A new film, which depicts a brutal loyalist gang torturing their Catholic victims, is set to raise tensions in Northern Ireland when it is shown next month.

Resurrection Man, now on general release in England and Wales, is loosely based on the case of the Shankill Butchers.

The Butchers were a group of sadistic loyalist killers who conducted a sectarian reign of terror in Belfast between 1976 and 1978.

Several surviving members of the gang are seeking a High Court injunction to stop the film's release in Northern Ireland because they say it puts their lives in danger.

The gang, led by Lennie "The Master Butcher" Murphy, killed at least 10 people.

Victims snatched off the streets

Many of their victims were Catholic men, abducted in a taxi as they walked home from pubs in the city centre.

The Butchers gang planned their killings in drinking clubs in the Shankill Road

The gangs got their name from the butchers' knives used to torture and kill the gang's targets whose mutilated bodies were later dumped in loyalist parts of the city.

The police initially failed to link the killings but eventually caught up with the gang, several of whose members had links with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).

Several members of the gang, including William Moore, Sam McAllister and Robert "Basher" Bates, were jailed for life in 1979 but Murphy, who was already in prison on a lesser charge, was eventually assassinated by the INLA in 1983.

The release of the film, featuring a "gangster and ruthless murderer" called Victor Kelly, comes at a delicate time for the peace process.

Echoes of the Butchers

Twelve people have been killed in the province since December in a spiral of sectarian violence, which has echoes of the Butchers case.

Cinema owners in Belfast say it is too early to decide whether they will show the film but one said: "Political considerations will not come into it".

A spokesman for the Progressive Unionist Party, which has links with the UVF, said the film was "inaccurate, irresponsible and in bad taste."

He said it was a finger-pointing exercise, which sought to "demonise" the surviving members of the gang, several of whom are now completely reformed characters.

Long-held grudges

The spokesman, who said he had known Robert Bates for 35 years, pointed out many people in the province still hold grudges and he said it was common knowledge in Northern Ireland that Bates was assassinated in June 1997 for the crimes he had committed 20 years earlier.

He also criticised several "erroneous" scenes in the film suggesting the gang were homosexual drug-takers.

"Cocaine is mentioned in the film. Cocaine wasn't even around in Belfast in 1974. Coca Cola maybe, but not cocaine," he said.

A Sinn Fein spokesperson said the subject of the Shankill Butchers was a sensitive issue even now and he said: "The filmmakers have a responsibility and they must bear in mind how it impacts the victims' relatives. They need to exercise any dramatic licence with caution."

Sick and gruesome film

He said they were concerned the film might spark off a violent reaction from someone who watched it, whether they were loyalist "copycats" or indignant republicans, and said: "We hope people would not react that way."

Charlie Neeson, 73, whose brother Con was killed by the Shankill Butchers, described the film as "sick and gruesome" and told the Irish News: "None of the relatives will be happy about this and we do not welcome its release."

The film is produced by Andrew Eaton, whose father was killed by the Provisional IRA, and its release in Ireland has been delayed until March 20 to avoid clashing with two other big Irish films, The Boxer and The Butcher Boy.

Bates and Murphy are now dead but McAllister was released from prison three years ago and Moore -- who a judge said should stay in jail for the rest of his life when he was convicted in 1979 -- has been allowed out of the Maze on a work-out scheme.

Kate Lee, spokesperson for the film's makers PolyGram, said there had been considerable interest on both sides of the Irish border.

She said although it was set in Northern Ireland in the 1970s it was not specifically based on the Shankill Butchers case and was being marketed as a "film noir thriller".

Ms Lee said it was a brilliant piece of filmmaking but she added: "It is difficult to watch."
 

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage	©