User:Tommymcauley

TOMMY MCAULEY was one of seven children born to THOMAS and MARY (nee MATHEWS)TOMMY got his education starting at SACRED HEART boys school and finished in ST GABRIELS IN BELFAST. He was a keen weight lifter and he won the ALL IRELAND CHAMPION title three times. He was full of life, always pulling pranks and out to make you laugh. On leaving school, he worked as a dispatch rider for the belfast telegraph for a number of years. Then he worked delivering bread to shops for a few years, before leaving and going to work as a bus driver also for a number of years before opening up a restaurant, BON APPETIT, on the Crumlin Road. He had married in 1976 and had two childran. Tommy was involved in various charity works and was regularly organising fund-raising events. By all accounts he was extermely likeable and a well-respected person.

On 11 November 1987 a loyalist gunman entered the restaurant and fired several shots at Tommy, seriously wounding him. Five days later he died in hospital from his injuries. The killing of Tommy McAuley was purely sectarian. He was killed simply because he was a Catholic. There were fifteen annoyomous phone calls all identifing the gunmen by name, and five eye witnesses also identifing them by name, but these witnesses were never brought in to identify these men in an identify parade or questioned any further. The gunmen were also stopped in a car by the Police and they were released without searching the car were they may have retrieved the weapon. These men were wearing the same clothes that were described by witnesses but no action was taken by the Police.

Twenty five years on and still no-one has been questioned or charged with Tommys murder, even though the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) have reported failings in the investigation on behalf of the Police, they put it down to missed opportunities even though they closed the case just four weeks after his murder. But evidence received shows many reasons why the gunmen were let go and have never been charged pointing to one of them being a Police Informer, which opens the door to Collusion by the Police of Northern Ireland. Tommy's family will never give up there fight for justice.