Categories
Uncategorized

THE RECENT DRUGS TRIAL IN BALLYMENA AND MY CONNECTION.

SUNDAY’S SUNDAY WORLD carried a story about a recent drugs trial in Ballymena – a case I had a connection with.

In fact I was due to go to court to give evidence on behalf of the police and prosecution – until the man being charged with the crimes changed his plea to guilty.

It all started several years ago when a friend of mine who was a manager in the famous Galgorm Resort and Spa landed at my door in tears one lunch time.

galgorm-wedding-venue-antrim
GALGORM RESORT AND SPA

He had foolishly done a deal with a paramilitary drug gang to store a large amount of drugs in his spare bedroom.

They, in turn, were giving him £800 a month for his storage. In total they had paid my friend £5,000.

Then it all went terribly wrong.

My friend’s partner, a China native, stole £25,000 of the drug stash and sold it to the Triad Gang in Belfast.

The paramilitaries came looking for my friend in Cullybackey outside Ballymena and gave him 24 hours to retrieve the drugs or get them £25,000. If he didn’t, they said, they would pour petrol on him and set him alight.

He fled from his home and landed at my door in fear and trembling.

After listening to him, I knew his life was in real danger, and with his permission I rang a senior PSNI officer who dealt with drug crimes.

My friend was taken into “protective custody”.

Later the police asked me if he could spend that night with me and that they would get him safe accommodation. Of course, I agreed.

But when the police arrived at my house in the evening there were armed men waiting in the street and the police car sped away.

My friend recently got a 6 month suspended jail sentence – suspended because he handed himself over to the police, pleaded guilty and gave evidence for the Crown.

However he will never be able to return to Northern Ireland as his life continues to be under threat.

A friend of mine, who also worships at The Oratory every Sunday always says:

“THERE IS NEVER AN ORDINARY WEEK IN LARNE”

And that’s true.

88 replies on “THE RECENT DRUGS TRIAL IN BALLYMENA AND MY CONNECTION.”

What’s the purpose of this story? Many clerics help people in need every day. I’ve had many people in all kinds of difficult situations call to me for help. It’s part of our day ministry. Compassion is not your preserve only.

Like

Yes, but you could afford to be generous and recognise what good + Pat does, surely, rather than being mean spirited ? I wonder what your night ministry is ? I find myself asking that of RC priests and bishops these days, because you never know ! That’s the problem with you lot these days, you have lost our trust and respect. You may want to blame others, but you are part of a system that is corrupt in some very important areas, and having seen that many, many of us view you with suspicion. You have a long way to go to gain our respect and trust in the future. And being mean spirited and negative about somebody like + Pat does not help that process.

Like

11.31: No goid priest wants your respect when you choose to be so blind to the majority who are good, caring and faithful in their ministry. You need to look beyond this biased blog. There are many acts of generosity carried out at all hours by many priests, done quietly and without counting the cost or without the need to publicise them. Don’t be such a prig in being so prejudiced and do open your eyes.

Like

9:35
Another cynical, and practically useless, Roman Catholic priest.😕
What’s the purpose of Bishop Pat’s story? As you seem to have lost any cognitive capacity you may have been born with, allow me to spell it out for you.
I promise I’ll keep my answer as syllabically few as possible: it’s an INTERESTING anecdote, you bloody moron!😠
😆

Like

11.36: Magna: M – moronic: A – arrogant: G – goof: N – nincompoo: A – amoral. A lost cause. Sadly. Forever.

Like

No mercy or compassion when drugs are involved.
Pretty strange for you to publish this! Something not adding up with this!

Like

I think the See of Armagh could be very disappointed at this development, Bp Pat, as I imagine Amy loves to have her ring kissed.

Like

Pat, many a priest can equally say his days too bring unexpected events. There are many clerics who carry out quiet, daily acts of generosity, compassion and charity. One of our local priests was nominated for a residents association award for his great community outreach. It was a small gesture of gratitude to him before he was changed to another parish. Such gestures are replicated many times on a daily basis. Along with your kind gesture, it’s good that they are publicly recognised, though that (publicity) is never sought. As Jesus says – ” All who carry out works of charity in secret and seen by the Father, will be greatly rewarded…”.

Like

God help all the poor children led into lives of sheer hell and the agony others in their families are put through because of these scumbags. ALL of them, your friend and his Chinese wife included, are scum. Easy money and greed. What drugs do to lives merits the death penalty for all involved. NO SYMPATHY for any pushers or facilitators. Just as bad as the cover-uppers of paedophiles. Life destroyers. Robbers of life.

Like

At least you are not a Roman Catholic poster at 11:17 since the official RC position now is that nothing merits the death penalty. It’s official.

Like

I am a Catholic and follow the long time teachings of the Church. Francis is the interloper. Gets up every morning and thinks, ‘ What part of the catechism will I singlehandedly change today?’ He’s full of caca.

Like

Have you ever considered opening your house for retreats? You can exercise your ministry as well as earning some income. Plus people would be interested to stay somewhere that is apart of Irish catholic history. I go to a retired priests house every couple of months. £150 Friday and Saturday night and light meals included. I find it very relaxing and he’s very easy going.

Like

“A friend of wine” worships regularly at the Oratory, Pat? I’m glad you look after the alcoholics too.

Like

+ Pat, it seems to me that you are very much involved in local community life in Larne and surrounding areas. You seem to have been a ‘port of call’ for a whole range people during your decades of ministry – from your time at the cathedral parish and community action there, being a conduit for conciliation during the Troubles, to listening and supporting people who have been abused, to helping people who find themselves in trouble with gangs, to ministering to people who find themselves left adrift by the Church, and no doubt much more. What this says to me is that, in spite of what the Church says about you and how it treats you and diminishes you and laughs at you, real people see you as a pretty honest broker and someone that they can trust and come to for some help and ministry. You are not always right, and you sometimes like us all get yourself in to trouble, but people do seem to believe that you have a sense of openness, integrity and honesty, which is signally lacking in the Church and its clergy and bishops. This latest iteration, the subject of today’s blog, is just another example of how those who are in trouble and in the mire look to you for some support. People like that would not come to you if they did not trust you.

Liked by 1 person

7.42: You are right about Pat’s concerns and care for people. However, there are countless other people, clerics and religious included, who care for the broken and wounded of our communities. I see it in my local parish community and many others – individuals and caring Christian groups (Catholics as well) who give unstintintingly and selflessly in reaching out to those in need. They do it quietly and beautifully without fanfare. It is unjust and disingenuous of you to suggest that clerics in general don’t care. That is blatantly a lie. I witness much generosity and caring from clerics and religious.

Like

I’m not making a fanfare about anything. I was writing about MY experience in Rome on MY blog.

Like

By Post Author

Ya can’t win hi! Complain about wrongdoing yr interfearing. Stick yr neck out sure th all do that anyway Ok this is the kind of story we need. This is what promotes the Way of Jesus. Let the begrudges show us their examples instead of spouting poopidepoops. Maybe superpriests exist after all Prove it hi. Not fogetting the work all the uncollared do in th name of the Lord

Like

Drug pushers have wreaked havoc on thousands of lives in this country. They are death merchants and deserve the full force of law enforcement to rid them from our society. My empathy is for the people whose lives are ruined by drug peddlers. Giving shelter to these death merchants is very wrong. Recently I informed Gardai about the presence of drug pushers in my neighbourhood. I did it for the safety and well being of my children and other vulnerable young people. Pat, we need to know our priorities and don’t need you to be sheltering these evil people in our midst. Get real. If you were a parent, you’d have a greater sense of responsibility. Get real…

Like

@ 9.10
SPOT ON!!!!!
Paedophilia? Most on here are crying buckets over it (and rightly so) but children enticed into drugs are sometimes then groomed and are led into prostitution to pay for the drugs they were given.
A dirty, dirty, dirty business.
NO SYMPATHY FOR THOSE MAKING MONEY OFF DRUGS?

Like

Did you correct the typo from wine to mine? It was a typo wasn’t it, and not my glasses?
Never mind, I have a great affinity for friends of wine.
Cheers

Like

Now Mommie Dearest, what did our good, traditionalist, Roman Catholic family doctor have to say about your little habit?

‘Mrs Carta, those pills are not a substitute for a bottle or two of Mummy’s Little Helper, and you’re not long weaned off that!

‘You’ll get the same effect by praying, everyday and slowly, all fifteen decades of the Rosary.’

😆

Like

Maggie, yer old Ma’s a hoot but you’re about as funny as a wet week in Burnley.

You struggle with humour, Marge, don’tcha? Don’t come naturally to ya luv, do it?

If you were a comedienne down the local you’d be booed off’t stage under a rain of rotten tomatoes 😂

Like

Magna darling, honestly the way your memory is going. I told you to say the rosary while we were talking about you. The doctor was telling me to take one of those pills every day so that I wouldn’t have another baby.
As for being Catholic, I always thought he was suspect. He started off with the dialogue Mass, and eventually lost it completely. He became a mason and then a Druid, and ended up working as a stripper under the name of Mona. That is where vernacular liturgy and Catholic Action get you.

Like

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. – Genesis 1 vs 29 (NIV Version)
Nowhere in either the Bible or Church Tradition does it say that you’re not allowed to smoke weed. Addiction on the other hand is something not of God.
Gangsterism and associated industry violence is also diabolical in nature, arguably. Easily side stepped by legalisation I’d imagine.
As anyone who has quit smoking (tobacco) will tell you though: the most dangerous drugs you will ever take are usually legal and either bought in a shop or handed over by a Doctor.

Like

Rysty at 12.49 and Pat at 1 42: you dangerous fools and clowns. Would you do proper research about drugs of all kinds before you pontificate such arrant and dangerous nonsense. Read commentator at 2.18 for the intelligent, responsible and knowledgeable facts and approach. You, Rusty, obviously have a rusty brain; Pat – well, let’s say, a developing brain but he falls for everything populist. Crap.

Like

No. You are spouting completely disproved balderdash.
Even this week the papers were full of the NHS warning that children as young as 9 had been admitted with severe psychiatric conditions as a result of marijuana. Smoking it even 5 times can be enough to bring on psychosis. What is being sold is exponentially stronger than the 60’s. Even a couple of days ago papers reported that research shows even medical marijuana helps in very few cases and is also harmful.
You think you are so hip. But in reality science shows otherwise.
Don’t spout the legalisation shite: it only normalises it and damages more people. AND there will still be a black market for it and it cut with god knows what. Do you think cheap cigarettes don’t flood areas just because tobacco is legal?
Go back to your echo chamber. Obviously not a parent.
Opium/heroin smoking approved by you, Rusty. It’s obviously affected your brain.

Like

Pat Mullaney thought there was drugs in the Cafe des Bum Bums one day but twas just a bowl o’shugar made a holy show of herself callin the guards and all so she did with the few drinks in her

Like

2.30: You are such an idiot, a dumb bag of the worst kind. You trivialize everything and are an utter gombeen. Get a grip of your pre pubescent immaturity. Grow up. If you are either a student or a priest, leave before you’re thrown out.

Like

Every bit as risible as the array of fools and lunatics, like “Magna Carta”, “Lily the bat”, “Pat Mullaney”, etc., are twats like you, 3:10pm, who get their panties in such a little bunch over their antics! 😂

Like

2.54: Mags the rag would be booed off the stage, not with tomatoes (too good for him, even if rotten) but with heavy rocks!! Get rid of the class clown…

Like

3.58: Ha, Ha, Ha, Magna. I’m fine. More importantly, how are You? We’re all concerned about your well being after so many deranged comments all day. Give Lillie a ring. I have a remedy😊😊🐒🐒..adios!

Like

Here I am, in from visiting two bereaved families – both parents of families and once again the serious issue of drug abuse and drug peddlars, which bring about death, is being trivialized and almost defended by Pat, simply as it gives him greater notoriety. Wrong approach Pat. I know my daily priorities. I’m sure there are more deserving people who need support. I’ve officiated at too many tragic deaths (drug/alcohol/suicide related) to ever approve of a ‘free for all’ attitude. Drug/drink peddlers (as distinct from victims) are death merchants. They deserve the full force of the law to rid them from our communities.

Like

I don’t think anyone is promoting a “free for all” approach. I agree there’s far too many young people sadly taking their own lives and far too many more wrapped up in the horrors of drink and drugs.

Drink and Drugs, I would argue, are the symptoms rather than the disease. The disease is a lack of Hope: in whatever form that takes. If you have depression, anxiety, no meaningful work, relationship problems, financial problems etc etc drink and drugs are a coping mechanism.

It’s maybe too easy and neat to simply blame the drink and drugs?

Like

@4.26
Rubbish. Utter rubbish. VERY young children are being given stuff to get them started. Starting cannabis smoking is most often nothing to do with ‘serious problems’ but a case of innocent children simply taking what they are offered. And from there the story starts. The dope LEADS to the problems: inability to concentrate, ennui, lethargy, falling off at school, trouble at school, trouble with parents, dwindling social circle of those who are not drug takers, drop in self esteem, paranoia, psychosis, brain damage of the immature, still developing brain, move on to other substances……..
There’s a reason it’s called ‘dope’, you know -dopey.
These pushers are pushing it to primary school children, and you’re trying to blame unemployment! You might as well offer them a gob stopper. They haven’t a clue what they are getting into!
But hey, you’re so with it!

Like

@4.26
You just quoted the bible to justify smoking the hemp plant and by implication the opium poppy.
Grow up. You haven’t a clue.

Like

@ 4.26
As I pointed out earlier but Pat didn’t print:- you quoted scripture to legitimise the smoking of the hemp plant and the opium/heroin poppy.
Stop censoring, Pat.

Like

3:56

Are you a Roman Catholic priest?

Wouldn’t surprise me at all if you were.

That manager in need of Bishop Pat’s help, even if he did a terrible thing by storing drugs for paramilitaries (and he bloody well did!), was being threatened with sadistic death. What would Jesus have done? Told him to ‘fuck off!’, adding, for good moral measure, ‘you deserve what’s coming to you’?

I was about to ask ‘what kind of man are you?’ But I already knew, didn’t I? You’re a Roman whoremonger.

Next time you dress in the morning, after getting out of whomever’s bed you slept in the previous night, don’t put on your little white collar. Because what it symbolises isnt in your heart.

It is behaviour like this by Pat Buckley that strengthens my conviction that Roman Catholic priests really are Christ-betrayers, because however odious the sinner, Jesus would never turn him away. Nor, it seems, would Pat Buckley.

You, on the contrary…

Like

4.40: You, the rejected one, the beastly whore, who abuses all before you, are irrelevant. You are the moral coward. You are the one who needs a serious reality check. You obviously have a deficit of humanity, decency and goodness. You are too tied to this blog. You are a hate monger, your every word divisive, vicious and crazy. You offer nothing useful or worthwhile except your poisonous, vile muck. Thank God for the many wonderfully, good priests in our midst. GOD BLESS THEM for their goodness of ministry and service. You jealous moron.

Like

5:38

Yes, I’m so ‘irrelevant’ that you couldn’t wait to put crooked finger to keyboard to tell me, er, just how irrelevant I am.😕

I swear by all that’s holy some of you who post here are unexplored biological marvels…since you appear to function without intelligence. 😆

Like

7.13: You are a forever beaten person Mags. You are devoid of a moral, spiritual and human compass. A has-been whose primary function now in life is to insult, abuse, demean and denigrate everyone who sees through the sham and fraud you are. You descend into a filthy trough more each day. Guess Pat needs at least one reliable ally, albeit a poisonous piece of humanity. You have almost exhausted your repetitive evil that your brain must be putrid and manure like. Again, God bless our many good, kind and caring priests. Thank God for their witness to Christ and may God bless them in their ministry. Oh, how the psychological wounds of the past have destroyed you…But there is help…..🤣🤣🤣🤣😋😎😎😊… Mags, listen you your mumsy….

Like

“Magna Carta”, there’s nothing more “crooked” than you – you tosser 😆😆😂

Like

Magna at 7.13pm – surely 18.13??? Anyway, if a Catholic priest did what Pat dod, as many do, you’d be screaming “Christ betrayers”. They’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t. YOUR PROBLEM, MATE..You’ve no pastoral experience of any kind: you were denied such opportunities due to unsuitability and psychological imbalance. In fact I’m of the belief that you have seriously morphed into a nasty, dangerous persona. GET HELP. You are an endangerment to yourself with all that destructive hatred. It’s eating you to pieces. GET HELP.

Like

7.13: Dear Margaret, your mummy is concerned at your outpouring of so much anger. Remember what I told you when you sat on my knees all those centuries ago (you are a dinosaur), whenever you’re stressed, play with yourself, (you know what I mean) and if that doesn’t calm you down, look at those Looney Tunes and Bugs Bunny cartoons. They used give you some light relief…You know where they are in the attic, where your dadsy and I put you when you were bold – all too frequently. Now, do what y-o-u are told…

Like

11:40

Bishop Pat, you agree with all of this man’s points, then? Including his supercillious (and he’s ever supercillious) wish to have me barred from contributing to your blog?

If this is what you want.

Like

6:39

Don’t concern yourself with absurd hypotheticals.

I can assure you that there probably isn’t even the remotest possibility that a Roman Catholic priest would even consider doing what Pat Buckley did for a moral leper.😆

Like

Magna, you leprous leech. Go and buy some “grow up” medication. What pathetic nonsense you spew out. I know you are morally and spiritually deficient, but do open your eyes and you’ll have no difficulty finding GOOD priests. Bless them Lord. Keep them safe from the devilish Magna.

Like

Now now, Magna darling, Mummy’s being very patient and has asked you to be civil.
Mummy doesn’t want to have to fetch her hairbrush and bare your little bottom over her knee now, does she?
You know it hurts Mummy more than you dear when she has to spank her little Magsy.

Like

Pat, isn’t it appropriate that you stop Magna from turning so many people from your blog. It’s a pity you depend on him and his enemies to keep this blog going. The trading of insults, abuse and nasty invective is very unattractive. Criticisms are necessary but not of Magna’s vicious, hateful kind. Can we have a break from his tirades? There’s nothing remotely funny or humorous about his attempt at comedic prose. Nothing. It’s a complete turn off.

Like

7:32
Funny, isn’t it, that you don’t get worked up about others’ abuse of me on this blog?😕
Funny, indeed.😆

Like

No one “abuses” you on this blog, Magsy Wagsy. People are provoked by your ghastly nastiness and gratuitous offensiveness. They simply respond, in kind, to the abuse you mete out viciously.

Like

Anon @ 7:32.
On balance I agree. I say on balance because M is indeed capable of valuable, worthwhile, informative and insightful comments. However it is regrettable that the observations you make concerning his negative impact are accurate, and on balance, far outweigh the positive. It seems that these negative phases are a complete turn-off, and I believe it would be better on balance, for M to be completely barred from contributing.
MMM

Like

9:53
MMM, for someone who relentlessly disavows theisism and stops just a little short of sniffly disdaining theists themselves for their beliefs, you spend an inordinate amount of your time moralising to others here, just as the institutional Roman Catholic Church you so frequently, and pompously, ridicule has done for generations. Why do you imitate the preachiness of a church for which you have little or no regard?
And speaking of preachiness, where is the morally homiletic balance in your post? Do you challenge anyone on the blog who has been abusive to me? No, you don’t. Why is this? Is there more to your objection against me than the nature of some of my posts? Might it have anything to do with my views on ‘Bloody Sunday’, which I expressed a few blogs back and to which you took particular exception? Or might it be more personal than this: the fact that I am a good, erudite debater, and that your intellectual pride (more pride than intellect, sadly) cannot handle living in my shadow?
Envy is such a juvenile emotion, Mourne Man Michael, especially in someone your age. Someone who really ought to know better.😆

Like

Magna, I must say I agree with MMMs points to you. There is a massive difference between your best posts and your abusive ones.

Like

By Post Author

11:01

So you do implicitly admit then that I suffer abuse, regardless of chronology. And yet, in your very first sentence you deny the existence of any such abuse.

You’re confused, aren’t you?😆

Like

Magpie at 6.42 surely..The drink has your body clock tossed about..Sadly, magpie, you are the LOSER. That you keep trying to defend your abysmal, crummy, creepy abuse, is a sure sign that you’re losing. The hole, you drunkard, is so deep, you’ll soon be in hell…😣😣😣🐱🐱 Although I don’t believe it will contain the gargantuan hatred you carry….

Like

8:01

It isn’t ‘losers’ who attract attention, but winners.

And I’m attracting a lot of attention tonight.😅

😆

Like

Interesting Magna Carta is posting one hour ahead of the time in northern Ireland. Now I wonder where is one hour ahead of GMT… Hmmmm.

Like

9:05
Well spotted, Watson! What! What!
But look! Now I’m posting, again, in GMT.
Can Magna bilocate?
The game’s afoot!👤
😆

Like

The Galgorm and Spa will certainly have a downturn now after Pats revelations.
Hope you know that Pat.
As a previous user of the spa I will never set foot in it again
And I will do everything to let the public know why.
Shuddering thinking about it being used as a storage area for drugs.
Now I know why the owner of the Cookstown Hotel was a suspect..

Like

@. 1.43
You don’t think the ‘growers’ wanted a market place, such as a hotel, to sell them also? Any young people’s events at that hotel??

Like

Leave a comment