Combat 18 behind Dublin violence
01 March 1995
Charlie Sargent, a key member of the nazi paramilitary Combat 18 (C18), has boasted of co-ordinating the violence unleashed on Irish supporters at the friendly international football match between Ireland and England at Lansdowne Road on February 15. He claimed that the violence was C18s response to the peace talks currently underway in northern Ireland.
Since C18 was formed in 1992 it has made a concerted effort to form an alliance between the street-fighting groups of the far-right, the racist elements of Britain's most violent football firms and the equally racist anti-Irish Loyalist groups in northern Ireland. While amorphous, and often antagonistic, relationships have long existed between these groups, C18 appear to have made significant inroads in persuading them to put aside their differences and cooperate in joint actions.
A turning point in the relationship was signalled with the arrest of several key C18 activists on gun-running charges to northern Ireland Loyalists. In 1993 Frank Portinari was jailed and Eddie Whicker questioned by police for supplying weapons; in 1994 Terry Blackham was jailed for the same offence. The results of this cooperation were seen at the January 1993 Troops Out m+arch when the fascists were bolstered by loyalists and football firms (see Statewatch vol 3 no 3).
The links between the Chelsea Headhunters football firm and the far-right is long standing. The Headhunters frequently supported the National Front during the 1980s but these activities were interrupted following a series of arrests in Operation Own Goal in 1986-87. Charlie Sargent, who is also a Chelsea headhunter, plays a key role linking the new generation of Headhunters and C18.
C18 are also understood to have made links with other football firms. In London Millwall have a long reputation of racist violence, although they are usually considered to be too "independent" to be reliable. Interestingly, one of those arrested at Lansdowne Road - Jerry Lindley - was a known nazi and Millwall supporter.
Among the other football firms represented at Lansdowne Road were the Seaburn Casuals and Border City Firm from the north and the Cheltenham Volunteer Force from the Midlands.lloc