Northern Ireland

Black Beret Ruled ‘IRA Uniform’ – On This Day in 1974

Eight men fined after being found guilty of illegally wearing uniforms at funeral of IRA hunger striker Michael Gaughan

The funeral procession of IRA member Michael Gaughan along Kilburn High Road in London on June 8 1974. Gaughan died in Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight after a hunger strike
The funeral procession of IRA member Michael Gaughan along Kilburn High Road in London in June 1974. Gaughan died in Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight after a hunger strike. Picture: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images (Evening Standard/Getty Images)
By Cormac Moore
July 29 1974

The black berets, dark clothing and dark glasses worn by eight men in the funeral march of IRA hunger striker Michael Gaughan did constitute a uniform – the uniform of the IRA, a London magistrate decided.

He found the eight guilty on two summonses under the Public Order Act of illegally wearing uniforms, and fined each a total of £60.

“I have no doubt at all that despite the minor differences in apparel, these were uniforms,” said magistrate Mr WDC Robbins, after looking at pictures of the march. He said he was led to take the common-sense view that this uniform did signify association with a political organisation, or was to promote a political objective.

Defence counsel Mr Michael West said after the prosecution that the eight – wearing black berets, dark glasses, black roll-top sweaters, dark trousers and polished shoes – took up positions in front of Gaughan’s hearse for the march in north London on June 7. They were given the order “Colour party, by the left slow march”, and slow-marched military-fashion before taking up the coffin. Next day, despite a police warning, they wore the same clothes, said the prosecution.

Mr West argued that the clothes of the eight did not form a uniform because of the differences in what they wore – blazers, blue suits, leather jackets, black and brown shoes.

“We are left with the black beret. The military character is wholly irrelevant, or whether they were in step or out of step, it doesn’t matter; the issue is whether the beret is the uniform of the IRA,” he said. And he argued that no political objective had been shown.

But Mr Tudor Price, prosecuting, said: “The ordinary common-place person would say the men were in uniform.” Their object was to appear like soldiers. It was only necessary for the prosecution to show the clothing was linked with the IRA, he said, not to have to identify any particular branch.

The magistrate told the eight: “Bearing in mind this emotional background and that you are all men of good character, I tell you that there was in my mind the question of a sentence of imprisonment.” He considered it inappropriate in this case.

Eight men, marching in black berets, dark glasses and clothes, at Michael Gaughan’s funeral service in London, were prosecuted for wearing, what the magistrate termed, IRA uniforms.