realized that they were caused by two distinct ebolaviruses, SUDV and EBOV.[165] The Zaire outbreak was contained with the help of the World Health Organization and transport from the Congolese air force, by quarantining villagers, sterilizing medical equipment, and providing protective clothing.
Ebolavirus is classified as a biosafety level 4 agent, as well as a Category A bioterrorism agent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.[74][178] It has the potential to be weaponized for use in biological warfare,[179][180] and was investigated by Biopreparat for such use, but might be difficult to prepare as a weapon of mass destruction because the virus becomes ineffective quickly in open air.[181] Fake emails pretending to be Ebola information from the WHO or the Mexican Government have in 2014 been misused to spread computer malware.[182] The BBC reported in 2015 that, “North Korean state media has suggested the disease was created by the US military as a biological weapon.”[183]
William Close‘s 1995 Ebola: A Documentary Novel of Its First Explosion and 2002 Ebola: Through the Eyes of the People focused on individuals’ reactions to the 1976 Ebola outbreak in Zaire.[185]
As the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa developed in 2014, a number of popular self-published and well-reviewed books containing sensational and misleading information about the disease appeared in electronic and printed formats. The authors of some such books admitted that they lacked medical credentials and were not technically qualified to give medical advice. The World Health Organization and the United Nations stated that such misinformation had contributed to the spread of the disease.[187]
Other animals
Wild animals
Ebola has a high mortality among primates.[111] Frequent outbreaks of Ebola may have resulted in the deaths of 5,000 gorillas.[188] Outbreaks of Ebola may have been responsible for an 88 percent decline in tracking indices of observed chimpanzee populations in 420 square kilometer Lossi Sanctuary between 2002 and 2003.[189] Transmission among chimpanzees through meat consumption constitutes a significant risk factor, whereas contact between the animals, such as touching dead bodies and grooming, is not.[190]
Recovered carcasses from gorillas contain multiple Ebola virus strains, which suggest multiple introductions of the virus. Bodies decompose quickly and carcasses are not infectious after 3 to 4 days. Contact between gorilla groups is rare, suggesting transmission among gorilla groups is unlikely, and that outbreaks result from transmission between viral reservoir and animal populations.[189]
Domestic animals
In 2012 it was demonstrated that the virus can travel without contact from pigs to nonhuman primates, although the same study failed to achieve transmission in that manner between primates.[66][191]
Dogs may become infected with EBOV but not develop symptoms. Dogs in some parts of Africa scavenge for food, and they sometimes eat EBOV-infected animals and also the corpses of humans. A 2005 survey of dogs during an EBOV outbreak found that although they remain asymptomatic, about 32 percent of dogs closest to an outbreak showed a seroprevalence for EBOV versus 9 percent of those farther away.[192] The authors concluded that there were “potential implications for preventing and controlling human outbreaks.”
Reston virus
For more about the outbreak in Virginia, US, see Reston virus.
In late 1989, Hazelton Research Products’ Reston Quarantine Unit in Reston, Virginia, suffered an outbreak of fatal illness amongst certain lab monkeys. This lab outbreak was initially diagnosed as simian hemorrhagic fever virus (SHFV), and occurred amongst a shipment of crab-eating macaque monkeys imported from the Philippines. Hazelton’s veterinary pathologist sent tissue samples from dead animals to the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Maryland, where an ELISA test indicated the antibodies present in the tissue were a response to Ebola virus and not SHFV.[193] An electron microscopist from USAMRIID discovered filoviruses similar in appearance to Ebola in the tissue samples sent from Hazelton Research Products’ Reston Quarantine Unit.[194]
A US Army team headquartered at USAMRIID euthanized the surviving monkeys, and brought all the monkeys to Ft. Detrick for study by the Army’s veterinary pathologists and virologists, and eventual disposal under safe conditions.[193] Blood samples were taken from 178 animal handlers during the incident.[195] Of those, six animal handlers eventually seroconverted, including one who had cut himself with a bloody scalpel.[75][196] Despite its status as a Level‑4 organism and its apparent pathogenicity in monkeys, when the handlers did not become ill, the CDC concluded that the virus had a very low pathogenicity to humans.[196][197]
The Philippines and the United States had no previous cases of Ebola infection, and upon further isolation, researchers concluded it was another strain of Ebola, or a new filovirus of Asian origin, which they named Reston ebolavirus (RESTV) after the location of the incident.[193] Reston virus (RESTV) can be transmitted to pigs.[66] Since the initial outbreak it has since been found in nonhuman primates in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Italy,[198] where the virus had infected pigs.[199] According to the WHO, routine cleaning and disinfection of pig (or monkey) farms with sodium hypochlorite or detergents should be effective in inactivating the Reston ebolavirus. Pigs that have been infected with RESTV tend to show symptoms of the disease.
Researchers looking at slides of cultures of cells that make monoclonal antibodies. These are grown in a lab and the researchers are analyzing the products to select the most promising.
As of July 2015, there is no medication which has been proven to be safe and effective in treating Ebola. By the time the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa began in 2013, there were at least nine different candidate treatments. Several trials were conducted in late 2014 and early 2015, but some were abandoned due to lack of efficacy or lack of people to study.
Several promising vaccine candidates have been shown to protect nonhuman primates (usually macaques) against lethal infection.[26][162][204] These include replication-deficient adenovirus vectors, replication-competent vesicular stomatitis (VSV) and human parainfluenza (HPIV-3) vectors, and virus-like particle preparations. Conventional trials to study efficacy by exposure of humans to the pathogen after immunization are obviously not feasible in this case. For such situations, the FDA has established the “animal rule” allowing licensure to be approved on the basis of animal model studies that replicate human disease, combined with evidence of safety and a potentially potent immune response (antibodies in the blood) from humans given the vaccine. Phase I clinical trials involve the administration of the vaccine to healthy human subjects to evaluate the immune response, identify any side effects and determine the appropriate dosage.
In September 2014, an Ebola vaccine was used after exposure to Ebola and the person appears to have developed immunity without getting sick.[205]
In July 2015 early results from a trial of the vaccine VSV-EBOV showed effectiveness.[206]
Diagnostic tests
One issue which hinders control of Ebola is that diagnostic tests which are currently available require specialized equipment and highly trained personnel. Since there are few suitable testing centers in West Africa, this leads to delay in diagnosis. In December, a conference in Geneva will aim to work out which diagnostic tools could be to identify Ebola reliably and more quickly. The meeting, convened by the WHO and the non-profit Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, seeks to identify tests that can be used by untrained staff, do not require electricity or can run on batteries or solar power and use reagents that can withstand temperatures of 40 °C.[207]
On 29 November, a new 15-minute Ebola test was reported that if successful, “not only gives patients a better chance of survival, but it prevents transmission of the virus to other people.” The new equipment, about the size of a laptop and solar-powered, allows testing to be done in remote areas. The equipment is currently being tested in Guinea.[208]
On December 29, the FDA approved LightMix (R) Ebola Zaire rRT-PCR Test on patients with symptoms of Ebola. The report indicates it could help health care authorities around the world
The news that a 74-year-old British pensioner is to be publicly flogged in Saudi for drinking home made “wine ” has been greatly exaggerated in the press today. But there are many countries were alcohol is prohibition – see below for list
David Cameron to write to Saudi government over alcohol case
Prime Minister David Cameron will write to the Saudi Arabian government about a UK pensioner imprisoned for possessing alcohol, Downing Street has said.
It follows concern from the children of Karl Andree that the 74-year-old will receive 360 lashes for the crime.
But BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said Saudi and UK officials had assured him “there was never any question” of Mr Andree being flogged.
Meanwhile the UK government has withdrawn from a controversial prisons deal with Saudi Arabia.
The Plantation of Ulster (Irish: Plandáil Uladh; Ulster-Scots: Plantin o Ulster) was the organised colonisation (plantation) of Ulster – a province of Ireland – by people from Great Britain during the reign of King James I. Most of the colonists came from Scotland and England. Small private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606, while the official plantation began in 1609. An estimated half a million acres (2,000 km²) spanning counties Tyrconnell, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, Coleraine and Armagh, was confiscated from Gaelic chiefs, most of whom had fled Ireland in the 1607 Flight of the Earls. Most of counties Antrim and Down were privately colonised. Colonising Ulster with loyal settlers was seen as a way to prevent further rebellion, as it had been the region most resistant to English control during the preceding century.
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The Flight Of The Earls
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King James wanted the Plantation to be “a civilising enterprise” that would settle Protestants in Ulster, a land that was mainly Gaelic-speaking and of the Catholic faith. The Lord Deputy of Ireland, Arthur Chichester, also saw the Plantation as a scheme to anglicise the Irish.]Accordingly, the colonists (or “British tenants”) were required to be English-speaking and Protestant. Some of the undertakers and colonists however were Catholic and it has been suggested that a significant number of the Scots spoke Gaelic.The Scottish colonists were mostly Presbyterian[6] and the English mostly members of the Church of England. The Plantation of Ulster was the biggest of the Plantations of Ireland.
Ulster before plantation
Prior to its conquest in the Nine Years War of the 1590s, Ulster had been the most Gaelic part of Ireland, a province existing largely outside English control. The area was underdeveloped by mainland European standards of the time, and it possessed few towns or villages.
Throughout the 16th century, Ulster was viewed by the English as being “underpopulated” and undeveloped.An early attempt at plantation of the north of Ireland in the 1570s on the east coast of Ulster by Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, had failed (see Plantations of Ireland).
Many of the Gaelic Irish lived by “creaghting” (seasonal migration with their cattle) and as such, permanent habitations were uncommon.The wars fought among Gaelic clans and between the Gaelic and English undoubtedly contributed to depopulation. By 1600 (before the worst atrocities of the Nine Years War) Ulster’s total adult population according to Perceval-Maxwell was only 25,000 to 40,000 people.
The 16th century English conquest of Ireland was made piece by piece starting in the reign of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and only was completed after sustained warfare in the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). During these wars the force of the semi-independent chieftains was broken.
The Nine Years War of 1594-1603 provided the immediate background to the Plantation. A confederation of northern Gaelic Chieftains, led by Hugh O’Neill, resisted the imposition of English government in Ulster. Following an extremely costly series of campaigns by the English, including massacre and use of ruthless scorched earth tactics, the Nine Years War ended in 1603 with the surrender of Hugh O’Neill’s and Hugh O’Donnell‘s forces at the Treaty of Mellifont.[20] The terms of surrender granted to the rebels were generous, with the principal condition that lands formerly contested by feudal right and Brehon law be held under English law.
However, when Hugh O’Neill and other rebel chieftains left Ireland in the Flight of the Earls (1607) to seek Spanish help for a new rebellion, Lord Deputy Arthur Chichester seized their lands and prepared to colonise the province in a plantation. This would have included large grants of land to native Irish lords who had sided with the English during the war, for example Niall Garve O’Donnell. However, the plan was interrupted by the rebellion in 1608 of Sir Cahir O’Doherty of Inishowen, who captured and burned the town of Derry. The brief rebellion was suppressed by Sir Richard Wingfield at the Battle of Kilmacrennan. After O’Doherty’s death his lands in Inishowen were granted out by the state, and eventually escheated to the Crown. This episode prompted Chichester to expand his plans to expropriate the legal titles of all native landowners in the province.
Planning the plantation
The Plantation of Ulster was presented to James I as a joint “British”, or English and Scottish, venture to ‘pacify’ and ‘civilise’ Ulster, with at least half the settlers to be Scots. James had been King of Scots before he also became King of England and needed to reward his subjects in Scotland with land in Ulster to assure them they were not being neglected now that he had moved his court to London. In addition, long-standing contact and settlement between Ulster and the west of Scotland meant that Scottish participation was a practical necessity.
Six counties were involved in the official plantation – Donegal, Coleraine, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan and Armagh. In the two officially unplanted counties of Antrim and Down, substantial Presbyterian Scots settlement had been underway since at least 1606.
The plan for the plantation was determined by two factors. One was the wish to make sure the settlement could not be destroyed by rebellion as the first Munster Plantation had been in the Nine Years War. This meant that, rather than settling the planters in isolated pockets of land confiscated from Irish rebels, all of the land would be confiscated and then redistributed to create concentrations of British settlers around new towns and garrisons.
What was more, the new landowners were explicitly banned from taking Irish tenants and had to import workers from England and Scotland. The remaining Irish landowners were to be granted one quarter of the land in Ulster. The peasant Irish population was intended to be relocated to live near garrisons and Protestant churches. Moreover, the planters were barred from selling their lands to any Irishman and were required to build defences against any possible rebellion or invasion. The settlement was to be completed within three years. In this way, it was hoped that a defensible new community composed entirely of loyal British subjects would be created.
The second major influence on the Plantation was the negotiation among various interest groups on the British side. The principal landowners were to be “Undertakers”, wealthy men from England and Scotland who undertook to import tenants from their own estates. They were granted around 3000 acres (12 km²) each, on condition that they settle a minimum of 48 adult males (including at least 20 families), who had to be English-speaking and Protestant. Veterans of the Nine Years War (known as “Servitors”) led by Arthur Chichester successfully lobbied to be rewarded with land grants of their own.
Since these former officers did not have enough private capital to fund the colonisation, their involvement was subsidised by the twelve great guilds. Livery companies from the City of London were coerced into investing in the project, as were City of London guilds which were granted land on the west bank of the River Foyle, to build their own city (Londonderry near the older Derry) as well as lands in County Coleraine. They were known jointly as The Honourable The Irish Society. The final major recipient of lands was the Protestant Church of Ireland, which was granted all the churches and lands previously owned by the Roman Catholic Church. The British government intended that clerics from England and the Pale would convert the native population to Anglicanism.
Implementing the plantation
Scottish settlers had been migrating to Ulster for many centuries. Highland Gaelic Scottish mercenaries known as Gallowglass had been doing so since the 15th century and Presbyterian lowland Scots had been arriving since around 1600. From 1606 there was substantial lowland Scots settlement on disinhabited land in north Down, led by Hugh Montgomery and James Hamilton. In 1607 Sir Randall MacDonnell settled 300 Presbyterian Scots families on his land in Antrim.
From 1609 onwards, “British” Protestant immigrants arrived in Ulster through direct importation by Undertakers to their estates and also by a spread to unpopulated areas, through ports such as Derry and Carrickfergus. In addition there was much internal movement of settlers who did not like the original land allotted to them.Some planters settled on uninhabited and unexploited land, often building up their farms and homes on overgrown terrain that has been variously described as “wilderness” and “virgin” ground.
By 1622, a survey found there were 6,402 “British” adult males on Plantation lands, of whom 3,100 were English and 3,700 Scottish – indicating a total adult planter population of around 12,000. However another 4,000 Scottish adult males had settled in unplanted Antrim and Down, giving a total settler population of about 19,000.
Despite the fact that the Plantation had decreed that the Irish population be displaced, this did not generally happen in practice. Firstly, some 300 native landowners who had taken the English side in the Nine Years War were rewarded with land grants.Secondly, the majority of the Gaelic Irish remained in their native areas, but were now only allowed worse land than before the plantation. They usually lived close to and even in the same townlands as the settlers and the land they had farmed previously.] The main reason for this was that Undertakers could not import enough English or Scottish tenants to fill their agricultural workforce and had to fall back on Irish tenants. However, in a few heavily populated lowland areas (such as parts of north Armagh) it is likely that some population displacement occurred.
However, the Plantation remained threatened by the attacks of bandits, known as “wood-kerne“, who were often Irish soldiers or dispossessed landowners. In 1609, Chichester had 1,300 former Gaelic soldiers deported from Ulster to serve in the Swedish Arm. As a result, military garrisons were established across Ulster and many of the Plantation towns, notably Derry, were fortified. The settlers were also required to maintain arms and attend an annual military ‘muster’.
There had been very few towns in Ulster before the Plantation. Most modern towns in the province can date their origins back to this period. Plantation towns generally have a single broad main street ending in a square – often known as a “diamond”]The Diamond, Donegal being an attractive example.
Success and failures
The plantation was a mixed success from the point of view of the settlers. About the time the Plantation of Ulster was planned, the Virginia Plantation at Jamestown in 1607 started. The London guilds planning to fund the Plantation of Ulster switched and backed the London Virginia Company instead. Many “British” Protestant settlers went to Virginia or New England in America rather than to Ulster.
By the 1630s, there were 20,000 adult male “British” settlers in Ulster, which meant that the total settler population could have been as high as 80,000. They formed local majorities of the population in the Finn and Foyle valleys (around modern Londonderry and east Donegal), in north Armagh and in east Tyrone. Moreover, the unofficial settlements in Antrim and Down were thriving. What was more, the settler population grew rapidly, as just under half of the planters were women.
The attempted conversion of the Irish to Protestantism was generally a failure. One problem was language difference. The Protestant clerics imported were usually all monoglot English speakers, whereas the native population were usually monoglot Gaelic speakers. However, ministers chosen to serve in the plantation were required to take a course in the Irish language before ordination, and nearly 10% of those who took up their preferments spoke it fluently. Nevertheless, conversion was rare, despite the fact that, after 1621, Gaelic Irish natives could be officially classed as “British” if they converted to Protestantism.
Of those Catholics who did convert to Protestantism, many made their choice for social and political reasons.
By the 1630s it is suggested that the plantation was settling down with “tacit religious tolerance”, and in every county Old Irish were serving as royal officials and members of the Irish Parliament. However, in the 1640s, the Ulster Plantation was thrown into turmoil by civil wars that raged in Ireland, England and Scotland. The wars saw Irish rebellion against the planters, twelve years of bloody war, and ultimately the re-conquest of the province by the English parliamentary New Model Army that confirmed English and Protestant dominance in the province.
After 1630, Scottish migration to Ireland waned for a decade. In the 1630s, Presbyterians in Scotland staged a rebellion against Charles I for trying to impose Anglicanism. The same was attempted in Ireland, where most Scots colonists were Presbyterian. A large number of them returned to Scotland as a result. Charles I subsequently raised an army largely composed of Irish Catholics, and sent them to Ulster in preparation to invade Scotland. The English and Scottish parliaments then threatened to attack this army. In the midst of this, Gaelic Irish landowners in Ulster, led by Phelim O’Neill and Rory O’More, planned a rebellion to take over the administration in Ireland.
On 23 October 1641, the Ulster Catholics staged a rebellion. The mobilised natives turned on the “British” colonists, massacring about 4000 and expelling about 8,000 more. Marianne Elliott believes that “1641 destroyed the Ulster Plantation as a mixed settlement…” The initial leader of the rebellion, Phelim O’Neill, had actually been a beneficiary of the Plantation land grants. Most of his supporters’ families had been dispossessed and were likely motivated by the desire to recover their ancestral lands. Many colonists who survived rushed to the seaports and went back to Britain.
The massacres had a devastating and lasting impact on the Ulster Protestant population. A.T.Q. Stewart states that “The fear which it inspired survives in the Protestant subconscious as the memory of the Penal Laws or the Famine persists in the Catholic.” He also believed that “Here, if anywhere, the mentality of siege was born, as the warning bonfires blazed from hilltop to hilltop, and the beating drums summoned men to the defence of castles and walled towns crowded with refugees.”
In the summer of 1642, the Scottish Parliament sent some 10,000 soldiers to quell the Irish rebellion. In revenge for the massacres of Scottish colonists, the army committed many atrocities against the Catholic population. Based in Carrickfergus, the Scottish army fought against the rebels until 1650. In the northwest of Ulster, the colonists around Derry and east Donegal organised the Laggan Army in self-defence. The British forces fought an inconclusive war with the Ulster Irish led by Owen Roe O’Neill. All sides committed atrocities against civilians in this war, exacerbating the population displacement begun by the Plantation.
In addition to fighting the Ulster Irish, the “British” settlers fought each other in 1648-49 over the issues of the English Civil War. The Scottish Presbyterian army sided with the King and the Laggan Army sided with the English Parliament. In 1649-50, the New Model Army, along with some of the “British” colonists under Charles Coote, defeated both the Scottish forces and the Ulster Irish.
As a result, the English Parliamentarians or Cromwellians (after Oliver Cromwell) were generally hostile to Scottish Presbyterians after they re-conquered Ireland from the Catholic Confederates in 1649-53. The main beneficiaries of the postwar Cromwellian settlement were English Protestants like Sir Charles Coote, who had taken the Parliament’s side over the King or the Scottish Presbyterians. The Wars eliminated the last major Catholic landowners in Ulster.
Continued migration from Scotland to Ulster
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Dawn of the Ulster Scots Part 1
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Most of the Scottish planters came from southwest Scotland, but many also came from the unstable regions along the border with England. The plan was that moving Borderers (see Border Reivers) to Ireland (particularly to County Fermanagh) would both solve the Border problem and tie down Ulster. This was of particular concern to James VI of Scotland when he became King of England, since he knew Scottish instability could jeopardise his chances of ruling both kingdoms effectively.
Another wave of Scottish immigration to Ulster took place in the 1690s, when tens of thousands of Scots fled a famine (1696–1698) in the border region of Scotland. It was at this point that Scottish Presbyterians became the majority community in the province. Whereas in the 1660s, they made up some 20% of Ulster’s population (though 60% of its British population) by 1720 they were an absolute majority in Ulster.
Despite the fact that Scottish Presbyterians strongly supported the Williamites in the Williamite war in Ireland in the 1690s, they were excluded from power in the postwar settlement by the AnglicanProtestant Ascendancy. During the 18th century, rising Scots resentment over religious, political and economic issues fueled their emigration to the American colonies, beginning in 1717 and continuing up to the 1770s. Scots-Irish from Ulster and Scotland, and British from the borders region comprised the most numerous group of immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland to the colonies in the years before the American Revolution. An estimated 150,000 left northern Ireland. They settled first mostly in Pennsylvania and western Virginia, from where they moved southwest into the backcountry of upland territories in the South, the Ozarks and the Appalachian Mountains.
Legacy
Percentage of Catholics in each electoral division in Ulster. Based on census figures from 2001 (UK) and 2006 (ROI).
0-10% dark orange, 10-30% mid orange,
30-50% light orange, 50-70% light green,
70-90% mid green, 90-100% dark green
Ireland Protestants 1861–2011
The legacy of the Plantation remains disputed. According to one interpretation, it created a society segregated between native Catholics and settler Protestants in Ulster and created a Protestant and British concentration in north east Ireland. This argument therefore sees the Plantation as one of the long-term causes of the Partition of Ireland in 1921, as the north-east remained as part of the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland.
However the densest Protestant settlement took place in the eastern counties of Antrim and Down, which were not part of the Plantation, whereas Donegal, in the west, was planted but did not become part of Northern Ireland.
Therefore, it is also argued that the Plantation itself was less important in the distinctiveness of the North East of Ireland than natural population flow between Ulster and Scotland. A.T.Q. Stewart concluded, “The distinctive Ulster-Scottish culture, isolated from the mainstream of Catholic and Gaelic culture, would appear to have been created not by the specific and artificial plantation of the early seventeenth century, but by the continuous natural influx of Scottish settlers both before and after that episode…”
The Plantation of Ulster is also widely seen as the origin of mutually antagonistic Catholic/Irish and Protestant/British identities in Ulster. Richard English has written that, “not all of those of British background in Ireland owe their Irish residence to the Plantations… yet the Plantation did produce a large British/English interest in Ireland, a significant body of Irish Protestants who were tied through religion and politics to English power.”
However, going on surnames, others have concluded that Protestant and Catholic are poor guides to whether people’s ancestors were settlers or natives of Ulster in the 17th century.
The settlers also left a legacy in terms of language. The Ulster Scots dialect originated through the speech of lowland Scots settlers evolving and being influenced by both Hiberno-English and Irish Gaelic.[ Seventeenth century English settlers also contributed dialect words that are still in current use in Ulster.
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A mass murderer or spree killer is a killer who kills several victims in a short period of time
Umpqua Community College shooting
On October 1, 2015, a mass shooting took place at Umpqua Community College, near Roseburg, Oregon, United States.[5] Christopher Harper-Mercer, a 26-year-old student, fatally shot nine people and injured nine others on the campus.[6][7] He killed himself following a gun battle with responding police officers
Christopher Harper-Mercer
Whilst America reels from its latest mass /spree killings and the USA once again debates the rights and wrongs of gun control , here in the UK ( and Europe ) we have a long history of lone gunmen , whom for reasons beyond our comprehension decide to kill multiple people. Below is a profile of three of the most recent and deadly mass/spree killings in the UK.
This list does not include IRA mass murders , please see deaths in the troubles for details on IRA killings.
The Hungerford massacre was a series of random shootings in Hungerford, Berkshire, on 19 August 1987, when Michael Robert Ryan, an unemployed part-time antique dealer and handyman, fatally shot 16 people, including his own mother, before committing suicide. The shootings, committed using a handgun and two semi-automatic rifles, occurred at several locations, including a school he had once attended. A police officer died in the incident, and many people were injured. 15 other people were also shot but survived. No firm motive for the killings has ever been established. It remains one of the worst firearms atrocities in UK history.
A report was commissioned by the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd. The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 was passed in the wake of the massacre, which bans the ownership of semi-automatic centre-fire rifles and restricts the use of shotguns with a capacity of more than three cartridges
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The Hungerford Massacre: Michael Ryan’s Killing Spree
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Victims
Ryan left 16 people dead in Hungerford before taking his own life – and left a further 15 with wounds. The full list of those who died is as follows:
Susan Godfrey
Roland Mason
Sheila Mason
Kenneth Clements
Police Constable Roger Brereton
Abdul Rahman Khan
George White
Dorothy Ryan
Francis Butler
Marcus Bernard
Douglas Wainwright
Eric Vardy
Sandra Hill
Victor Gibbs
Myrtle Gibbs
Ian Playle
Perpetrator
The perpetrator of the Hungerford massacre was 27-year-old Michael Robert Ryan, an unemployed labourer and antiques dealer. He was born at Savernake Hospital in Marlborough, near Hungerford, on 18 May 1960.[2] His father, Alfred Henry Ryan, was 55 years old when Michael was born. Alfred Ryan died in Swindon in May 1985 at the age of 80. At the time of the shooting, Ryan lived with his mother, Dorothy, a dinner lady at the local primary school. He had no siblings. There was extensive press comment on this, suggesting the relationship was ‘unhealthy’ and that Ryan was “spoiled” by his mother. A Guardian headline described Ryan as a “mummy’s boy”.
House of the mother of gunman Michael Ryan
Ryan was a bachelor and had no children.
In the days following the massacre, the British tabloid press was filled with stories about Ryan’s life. Press biographies all stated that he had a near-obsessive fascination with firearms. The majority claimed that Ryan had possessed magazines about survival skills and firearms, Soldier of Fortune[3] being frequently named. Press reports claimed that he was obsessed with the Rambo film First Blood, which was erroneously described as featuring events similar to the Hungerford massacre, when in fact there was no evidence that Ryan even owned a video recorder, let alone that he had seen the film.[4]Sylvester Stallone stated “I carry the can for every lunatic in the world who goes crazy with a gun…but it wasn’t Rambo who sent Michael Ryan mad. In fact Rambo is the opposite of people like Ryan. He is always up against stronger opposition and never shoots first. Murderers are always saying, “God told me to kill” or “Jesus ordered me to kill” – so should the rest of us stop praying? There are always sick people out there who will hang their illness on to your hook.”[5]
Ryan’s true motives are unknown and it is unlikely that they will ever be known as Ryan killed himself and his mother, the only other person who knew him well. Dr John Hamilton of Broadmoor Hospital and Dr Jim Higgins, a consultant forensic psychiatrist for Mersey Regional Health Authority, both thought he was schizophrenic and psychotic. Hamilton stated “Ryan was most likely to be suffering from acute schizophrenia. He might have had a reason for doing what he did, but it was likely to be bizarre and peculiar to him.”[5] The local vicar the Reverend David Salt said on the first anniversary of the massacre “No one has ever explained why Michael Ryan did what he did. And that’s because, in my opinion, it is not something that can be explained.”[5] Ryan’s body was cremated at the Reading Crematorium on 3 September 1987, 15 days after he took his own life.
Licensed firearms ownership
Ryan had been issued a shotgun certificate in 1978, and on 11 December 1986 he was granted a firearms certificate covering the ownership of two pistols. He later applied to have the certificate amended to cover a third pistol, as he intended to sell one of the two he had acquired since the granting of the certificate (which was a Smith & Wesson.38-caliber revolver), and to buy two more. This was approved on 30 April 1987. On 14 July, he applied for another variation, to cover two semi-automatic rifles, which was approved on 30 July. At the time of the massacre, he was in licensed possession of the following weapons:
Ryan used the Beretta pistol, and the Type 56 and M1 rifles, in the massacre. The CZ pistol was being repaired by a dealer at the time.[7] The Type 56 was purchased from firearms dealer Mick Ranger.[6]
Shootings
Savernake Forest
The first shooting occurred seven miles (11 km) to the west of Hungerford in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire, at 12:30 in the afternoon of 19 August. Susan Godfrey, 35, had come to the area with her two children; Hannah (aged four years) and James (aged two years) from Reading, Berkshire for a family picnic. Ryan approached them with his gun raised and forced Susan to place the children in her Nissan Micra. He then marched her into bushes at gunpoint and shot her 13 times in the back, using the whole magazine of the Beretta pistol. Police were alerted to the scene after Godfrey’s two children approached a lone pensioner, Myra Rose. Hannah told Rose that a “man in black has shot our mummy.”[8] Authorities were still responding when Ryan continued his massacre.[9]
A4 petrol station
Ryan drove his silver Vauxhall Astra GTE from the forest along the A4 towards Hungerford, and stopped at a petrol station three miles (5 km) from the town. After waiting for a motorcyclist, Ian George, to depart from the garage, he began to pump petrol into his car before shooting at the female cashier, Kakaub Dean, missing her. Ryan entered the store and again tried to shoot her at close range with his M1 carbine,[7] but the rifle’s magazine had fallen out, probably because he inadvertently hit the release mechanism. He then left and continued towards Hungerford. Meanwhile, George, having witnessed the attempted shooting of Dean, stopped in the village of Froxfield and placed the first emergency call to the police, reporting that he had seen an attempted armed robbery.
Hungerford
South View and Fairview Road
At around 12:45, Ryan was seen at his home in South View, Hungerford. He loaded his car with his weapons, and attempted to drive away, but the car would not start. He then fired four shots into the right side of the car. Neighbours reported seeing him agitatedly moving between the house and the car before he returned indoors and shot his dog. Ryan then doused his home with the petrol he had bought earlier in the day and set his house alight. The fire subsequently destroyed three surrounding properties.[10] Ryan then removed the three shotguns from the boot of his car and shot and killed husband and wife Roland and Sheila Mason, who were in the back garden of their house: Sheila was shot once in the head and Roland six times in the back.[10]
Ryan walked towards the town’s common, critically injuring two more people; Marjorie Jackson was shot once in the lower back as she watched Ryan from the window of her living room and 14-year-old Lisa Mildenhall four times in both legs as she stood outside her home. Mildenhall later recalled that Ryan smiled at her before crouching and shooting. Mildenhall was treated in a nearby home and survived. [11] Meanwhile, Jackson pulled 77-year-old Dorothy Smith into her home as she rebuked Ryan for making noise. Jackson first called 999 before telephoning George White, a colleague of her husband Ivor Jackson. She informed White that she had been injured. Her husband insisted on returning home and George White offered to drive him. Jackson survived; Smith was uninjured.[12]
On the footpath towards the Common, Ryan encountered a family walking their dog.[13] Upon seeing Ryan with his weapons, 51-year-old Kenneth Clements raised his arms in a gesture of surrender as his family climbed over a wall and ran to safety. Ryan ignored the gesture before shooting Clements once at close range in the chest, killing him instantly. He fell to the ground still clutching the lead of his dog.[1]
Looping back to South View, Ryan fired 23 rounds at PC Roger Brereton, a police officer who had just arrived at the scene in response to reports of gunfire. Brereton was hit four times in his chest:[14] his car veered and crashed into a telephone pole. He died sitting in his patrol car, radioing to his colleagues that he had been shot.[15] Ryan next turned his weapons on Linda Chapman and her teenage daughter, Alison, who had turned onto South View moments after Brereton was shot. Ryan fired 11 bullets from his semi-automatic into their Volvo 360; the bullets travelled through the bonnet of the car, hitting and critically wounding Alison in her right thigh. Ryan also shot through the windscreen, hitting Linda with glass and a bullet in the left shoulder . As Ryan reloaded his weapons, Linda reversed put the car in reverse, exited South View and drove to the local doctor’s, parking outside the surgery. A bullet was subsequently found lodged at the base of Alison’s spine; during a subsequent operation to remove it, surgeons decided that the risk of paralysis was too great, and the bullet was left in place.[16]
After the Chapmans had driven away from South View, George White’s Toyota Crown drove towards Ryan; Ivor Jackson was in the passenger seat. Ryan opened fire with his Type 56, killing White with a single shot to the head and leaving Ivor Jackson severely injured in his head and chest. White’s Toyota crashed into the rear of PC Brereton’s police car. Jackson feigned death and hoped that Ryan would not move in for a closer look.[17]
Ryan moved along Fairview Road, killing Abdul Rahman Khan who was mowing his lawn. Further along the road he wounded his next door neighbour, Alan Lepetit, who had helped build Ryan’s gun display unit. He then shot at an ambulance which had just arrived, shattering the window and injuring paramedic Hazel Haslett, who sped away before Ryan was able to fire at her again.
Ryan shot at windows and at people who appeared on the street. Ryan’s mother, Dorothy, then drove into South View and was confronted by her burning house, her armed son, and dead and injured strewn along the street.[18] Ivor Jackson, who was still slumped in White’s Toyota.[14] He heard Dorothy Ryan open the door of White’s Toyota and say, “Oh, Ivor…” before attempting in vain to reason with her son. Ryan shot her dead as she raised her arms and pleaded with him not to shoot.[18] Ryan then wounded Betty Tolladay, who had stepped out of her house to admonish Ryan for making noise, as she had assumed he was shooting at paper targets in the woods.[19] He then ran towards Hungerford Common.
The police were now informed of the situation but the evacuation plan was not fully effective. Ryan’s movements were tracked via police helicopter almost an hour after he set his home alight, but this was hampered by media helicopters and journalists responding to reports of the attacks. A single police officer, who observed Ryan, recommended that armed police be used, as the weapons he saw were beyond the capabilities of Hungerford police station’s meagre firearms locker.
Hungerford Common and town centre
On Hungerford Common, Ryan went on to shoot and kill young father-of-two, Francis Butler, as he walked his dog, and shot at, but missed, teenager Andrew Cadle, who sped away on his bicycle.[1] Local taxi driver Marcus Barnard slowed down his Peugeot 309 as Ryan crossed in front of him. Ryan shot him with the Type 56, causing a massive injury to his head and killing him. Barnard had been redirected towards the Common by a police diversion as communication between ground forces and the police helicopter remained sporadic. Ann Honeybone was slightly injured by a bullet as she drove down Priory Avenue. Ryan then shot at John Storms, an ambulance repairman had parked on Priory Avenue.[20] Hit in the face, Storms crouched below the dashboard of his vehicle. He heard Ryan fire twice more at his van and felt the vehicle shake, but he was not hit again. A local builder named Bob Barclay ran from his nearby house and dragged Storms out of his van and into the safety of his home.[21] Ryan then walked towards the town centre of Hungerford, where police were attempting to evacuate the public. During this, Ryan killed 67-year-old Douglas Wainwright and injured his wife Kathleen in their car. Kathleen Wainwright would later say that her husband hit the brakes as soon as the windscreen shattered. Ryan fired eight rounds into the Wainwrights’ Datsun Bluebird,[22] hitting Douglas in the head and Kathleen in the chest and hand. Kathleen, seeing that her husband was dead and that Ryan was approaching the car whilst reloading, unbuckled her seatbelt and ran.[1] The pair were visiting their son, a policeman on the Hungerford force. Coincidentally, Constable Wainwright had signed Ryan’s request to extend his firearm certificate only weeks earlier. Next was Kevin Lance, who was shot in the upper arm[23] as he drove his Ford Transit along Tarrant’s Hill.[21]
Further up Priory Avenue, a 51-year-old handyman named Eric Vardy[24] and his passenger, Steven Ball, drove into Ryan’s path while travelling to a job in Vardy’s Leyland Sherpa. Ball later recalled that he saw a young man (Kevin Lance) clutching his arm and running into a narrow side street. As Ball focused on Lance, Ryan shattered the windscreen with a burst of bullets. Vardy was hit twice in the neck and upper torso[10] and crashed his van into a wall. Eric Vardy would later die of shock and haemorrhage from his neck wound. Ball suffered no serious injuries.[1]
Throughout his movements, Ryan had also opened fire on a number of other people, some of whom were grazed or walking wounded. Many of these minor casualties were not counted in the eventual total.
At around 13:30,[25] Ryan crossed Orchard Park Close into Priory Road, firing a single round at a passing red Renault 5. This shot fatally wounded the driver, 22-year-old Sandra Hill.[26] A passing soldier, Carl Harries, rushed to Hill’s car and attempted in vain to apply first aid, but Hill died in his arms.[27]
After shooting Hill, Ryan shot his way into a house further down Priory Road and killed the occupants: Jack and Myrtle Gibbs. Jack Gibbs was killed instantly as he attempted to shield his wheelchair-bound wife, Myrtle, from Ryan with his own body. Myrtle succumbed to her injuries two days later. Ryan also fired shots into neighbouring houses from the Gibbs’ house, injuring Michael Jennings at 62 Priory Road and Myra Geater at 71 Priory Road.[1] Ryan continued down Priory Road where he spotted 34-year-old Ian Playle, who was returning from a shopping trip with his wife and two young children in their Ford Sierra. Playle crashed into a stationary car after being shot in the neck by Ryan. His wife and children were unhurt. Carl Harries again rushed over to administer first aid, but Playle’s wound proved to be fatal[1] as he died in an Oxford hospital two days later.[28]
Ryan barricaded himself in a classroom in the John O’Gaunt Community Technology College, where he had previously been a pupil. It was closed and empty for the summer holidays. Police surrounded the building and found a number of ground-staff and two children who had seen Ryan enter. They offered guidance to the police on how to enter, and of hiding places. Ryan shot at circling helicopters and waved what appeared to be an unpinned grenade through the window, though reports differ whether Ryan had one. Police attempted negotiations to coax Ryan out of the school, but these attempts failed. He refused to leave before knowing what happened to his mother, saying that her death was “a mistake”. At 18:52, Ryan committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with the Beretta pistol.[29] One of the statements Ryan made towards the end of the negotiations was widely reported: “Hungerford must be a bit of a mess. I wish I had stayed in bed.”[30]
Police response
Hungerford was policed by two sergeants and twelve constables, and on the morning of 19 August 1987 the duty cover for the section consisted of one sergeant, two patrol constables and one station duty officer.[31]
A number of factors hampered the police response:[15]
The telephone exchange could not handle the number of 999 calls made by witnesses.
The Thames Valley firearms squad were training 40 miles away.
The police helicopter was in for repair, though it was eventually deployed.
Only two phone lines were in operation at the local police station which was undergoing renovation.
Official Report
A report on this incident (the “Hungerford Report”) was commissioned by the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, from the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Colin Smith. The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988[32] was passed in the wake of the massacre, which bans the ownership of semi-automaticcentre-fire rifles and restricts the use of shotguns with a capacity of more than three cartridges (in magazine plus the breech). Ryan’s collection of weapons had been legally licensed, according to the Hungerford Report.
Notoriety
The Hungerford massacre remains, along with the 1989 Monkseaton shootings, the 1996 Dunblane school massacre, and the 2010 Cumbria shootings, one of the worst criminal atrocities involving firearms to occur in the United Kingdom. The Dunblane and Cumbria shootings had a similar number of fatalities, and in both cases the perpetrator killed themselves. Only one person died in the Monkseaton shootings, but 14 others were wounded, and the perpetrator did not commit suicide.
The Dunblane school massacre was one of the deadliest firearms incidents in UK history, when gunman Thomas Hamilton killed sixteen children and one teacher at Dunblane Primary School near Stirling, Scotland on 13 March 1996, before committing suicide.
Public debate about the killings centred on gun control laws, including public petitions calling for a ban on private ownership of handguns and an official enquiry, the Cullen Report. In response to this debate, two new firearms Acts were passed, which effectively made private ownership of handguns illegal in Britain.
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The Dunblane Massacre
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Shooting
Deaths
1. Victoria Elizabeth Clydesdale (age 5)
2. Emma Elizabeth Crozier (age 5)
3. Melissa Helen Currie (age 5)
4. Charlotte Louise Dunn (age 5)
5. Kevin Allan Hasell (age 5)
6. Ross William Irvine (age 5)
7. David Charles Kerr (age 5)
8. Mhairi Isabel MacBeath (age 5)
9. Brett McKinnon (age 6)
10. Abigail Joanne McLennan (age 5)
11. Gwen Mayor (age 45)
—Primary School Teacher
12. Emily Morton (age 5)
13. Sophie Jane Lockwood North (age 5)
14. John Petrie (age 5)
15. Joanna Caroline Ross (age 5)
16. Hannah Louise Scott (age 5)
17. Megan Turner (age 5)
On the morning of Wednesday 13 March 1996, ex-scout leader Thomas Hamilton, aged 43, was witnessed scraping ice off his van at approximately 8:15 am outside his home at Kent Road in Stirling.[2] He left a short time afterwards and drove approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) north[3] to Dunblane in his white van. He arrived on the grounds of Dunblane Primary School at around 9:30 am and parked his van near to a telegraph pole in the car park of the school. Hamilton severed the cables at the bottom of the telegraph pole, which served nearby houses, with a set of pliers before making his way across the car park towards the school buildings.[2]
Hamilton headed towards the northwest side of the school to a door near toilets and the school gymnasium. After gaining entry, he made his way to the gymnasium armed with four legally held handguns;[4] two 9mmBrowning HP pistols and two Smith & Wesson M19.357 Magnum revolvers.[2] He was also carrying 743 cartridges of ammunition.[1] In the gym was a class of twenty-eight Primary 1 pupils preparing for a P.E. lesson in the presence of three adult members of staff.[5] Before entering the gymnasium, it is believed he fired two shots into the stage of the assembly hall and the girls’ toilet.[2] Upon entering the gymnasium, Hamilton was about to be confronted by Eileen Harrild, the P.E. teacher in charge of the lesson, before he started shooting rapidly and randomly. He shot Harrild, who sustained injuries to her arms and chest as she attempted to protect herself, and continued shooting into the gymnasium.[2][5] Harrild managed to stumble into the open plan store cupboard at the side of the gym along with several injured children. Gwen Mayor, the teacher of the Primary 1 class, was shot and killed instantly.[2] The other present adult, Mary Blake, a supervisory assistant, was shot in the head and both legs but also managed to make her way to the store cupboard with several of the children in front of her.[2]
From entering the gymnasium and walking a few steps, Hamilton had fired 29 shots with one of the pistols and killed one child and injured several others. Four injured children had managed to shelter in the store cupboard along with the injured Harrild and Blake.[2] Hamilton then advanced up the east side of the gym, firing six shots as he walked and then fired eight shots towards the opposite end of the gym. He then proceeded towards the centre of the gym, firing 16 shots at point-blank range at a group of children who had been incapacitated by his earlier shots.[2]
A Primary 7 pupil who was walking along the west side of the gym building at the time heard loud bangs and screams and looked inside the gym. Hamilton shot in his direction and the pupil was injured by flying glass before running away.[2] From this position, Hamilton fired 24 cartridges in various directions. He fired shots towards a window next to the fire exit at the south-east end of the gym, possibly at an adult who was walking across the playground, and then fired four more shots in the same direction after opening the fire exit door.[2] Hamilton then exited the gym briefly through the fire exit, firing another four shots towards the cloakroom of the library, striking and injuring Grace Tweddle, another member of staff at the school.[2]
In the mobile classroom closest to the fire exit where Hamilton was standing, Catherine Gordon saw him firing shots and instructed her Primary 7 class to get down onto the floor before Hamilton fired nine bullets into the classroom, striking books and equipment. One bullet passed through a chair where a child had been sitting seconds beforehand.[2] Hamilton then reentered the gym, dropped the pistol he was using, and equipped himself with one of the two revolvers. He put the barrel of the gun in his mouth, pointed it upwards, and pulled the trigger, killing himself.[2] A total of 32 people sustained gunshot wounds inflicted by Hamilton over a 3–4 minute period, 16 of whom were fatally wounded in the gymnasium, which included Gwen Mayor and 15 of her pupils. One other child died later en route to hospital.[2]
Emergency response
The first call to the police was made at 9:41 a.m.[5] by the headmaster of the school, Ronald Taylor, who had been alerted by assistant headmistress Agnes Awlson to the possibility of a gunman on the school premises. Awlson had informed Taylor that she heard screaming inside the gymnasium and had seen what she thought to be cartridges on the ground, whilst Taylor had been aware of loud noises which he assumed to have been from builders on site that he had not been informed of. Whilst on his way to the gym, the shooting ended and when he saw what had happened ran back to his office and told deputy headmistress Fiona Eadington to call for ambulances, which was made at 9:43 a.m.
The first ambulance arrived on the scene at 9:57 a.m. in response to the call made at 9:43 a.m. Another medical team from Dunblane Health Centre arrived at 10:04 a.m. which included doctors and a nurse, who were involved in the initial resuscitation of the injured. Medical teams from the health centres in the nearby towns of Doune and Callander arrived shortly afterwards. The accident and emergency department at Stirling Royal Infirmary had also been informed of a major incident involving multiple casualties at 9:48 a.m. and the first of a number of medical teams from the hospital arrived at 10:15 am. Another medical team from the Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary arrived at 10:35 a.m.
By approximately 11:10 a.m., all of the injured victims had been taken to Stirling Royal Infirmary for medical treatment; one victim died en route to the hospital.[5] Upon examination, several of the patients were transferred to Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary in Falkirk and some to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.[6]
Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre, and the 2010 Cumbria shootings, it remains one of the deadliest criminal acts involving firearms in the history of the United Kingdom.
Thomas Watt Hamilton, Sr. (father)
Agnes Graham Hamilton (mother)
There had been a number of complaints to police regarding Hamilton’s behaviour towards the young boys who attended the youth clubs he directed. Claims had been made of his having taken photographs of semi-naked boys without parental consent.[7]
Hamilton had briefly been a Scout leader – initially, in July 1973, he was appointed assistant leader with the 4th/6th Stirling of the Scout Association. In the autumn of that year, he was seconded as leader to the 24th Stirlingshire troop, which was being revived. However, several complaints were made about his leadership, including two occasions when Scouts were forced to sleep with Hamilton in his van during hill-walking expeditions. Within months, on 13 May 1974, Hamilton’s Scout Warrant was withdrawn, with the County Commissioner stating that he was “suspicious of his moral intentions towards boys”. He was blacklisted by the Association and thus thwarted in a later attempt he made to become a Scout leader in Clackmannanshire.[8]
He claimed in letters that rumours about him led to the failure of his shop business in 1993, and in the last months of his life he complained again that his attempts to organise a boys’ club were subject to persecution by local police and the scout movement. Among those to whom he complained were the Queen and the local Member of Parliament, Michael Forsyth. In the 1980s, another MP, George Robertson, who lived in Dunblane, had complained to Forsyth about Hamilton’s local boys’ club, which his son had attended. On the day following the massacre, Robertson spoke of having argued with Hamilton “in my own home”.[9]
On 19 March 1996, six days after the massacre, the body of Thomas Hamilton was cremated in a private ceremony.[10]
Political impact
Gun control
The Cullen Inquiry into the massacre recommended that the government introduce tighter controls on handgun ownership[11] and consider whether an outright ban on private ownership would be in the public interest in the alternative (though club ownership would be maintained).[12] The report also recommended changes in school security[13] and vetting of people working with children under 18.[14] The Home Affairs Select Committee agreed with the need for restrictions on gun ownership but stated that a handgun ban was not appropriate.
A small group, known as the Gun Control Network was founded in the aftermath of the shootings and was supported by some parents of victims at Dunblane and of the Hungerford Massacre.[15] Bereaved families and their friends also initiated a campaign to ban private gun ownership, named the Snowdrop Petition (because March is snowdrop time in Scotland), which gained 705,000 signatures in support and was supported by some newspapers, including the Sunday Mail, a Scottish newspaper whose own petition to ban handguns had raised 428,279 signatures within five weeks of the massacre.
In response to this public debate, the then-current Conservative government of John Major introduced the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997, which banned all cartridge ammunition handguns with the exception of .22 calibre single-shot weapons in England, Scotland and Wales. Following the 1997 General Election, the Labour government of Tony Blair introduced the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997, banning the remaining .22 cartridge handguns in England, Scotland and Wales, and leaving only muzzle-loading and historic handguns legal, as well as certain sporting handguns (e.g. “Long-Arms”) that fall outside the Home Office Definition of a “handgun” because of their dimensions. The ban does not affect Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands.
Security in schools, particularly primary schools, was improved in response to the Dunblane massacre and two other violent incidents south of the Border which occurred at around the same time: the murder of Philip Lawrence, a head teacher in London, and the wounding of six children and Lisa Potts, a nursery teacher, at a Wolverhampton nursery school. Many schools put up high perimeter fences and door entry systems which exist to this day.
Criticism of the judiciary
Evidence of previous police interaction with Hamilton was presented to the Cullen Inquiry but later sealed under a closure order to prevent publication for 100 years.[16] The official reason for sealing the documents was to protect the identities of children, but this led to accusations of a coverup intended to protect the reputations of officials.[17] Following a review of the closure order by the Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd, edited versions of some of the documents were released to the public in October 2005. Four files containing post mortems, medical records and profiles on the victims remained sealed under the 100 year order to avoid distressing the relatives and survivors.[18]
The released documents revealed that in 1991, following Hamilton’s Loch Lomond summer camp, complaints were made to Central Scotland Police and were investigated by the Child Protection Unit. Hamilton was reported to the Procurator Fiscal for consideration of ten charges, including assault, obstructing police and contravention of the Children and Young Persons Act 1937. No action was taken.[19]
Media coverage
Books
Two books – Dunblane: Our Year of Tears by Peter Samson and Alan Crow (Mainstream, 1996) and Dunblane: Never Forget by Mick North (Mainstream, 2000) – both give accounts of the massacre from the perspective of those most directly affected. Another book, Dunblane Unburied by Sandra Uttley (Book Publishing World 2006), whose publication was funded by a shooters’ organisation, the Sportsman’s Association,[20] examines Hamilton’s relationship with members of Central Scotland Police and presents a disturbing and largely conspiratorial account to the events leading up to the massacre. Uttley alleges a major high-level cover-up and calls for a new Public Inquiry to establish the truth. Uttley questions how Thomas Hamilton managed to tyrannize and intimidate so many boys at his clubs and summer camps for years without being stopped even though many parents complained to the police and councils and why Central Scotland Police were allowed to carry out the investigation when they were implicated. On 1 March 2006 Creation Books released Predicate: The Dunblane Massacre — Ten Years After by Peter Sotos.[21]
Television
On the Sunday following the shootings the morning service from Dunblane Cathedral, conducted by Rev. Colin MacIntosh, was broadcast live by the BBC. The BBC also had live transmission of the Memorial Service on 9 October 1996, also held at Dunblane Cathedral.
A documentary “Crimes That Shook Britain” featured the massacre.
A documentary Dunblane: Remembering our Children (produced by Chameleon Television), which featured many of the parents of the children who had been killed, was broadcast by STV and ITV at the time of the first anniversary.
At the time of the tenth anniversary in March 2006 two documentaries were broadcast. Channel 5 screened Dunblane — a decade on (made by Hanrahan Media) and BBC Scotland showed Remembering Dunblane.
Two days after the shooting, a vigil and prayer session was held at Dunblane Cathedral which was attended by people of all faiths.[1] On Mothering Sunday, on 17 March, Queen Elizabeth II and her daughter Anne, Princess Royal attended a memorial service at Dunblane Cathedral.[1]
Seven months after the massacre in October 1996, the families of the victims organised their own memorial service at Dunblane Cathedral in which more than 600 people attended, including Prince Charles who was representing the Royal Family.[1] The service was broadcast live on BBC1 and conducted by James Whyte, a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.[22] Television presenter Lorraine Kelly, who had befriended some of the victims’ families whilst reporting on the massacre for GMTV, was a guest speaker at the service.[1]
In August 1997, two varieties of rose were unveiled and planted as the centrepiece for a roundabout in Dunblane.[23] The two roses were developed by Cockers Roses of Aberdeen;[24] the ‘Gwen Mayor’[25] rose and ‘Innocence’[26] rose, in memory of the children killed. A snowdrop originally found in a Dunblane garden in the 1970s was renamed ‘Sophie North’ in memory of one of the victims of the massacre.[27][28]
The gymnasium at the school was demolished on 11 April 1996 and replaced by a memorial garden.[29] Two years after the massacre on 14 March 1998, a memorial garden was opened at Dunblane Cemetery, where Gwen Mayor and twelve of the children who were killed are buried.[30] The garden features a fountain with a plaque of the names of those killed.[30] Stained glass windows in memory of the victims were placed in three local churches, St Blane’s and the Church of the Holy Family in Dunblane and the nearby Lecropt Kirk as well as at the Dunblane Youth and Community Centre.
The National Association of Primary Education commissioned a sculpture, “Flame for Dunblane”, created by Walter Bailey from a single yew tree, which was placed in the National Forest, near the village of Moira, Leicestershire.
Commemoration stone
The Dunblane Commemoration standing stone.
In the nave of Dunblane Cathedral is a standing stone by the monumental sculptor Richard Kindersley. It was commissioned by the Kirk Session as the Cathedral’s commemoration and dedicated at a service on 12 March 2000. It is a Clashach stone two metres high on a Caithness flagstone base. The quotations on the stone are by E. V. Rieu (“He called a little child to him…”), Richard Henry Stoddard (“…the spirit of a little child”), Bayard Taylor (“But still I dream that somewhere there must be The spirit of a child that waits for me”) and W. H. Auden (“We are linked as children in a circle dancing”).
Musical tributes
With the consent of Bob Dylan, the musician Ted Christopher wrote a new verse for “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” in memory of the Dunblane school children and their teacher. The recording of the revised version of the song, which included brothers and sisters of the victims singing the chorus and Mark Knopfler on guitar, was released on 9 December 1996 in the UK, and reached number 1. The proceeds went to charities for children.[31] Pipe Sergeant Charlie Glendinning of the City of Washington Pipe Band (USA) composed “Dunblane,” a tune for bagpipes, which Bonnie Rideout arranged for two violins and viola. It was recorded on “Rant,” an album produced by Maggie’s Music.[32] Pipe Major Robert Mathieson of the Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band composed a pipe tune in tribute, “The Bells of Dunblane.”[33] Australian band The Living End references the Dunblane massacre in their song “Monday” off their self-titled CD released in 1998.
The Cumbria shootings was a killing spree that occurred on 2 June 2010 when a lone gunman, Derrick Bird, killed 12 people and injured 11 others before killing himself in Cumbria, England. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre, the 1989 Monkseaton shootings, and the 1996 Dunblane school massacre, it is one of the worst criminal acts involving firearms in British history.
Bird, a 52-year-old local taxi driver, was later found dead in a wooded area, having abandoned his vehicle in the village of Boot. Two weapons that appeared to have been used in the shootings were recovered. A total of 30 different crime scenes were investigated. The event was the worst shooting incident in Britain since the Dunblane school massacre, in which 18 people died.
Queen Elizabeth II paid tribute to the victims and the Prince of Wales later visited Whitehaven in the wake of the tragedy. Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May also visited West Cumbria. A memorial fund has been set up to aid victims and affected communities.
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CCTV footage leaked of Derrick Bird driving and shooting through Whitehaven, Cumbria
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Timeline
Targeted shootings
In the early hours of 2 June, Bird left his home in Rowrah and drove his Citroën Xsara Picasso to his twin brother David’s home in Lamplugh,[5] where he shot him eleven times in the head and body with a .22 rifle, killing him.
He then went to Frizington, arriving at the home of the family solicitor, Kevin Commons, whom he prevented from leaving in his vehicle before firing twice with a double-barreled shotgun, hitting Commons once in the shoulder. Commons staggered out of his car and onto the entrance to his farmyard, where Bird killed him with two gunshots to the head from his rifle.[1][6][7][8] At 10:20 BST, the police were telephoned. Bird then moved on towards Whitehaven.[9] A witness called the Cumbria Constabulary to report Commons’ shooting, although her call was delayed by several minutes after she asked neighbours what she should do. She also erroneously described Bird as being armed with an air rifle despite being able to hear the gunshots.[1]
After killing Commons, Bird went to a friend’s residence to retrieve a shotgun he loaned, although he was answered by the friend’s wife, who didn’t have access to it.[1] Afterwards, at 10:33, Bird drove to a taxi rank on Duke Street, Whitehaven.[4][2][6] There, he called over Darren Rewcastle, another taxi driver who was previously known to Bird and had conflicts with him over his behaviour, poaching fares, and an incident where Rewcastle damaged the tyres on Bird’s taxi and openly boasted about it. When Rewcastle approached his taxi, Bird shot him twice at point-blank range with the .22 rifle, hitting him in the lower face, neck, and abdomen. Rewcastle died of his injuries, being the only person to die in Whitehaven.[1][6][7]
Soon after killing Rewcastle, Bird then drove alongside another taxi driver, Donald Reid, shooting and wounding him in the back. He then made a loop back to the taxi rank and fired twice at Reid as he waited for emergency personnel, missing him. Next, Bird drove away from the taxi rank, stopped alongside another taxi driver named Paul Wilson as he walked down Scotch Street, and called him over to his vehicle as he did with Rewcastle; when Wilson answered his call, Bird shot him in the right side of his face with the shotgun, severely wounding him. As a result of the shootings, unarmed officers at the local police station were informed and began following Bird’s taxi as it drove onto Coach Road. There, he fired his shotgun at a passing taxi, injuring the male driver, Terry Kennedy, and the female passenger, Emma Percival. Bird was then able to flee the officers after he aimed his shotgun at two of them, forcing them to take cover. However, he did not fire, and instead took advantage of the unarmed officers’ distraction to escape.[1]
Random shootings
In the wake of the Whitehaven shootings, residents in the town and also the neighbouring towns of Egremont and Seascale were immediately urged to stay indoors.[10] A massive manhunt for Bird was launched by the Cumbria Constabulary, which was assisted by Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers.[11] Bird proceeded to drive through several local towns, firing apparently at random, calling over a majority of the victims to his taxi before shooting them.
Near Egremont, Bird tried to shoot Jacqueline Williamson as she walked her dog, but she managed to escape without injury. Upon arriving in Egremont, Bird stopped alongside Susan Hughes as she walked home from shopping, and shot her in the chest and abdomen with the shotgun. He then got out of his taxi and got into a struggle with her before fatally shooting her in the back of the head with his rifle. Then, after driving a short distance onto Bridge End, Bird fired the shotgun at Kenneth Fishburn as he walked in the opposite direction; Fishburn suffered fatal wounds to the head and neck.[1][6][7] This was followed by the shooting of Leslie Hunter, who was called over to Bird’s taxi before being shot in the face at close range with the shotgun, then a second time in the back after he turned away to protect himself. Hunter survived his injuries.
Bird then went south towards Thornhill, where he fired his shotgun at a teenage girl named Ashley Glaister, but missed her. He then passed Carleton and travelled onto the village of Wilton, where he tried to visit Jason Carey, a member of a diving club that Bird was also in, but left when Carey’s wife came to the door. Soon after, he shot Jennifer Jackson once in the chest with his shotgun and twice in the head with his rifle, killing her. Bird then drove past Town Head Farm, but turned back towards it and fired his shotgun, fatally hitting Jennifer Jackson’s husband James in the head and wounding a woman named Christine Hunter-Hall in the back. He then drove back to Carleton and killed Isaac Dixon, a mole-catcher who was talking to a farmer in a field when he was fatally shot twice at close range by Bird’s shotgun.[1][6][7] A former semi-professional rugby league player, Garry Purdham, was soon shot and killed while working in a field outside the Red Admiral Hotel at Boonwood, near Gosforth.[1][6][7][12]
Bird then drove towards Seascale. Along the way, he began driving slowly and waved other motorists to pass him. He then shot a motorist named James “Jamie” Clark, who died of a shotgun wound to the head, although it was not clear at first whether he died from the gunshot wound or the subsequent car crash.[1][6][7] Bird then encountered another motorist named Harry Berger at a narrow, one-way passage underneath a railway bridge. When Berger allowed Bird to enter first, Bird fired at him as he passed by, shooting him twice and causing severe injury to his right arm. Three armed response vehicles attempting to pursue Bird were later blocked out of the tunnel by Berger’s vehicle, and nearby citizens had to push it away in order to let them pass.
Meanwhile, Bird had driven along the seafront and onto Drigg Road, where he fired twice at Michael Pike, a retired man who was bicycling in front of him; the first shot missed, but the second hit Pike in the neck and proved to be fatal. Seconds later, while on the same street, Bird fatally shot Jane Robinson in the neck and head with his shotgun at point-blank range after apparently calling her over.[1][6]
After killing Jane Robinson, who was the last fatality in the shootings, witnesses described Bird as driving increasingly erratically down the street. At 11:33, Police Constables Phillip Lewis and Andrew Laverack spotted Bird as his car passed by their vehicle. They attempted to pursue him, but were delayed in roadworks and lost sight of him a minute later. Soon afterwards, Bird drove into Eskdale Valley, where he wounded Jackie Lewis in the head with his rifle as she was out walking. At this point, his route had become clearer to police during their search for him. Next, Bird stopped alongside Fiona Moretta, who leaned into his passenger window, believing he was going to ask her for directions. Instead, he injured her in the face with the rifle, then continued onward towards the village of Boot.
Arriving there, Bird briefly stopped at a business premises called Sims Travel and fired his rifle at nearby people, but missed. Continuing further into the village, he continued firing at random people and missing. Bird eventually fired his rifle at two men, hitting and severely wounding Nathan Jones in the face. This was shortly followed by a couple who had stopped their car to take a photo; Samantha Chrystie suffered severe wounds to the face from a rifle bullet. Chrystie’s partner, Craig Ross, fled upon Bird’s instruction and was then fired at, but escaped uninjured.[1]
Suspect’s suicide
Shortly after firing at two cyclists, Bird crashed his taxi into a number of vehicles and a stone wall, damaging a tyre.[1] Briefly continuing onward, he abandoned his car when it ran out of petrol at a beauty spot, called Doctor Bridge, near Boot. A nearby family of four, who were unaware of the shootings, offered assistance to Bird, but were quickly turned down and advised to leave.[6][13] He removed the rifle from his taxi and walked over a bridge leading into Oak How Woods.[1] Bird was last seen alive at 12:30; shortly after 12:30, police confirmed that there had been a number of fatalities and that they were searching for a suspect. Police later announced they were searching for the driver of a dark-grey Citroën Xsara Picasso,[4] driven by the suspect, who was identified as Bird.[8] At around 12:36, armed police officers and dog handlers arrived at the scene of Bird’s abandoned taxi and began a search in and around the wooded area.[1]
At 14:00, Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde[14] announced that a body, believed to be that of Bird, had been found in a wooded area, along with a rifle. Police confirmed shortly afterwards that members of the public who had taken shelter during the incident could now resume their normal activities.[15][16]
During the manhunt, the gates of the nearby Sellafieldnuclear reprocessing plant were closed as a precaution, and the afternoon shift was told not to come to work. This was the first lock-down in the history of the plant.[4]
Aftermath
At 15:00, Prime Minister David Cameron, taking his first session of Prime Minister’s Questions, announced that “at least five” people had died, including the gunman.[17] Later that evening, a police press conference in Whitehaven announced that 12 people had been killed, that a further 11 people were injured, three of them critically,[17] and that the suspect had killed himself. They also confirmed that two weapons (a double-barrelled shotgun and a .22-calibre rifle with a scope and silencer) had been used by the suspect in the attacks and that thirty different crime scenes were being investigated.[4] The shootings were considered the worst mass-casualty shooting incident since the 1996 Dunblane school massacre, which left 18 people dead.[18] A report later determined that Bird fired a total of at least 47 rounds during most of the shootings (29 from his shotgun, 18 from his .22 rifle). Six live .22 rounds were also found on Bird’s body, while an additional eight were found held inside the rifle. A search in Bird’s home later recovered over 750 rounds of live .22 ammunition, 240 live shotgun shells, and a large amount of financial paperwork.[1]
Over the next few hours, Bird’s shooting of his brother and solicitor was revealed. The police stated that the shootings took place along a 15-mile (24 km) stretch of the Cumbrian coastline.[13] Helicopters from neighbouring police forces were used in the manhunt,[4] while those from the RAF Search and Rescue Force and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance responded to casualties. A major incident was declared by North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust at West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven, with the accident and emergency department at the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, on full incident stand-by.[4]
Derrick Bird (27 November 1957 – 2 June 2010) was born to Joseph and Mary Bird. He had a twin brother, David, and an older brother.[22] He lived alone in Rowrah,[23][24] and had two sons with a woman from whom he separated in the mid-1990s. He became a grandfather in May 2010,[25] and was variously described as a popular and quiet man who worked as a self-employed taxi driver in Whitehaven.[24][23]
It was reported that he had previously sought help from a local hospital due to his fragile mental state, although these reports were unconfirmed.[26] Bird had held a shotgun certificate since 1974 and had renewed it several times, most recently in 2005, and had held a firearms certificate for a rifle from 2007 onward.[27][28] He was being investigated by HM Revenue and Customs.[29] The body of Bird was formally identified at Furness General Hospital in Barrow-in-Furness,[30] and he was cremated at a private service on 18 June 2010.[31]
Possible motives
There has been speculation that Bird may have had a grudge against people associated with the Sellafield nuclear power plant that he worked for as a joiner, resigning in 1990 due to an allegation of theft of wood from the plant. He was subsequently convicted, and given a 12-month suspended sentence.[32] Three of the dead were former employees although there is no evidence that any were involved with his resignation.[33]
Terry Kennedy, a fellow taxi driver who described himself as one of Bird’s best friends, and was wounded by Bird, has claimed that Bird had a relationship with a Thai girl he met on holiday in Pattaya, Thailand. It has been further claimed by another friend of Bird that he had sent £1,000 to the girl, who subsequently ended their relationship via a text message; he added that Bird had been “made a fool out of”.[34]
It has also been speculated that Bird had been involved with a family dispute over his father’s will. The speculation was heightened when it was revealed that Bird had targeted both his twin, David, and the family’s solicitor, Kevin Commons, in his attacks, killing both.[35]
Police investigating the killings have also found that Bird was the subject of an ongoing tax investigation by HM Revenue and Customs for tax evasion and the threat of possible future prosecution and punishment might have contributed to his action.[36] According to Mark Cooper, a fellow taxi driver who had known him for 15 years, Bird had accumulated £60,000 in a secret bank account and was worried he would be sent to prison for hiding the cash from HM Revenue & Customs.[37]
Reactions
Official responses and visits
Prime Minister David Cameron was joined by several other MPs in expressing the House of Commons members’ shock and horror at the events during Prime Minister’s Questions.[38]
On the evening of 2 June, the Queen said she was “deeply shocked” by the shootings and shared the nation’s “grief and horror”.[39]
The Home Secretary, Theresa May MP, expressed her regret at the deaths and paid tribute to the response of the emergency services. The Cabinet met to discuss the shootings and May later made a statement on the Cumbria incident to the House of Commons on 3 June 2010.[40] Cameron and May visited the affected region on 4 June 2010 to meet victims, officials and local people.[41]
Jamie Reed, the local Member of Parliament for Copeland, called the incident the “blackest day in our community’s history”.[42]
Prince Charles visited Whitehaven on 11 June 2010 to meet members of the community affected by the tragedy.[43]
Media
BBC One altered their programming to broadcast two BBC News Specials about the shootings, at 14:15 and 19:30 on the same day.[44] The ITV continuing drama, Coronation Street was cancelled on 2, 3, and 4 June as it contained a violent storyline featuring a gun siege in a factory. The episodes were rescheduled to run the following week.[45][46] An episode of the Channel 4 panel game You Have Been Watching, which was due to be broadcast on 3 June 2010, was postponed because it was a crime special.[47]
In addition, pop singer Lady Gaga came under criticism after performing a murder scene at her concert in Manchester – as part of her Monster Ball Tour – just hours after the shooting spree.[48] Comedian Frankie Boyle also attracted criticism for referring to the shootings on the day.[49]The Times journalist Giles Coren suggested Bird should read a copy of his book on anger management. He later apologised for the remark. Both Coren’s initial remark and subsequent apology were made on his Twitter feed.[50]
Memorials
On 9 June 2010, a week after the incident, memorial services were held in the West Cumbria towns affected by the shootings followed by a minute’s silence at midday. Soon after the minute’s silence taxi drivers on Duke St. sounded their horns for one minute to show their respect. The minute’s silence for the Cumbria victims was also marked prior to David Cameron’s second Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament.[51] The funerals of the majority of Bird’s victims were held at various churches in West Cumbria.[52][53]
Memorial fund
A memorial fund has been established by the Cumbria Community Foundation to aid victims and communities affected by the West Cumbria shootings
Great to see that Alan Henning’s home town is to honour his memory and open a memorial garden to this kind , beautiful human – who was killed by the scum of the earth , whilst helping others. His memory will live long and one day Karma will catch up with those responsible for his brutal, pointless murder.
Karma always collects its debts
A memorial to murdered Islamic State hostageAlan Henningwill be opened on Tuesday.
The circular garden, atEccles Recreation Ground, has been created at the site where hundreds of Salfordians gathered for a moving candlelit vigil the weekend that news of Alan’s brutal killing was announced in October 2014.
He had been kidnapped while delivering aid to Syria in December 2013.
Ceremonial Mayor ofSalfordCouncillor Peter Dobbs will open proceedings at 6pm
A “prayer point” was set up in Eccles town centre for the anniversary
A Greater Manchester town has been adorned with yellow ribbons to mark the first anniversary of aid worker Alan Henning’s murder.
The 47-year old taxi driver, from Eccles, Salford, was taking aid to Syria when he was kidnapped and killed by Islamic State (IS) militants in October 2014.
At the time, he was the fourth western hostage to be murdered by the group. People in Eccles laid the ribbons in memory of Mr Henning. A similar tribute was held in the days after his death.
Meanwhile, Eccles MP Barbara Keeley has renewed calls for Prime Minister David Cameron to officially recognise his charity work with a posthumous award.
“I think there should be some way to mark the noble sacrifice that Alan made,” said Ms Keeley.
“His mission to help children in Syria was a remarkable one and, of course, he lost his life.
“I think that should be marked with some sort of formal award.”
Ms Keeley said she had spoken to Mr Cameron and hoped there could soon be developments.
Prayers will also be said over the weekend at Eccles Parish Church
Among the catalogue of horrors committed by these animals the murder of Alan Henning struck a cord deep in my soul. Here was a kind, gentle man giving his time and energy to help people in Syria and yet his sadistic killers used his murder to promote their twisted ideology and shock the world with the video of his beheading.
Words could not express the revulsion this caused around the world and if anything I feel his murder appalled even other Islamic extremists and damaged the credibility of ISIS among their deluded followers. What kind of god would want innocence like Alan killed in such a barbaric manner is beyond me.
But I believe in Karma and Karma always collects its debts!
Alan Henning
Alan Henning (15 August 1967 – c. 3 October 2014) was an English taxicab driver-turned-volunteer humanitarian aid worker.
Henning was captured during ISIL’s occupation of the Syrian city of Al-Dana in December 2013. He was there helping provide humanitarian relief. The British Foreign Office withheld news of Henning’s capture while it attempted to negotiate his release.
Local colleagues warned Henning not to cross the border into Syria, but he said he wanted to make sure the supplies were delivered safely.
When he was captured, Henning was a driver for the organisation Rochdale Aid 4 Syria. Rochdale Aid 4 Syria campaigned the release of Al Qaeda terrorist Aaifa Siddiqui, currently serving an 86 year prison sentence. The group even named projects in her honour. Rochdale Aid 4 Syria was condemned fiercely by the local MP Simon Danczuk.
Rochdale Aid 4 Syria also raised money on behalf of Al-Fatiha Global, a British-based organisation which claimed to provide humanitarian aid to those caught up in warzones. Al-Fatiha Global is a registered charity which was under investigation by the Charity Commission after one of its workers was photographed with his arms around two hooded fighters carrying machine guns. Al-Fatiha Global said that worker had been dismissed. Al Qaeda member Adam Gadahn condemned the beheading.
Henning was shown at the end of David Cawthorne Haines‘s execution video, released on 13 September 2014, and was referred to as being the next victim by Mohammed Emwazi, the media described as “Jihadi John” of the ISIL cell described as The Beatles. A video of Henning’s beheading was released on 3 October 2014. After his execution, British Prime Minister David Cameron ordered MI5, MI6, and GCHQ to track and kill or capture the killer
He was married to Barbara Livesey Henning and had two children, Lucy and Adam.
Kidnapping
Henning was part of a team of volunteers delivering goods in December 2013 to people affected by Syria’s civil war. He was abducted on 26 December 2013 by masked gunmen, according to other people in his aid convoy.
Beheading
A video released on 3 October 2014 shows his apparent beheading;the executioner blames it on the UK for its joining the U.S.-led bombing campaign against ISIS.
Before his throat is slit, Henning appears on camera, seemingly handcuffed behind his back and in a kneeling position, next to a knife-wielding masked man (Jihadi John, of the ISIL cell known as The Beatles). Henning speaks, referencing the British Parliament‘s decision to participate in a coalition of countries, such as the United States, that have banded together to bomb the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The end of the video shows American aid worker Peter Kassig, and a threat to his life.
Reactions
Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the killing as “absolutely appalling” and “completely unforgivable” and vowed to do everything to defeat ISIL. He described Henning as a man of great peace, kindness and gentleness, saying:
“He went with many Muslim friends out to do no more than simply help other people. His Muslim friends will be mourning him at this special time of Eid and the whole country is mourning with them.”
On 5 October prayers were said for Henning in churches across Bolton. The Bishop of Bolton Rt Rev Chris Edmondson said: “This is the most horrific, brutal and barbaric act. Leaders of Christian and Muslim faiths have universally condemned this act.” Bolton Interfaith Council and Bolton Council of Mosques, who had held a vigil for Henning before news of his death, said they would continue to pray for him.
A special service of remembrance was held at Eccles Parish Church, attended by Henning’s widow. A memorial fund had been set up, by friend and fellow aid-worker Shameela Islam-Zulfiqar, with the aim of raising £20,000 . By 9 October £30,000 had been raised by the Muslim community and would be used to help support Henning’s family. A further memorial service was held on 12 October at the British Muslim Heritage Centre, organised by friends and humanitarian aid colleagues of Henning, attracting over 600 people.
On 7 October, former Guantánamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg proclaimed that he had offered to intervene to help secure Henning’s release.
The Salafi Muslims of the UK also condemned the murder of Alan Henning noting that ISIS has violated Islam’s respect for covenants and that ISIS had also mistreated Henning and the Muslims captured along with him. While a London-based follower of Omar Bakri, Mizanur Rahman (aka Abu Baraa), justified the killing. Mizanur Rahman however was strongly criticised by Salafi Muslims.
On 15 October Labour MP Barbara Keeley, speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions, called for a national honour to recognise Henning’s sacrifice, and for support for his widow and children. David Cameron agreed and said he would look carefully at her suggestion.
In an al Qaeda magazine interview, terrorist leader Adam Gadahn condemned ISIS and the execution of Alan Henning, saying that al Qaeda had pleaded for his release and saying ISIS will be punished in the afterlife.
Image caption Russia’s defence ministry has issued footage said to show its air strikes in Syria
Russia’s military intervention in Syria is helping to support the “butcher” President Bashar al-Assad, David Cameron has said.
The prime minister said Russian forces were not discriminating between Islamic State militants and others fighting the Syrian president.
Earlier, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Russia’s “unguided” bombing in Syria led to civilian deaths.
Russia said its aircraft had hit IS command centres and arms depots.
US President Barack Obama has said Russia’s strikes, which began on Wednesday, are “only strengthening” the IS position.
Speaking in Oxfordshire, before heading to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Mr Cameron said Russia’s military intervention was “really making the situation worse”.
“It’s absolutely clear that Russia is not discriminating between Isil [IS] and the legitimate Syrian opposition groups and, as a result, they are actually backing the butcher Assad and helping him,” he said.
“Rightly, they [Russia] have been condemned across the Arab world for what they have done and I think the Arab world is right about that.
“But we should be using this moment now to try to force forward a comprehensive plan to bring political transition in Syria because that is the answer for bringing peace to the region.”
Media captionUK Prime Minister David Cameron accused Russia of “backing the butcher Assad”
“Our evidence indicates they are dropping unguided munitions in civilian areas, killing civilians, and they are dropping them against the Free Syrian forces fighting Assad. He’s shoring up Assad and perpetuating the suffering.”
Mr Fallon said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to become involved “has complicated the situation” but it would be “morally wrong” for the UK not to target IS in Syria, as well as Iraq.
“We can’t leave it to French, Australian and American aircraft to keep our own British streets safe,” he said.
Russia’s targets included the IS stronghold of Raqqa, but also Aleppo, Hama and Idlib – provinces with little IS presence.
President Obama has said the Russian bombing campaign is driving moderate opposition underground.
He also rejected the Russian assertion that all armed opponents of the “brutal” Mr Assad were terrorists.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued in recent weeks that his country’s operation in Syria is designed to prevent the type of state implosion that took place in Libya after Nato’s intervention there in 2011.
Lt Gen Sir Simon Mayall said that UK policy makers had got caught up in the excitement of the Arab spring and hoped the Syrian leader would be swiftly overthrown, whereas the Russians had been “in many ways more realistic about the staying power of Assad”.
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