SF leader’s version of past is insulting nonsense

SF leader’s version of past is insulting nonsense
Irish Independent
08 JULY 2013

ONCE again the spotlight is on Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. After a lengthy US legal battle, the Police Service of Northern Ireland now has tapes and transcripts of interviews with the late, unrepentant IRA member, Dolours Price.

These conversations focus on a period in the early 1970s when people were abducted, murdered and secretly buried because they were believed to be informing on the IRA. Victims included widowed mother-of-10 Jean McConville, and they became collectively known as “The Disappeared”.

Ms Price was a convicted IRA car bomber. Mr Adams has always denied her allegations that he was her IRA commanding officer, and he has also denied ordering Mrs McConville’s abduction and murder in 1972. More astonishingly, he continues to insist that he was never a member of the IRA. Most people believe that not only was Mr Adams a member, he was in fact one of the dominant forces in that organisation for a very long period.

Mr Adams’s version of his past is insulting nonsense. He tells us about the need to get to the truth of many of the things that happened in those decades of horror in the North, but refuses to give us an honest account of his own role.

Once again, the spotlight is back on Gerry Adams as PSNI detectives begin investigating the contents of the tapes. Once again, we will hope for more than just glib and dismissive denials that mix weariness and cynicism.

To paraphrase his own celebrated soundbite, these allegations haven’t gone away. And they will not go away until the Sinn Fein president gives us some real answers.

Pressure on Adams grows as secret tapes handed to police

Pressure on Adams grows as secret tapes handed to police
CORMAC MCQUINN
Irish Independent
08 JULY 2013

THE recordings of secret interviews with the late IRA bomber Dolours Price have been handed over to police in the North investigating the disappearance of Belfast mother-of-10 Jean McConville.

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers travelled to the US to collect the controversial tapes from Boston College, which are understood to include allegations that Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams ordered Ms McConville’s kidnapping and killing.

A spokesperson for Mr Adams said: “Gerry Adams has consistently rejected the accusations made by anti-peace process dissidents. The issue is a matter for the PSNI and Boston College.”

Despite the renewed focus on Ms Price’s claims that Mr Adams was her IRA Officer Commanding in the early 1970s, and was responsible for ordering Ms McConville’s disappearance, he appeared to be in light-hearted form yesterday.

He used his Twitter feed to regale followers about the glorious weather, posting the lyrics of the song ‘You Are My Sunshine’.

The Louth TD tweeted that he decided not to watch the Leinster hurling final because the weather was too good but indicated he’d catch the highlights later with a “pint of plain”.

Mr Adams has consistently denied ever being a member of the IRA. He did not respond to requests for comment on the release of the Boston College tapes to the PSNI last night.

DETECTIVES

A police spokesman said two detectives from the serious crime branch had taken possession of materials authorised by the United States Supreme Court as part of their investigation into Ms McConville’s murder. “The officers will return to Northern Ireland to assess the material and continue with their inquiries,” a spokesman said.

Ms Price died in January this year. She has said she made the claims about Mr Adams’s position in the IRA and alleged ordering of Ms McConville’s disappearance and killing in an interview with the Boston College academics who compiled an oral history of the Troubles.

The recordings were made on the condition that confidentiality would be guaranteed until after the death of the republican and loyalist paramilitaries who took part in the interviews.

Boston College researchers last year tried to block the PSNI’s attempts to secure the recordings but lost the case in the US Supreme Court.

They claimed that the tapes did not contain Ms Price making allegations that Mr Adams ordered the kidnapping of Ms McConville.

Dolours Price tape handed over to police

Dolours Price tape handed over to police
Will Pavia, New York
Times of London
8 July 2013

Tapes of interviews with an IRA car bomber that were conducted as part of an oral history project and kept locked in a Boston university archive have been handed over to detectives investigating the murder of Jean McConville, a mother of ten who was shot by paramilitaries in 1972.

The interviews contain potentially explosive claims made by Dolours Price, an IRA member who was convicted and jailed for a car bombing of the Old Bailey and who died in January. Though she consistently refused to cooperate with the police, she repeatedly claimed in interviews with journalists that she was the driver in the killing of Mrs McConville and that the murder was ordered by Gerry Adams.

She participated in taped interviews with oral historians seeking to document the Troubles, on the understanding that the tapes would be kept locked in the archives of Boston College, beyond the reach of the authorities, until after her death.

Mrs McConville’s son, Michael, told the Irish Mail on Sunday: “If Price mentions Gerry Adams in the tapes, that he was in some way involved and if it can be proved, he should be tried.”
For his part, Mr Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, has always denied that he ever belonged to the IRA or that he had any involvement in terrorist murders.

Yesterday the Police Service of Northern Ireland said two detectives from its serious crime branch had travelled to take possession of the tapes as part of their investigation into the murder of Mrs McConville.

The journalist Ed Moloney and the former IRA member Anthony McIntyre, the leading researchers behind the Belfast Project, had believed their work would remain beyond the reach of the police until after the deaths of the interviewees.

However, in late 2011, Boston College submitted to an order from a judge to hand over the tapes to police in Northern Ireland under the terms of a treaty obligation.

The researchers sought to challenge the ruling in the American courts, warning that the release of the tapes could have serious repercussions for both the peace process and the personal safety of Mr McIntyre.

“I carried out the interviews in circumstances of the greatest secrecy and confidence,” he said last year. His wife said she now lived in “constant fear… of him being shot in the street”.

Earlier this year the Supreme Court cleared the way for the tapes to be handed over to the police. However, last month a federal appeals court in Boston ruled that only 11 of the 85 interviews were relevant to the police investigation and needed to be surrendered – a decision that may yet itself be appealed.

“They have only handed over the Dolours Price tapes,” Mr Moloney said yesterday. “The rest of the tapes have not been handed over.”

After Ms Price died in January, the university was apparently free to hand over her interviews, although Mr Moloney said: “There was no obligation to make them available.”

He added: “It’s none of their damn business. This is a private archive. It’s being looked for by a police force whose Historical Enquiries Team, which is also run by the PSNI, has been found by the British Inspectorate of Constabulary to be operating double standards. They are treating killings committed by security forces in a much more relaxed and lenient way.”

PSNI receive Dolours Price interviews

PSNI receive Dolours Price interviews
Irish Republican News
7 July 2013

Confidential interviews with senior IRA figure Dolours Price have been handed over to British security forces, it has been confirmed.

The PSNI police in the north of Ireland said two detectives had e travelled to Boston to take possession of materials authorised by the United States Supreme Court.

“The officers will return to Northern Ireland to assess the material and continue with their inquiries,” a spokesman added.

It is thought the interviews may contain information which might be used by the PSNI against a number of republicans, including senior Sinn Fein figures.

Dolours was a former republican hunger-striker who became a bitter critic of Sinn Fein when the party encouraged the IRA to give up its weapons and joined a local devolved administration under British rule.

She clashed with party leader Gerry Adams in recent years over his denials that he had never been a member of the IRA.

The 62-year-old consistently had claimed that Mr Adams, now a Louth TD, had played a significant role in IRA actions, including the controversial killing of alleged informer Jean McConville.

She who died in January amid a trans-Atlantic legal battle over her interviews and after a long battle with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

The allegations are among those believed to be contained in an interview with Irish ‘researchers’ Anthony McIntyre and Ed Moloney, who were hired for the purpose by the American university.

The recordings were started in 2001 and were made on the condition that confidentiality would be guaranteed until after the death of the republicans and loyalists who took part.

McIntyre and Moloney failed to block the release of the tapes after the PSNI launched a high profile legal challenge to obtain the testimony. However, they said the eleven interviews which were ordered to be released to the PSNI are of limited value, and significantly reduced from a previous demand for 85 interviews.

The PSNI’s move to take possession of the tapes this weekend appeared designed to pre-empt a new legal challenge based on an internal British police report which found bias in the handling of historical cases by the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team (HET).

The Policing Board in the North has said it has no confidence in the leadership of the HET Team on foot of the damning report, which found British soldiers had received preferential treatment from investigators.

In a statement on Saturday, Moloney and McIntyre urged the Dublin and London governments “to suspend all criminal and non-criminal inquiries into the past until agreement has been reached by all parties on a credible way forward and a mechanism to deal with the past has been created in such a way that it commands widespread confidence and support”.

PSNI confirm securing Boston College tapes on Jean McConville’s murder

PSNI confirm securing Boston College tapes on Jean McConville’s murder
by Gemma Murray
News Letter
Published on the 07 July 2013

THE PSNI have confirmed that transcripts of interviews relating to the murder of IRA victim Jean McConville, carried out as part of a project at Boston College, are being handed over.

The PSNI had been attempting to obtain the transcripts of tapes recorded with IRA member Dolours Price, who died in January.

The transcripts are understood to contain information about the death and disappearance of the Belfast mother-of-10.

In a statement the PSNI said: “Two detectives from Serious Crime Branch have travelled to Boston to take possession of materials authorised by the United States appeal court as part of their investigation into the murder of Jean McConville.

The west Belfast mother was among dozens of people – later known as the Disappeared – who were abducted, murdered and secretly buried by republican militants during the Troubles.

The officers will return to Northern Ireland to assess the material and continue with their inquiries.”

The transcripts were made as part of Boston College’s ‘Belfast Project’, which was designed to be an oral history of Northern Ireland’s Troubles.

Project director, Ed Moloney, and his researcher, Anthony McIntyre, had resisted attempts by the PSNI to obtain the transcripts, and had hoped that the US Supreme Court would overturn a Boston Federal Court decision to hand the tapes over.

Ms Price was an unrepentant republican hard-liner who became a bitter critic of Sinn Fein when the party endorsed the Good Friday Agreement and encouraged the IRA to give up its weapons.

She clashed with party leader Gerry Adams in recent years over her allegations that he had been her IRA Officer Commanding during the early 1970s.

The 62-year-old consistently claimed that Mr Adams, now a Louth TD, had ordered the kidnap and killing of Mrs McConville in 1972.

Mr Adams has always denied being a member of the IRA.

She said she had made the claims in an interview with the American university academics who have compiled an oral history on Northern Ireland’s 40-year conflict.

The recordings were started in 2001 and were made on the condition that confidentiality would be guaranteed until after the death of the republican and loyalist paramilitaries who took part.

Price, the former wife of actor Stephen Rea, was convicted and jailed along with her sister Marian for the 1973 attack on London’s Old Bailey courts in which one man died and more than 200 people were injured.

She spent eight years in jail including several weeks on hunger strike before being released in 1980.

Revealed: Secret murder tapes that ‘name’ Gerry Adams over IRA execution of mother accused of passing information to British

Revealed: Secret murder tapes that ‘name’ Gerry Adams over IRA execution of mother accused of passing information to British

• Adams is accused of ordering execution of mother-of-ten Jean McConville
• IRA woman who drove Mrs McConville to her death recorded a confession
• The tape had languished for ten years in a Boston College library
• It has now been handed over to the Police Service of Northern Ireland

By BOB GRAHAM
Daily Mail
PUBLISHED: 21:10 GMT, 6 July 2013

The night of December 7, 1972, is forever branded on Michael McConville’s memory.

That night a gang of masked IRA terrorists smashed down the door of his family’s West Belfast home and dragged out his mother Jean, as several of her ten children clutched at her skirts and screamed.

It was the last time Michael, then 11, was to see his mother alive.

Horror: The remains of IRA murder victim Jean McConville are recovered from an area near the Templetown beach in County Louth in 2003

Now, at last, the McConville children are on the verge of hearing – from beyond the grave – the confession of the IRA woman who drove their mother to her death.

Yesterday, 11 clandestine tapes recorded by Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries, which have languished for ten years in the archives of the Burns Library in Boston College in the US, were handed over to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

They include an admission from Dolores Price, one of the IRA’s most infamous terrorists, that she ferried Michael’s 37-year-old mother to the Irish Republic where she was tortured, tied up and shot in the head.

And she asserts it was Gerry Adams who sanctioned the murder.

Adams, who now sits in the Republic of Ireland’s parliament, has always strenuously denied belonging to the IRA and any involvement in terrorist murders.

But Michael McConville, now 51, believes the tapes’ shocking contents could lead to fresh arrests – among them that of Adams.

Price’s damning revelation is corroborated in another tape, made by Brendan ‘Darkie’ Hughes, the terror-hardened deputy commander of the IRA’s Belfast Brigade.

He, too, insists it was Adams who signed the Catholic Belfast housewife’s death warrant. Yet Adams claims credit for shaping the 1996 peace agreement that ended Ulster’s Troubles after he swapped the ArmaLite for the ballot box.

Price and Hughes, now both dead, agreed to make the tapes with Irish academics on the strict proviso they remain locked away while they lived. Price’s death in January this year freed the Boston College from its obligation to keep them secret.

The release of the tapes has been at the centre of a bitter legal wrangle. Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, Deputy First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly and a self-confessed former IRA commander, and US Secretary of State John Kerry have waged a high-profile battle to have them suppressed on the grounds that they could derail Ulster’s fragile peace process.

For Michael and his siblings, their hope is that the recordings may at last lead to their mother’s executioners being brought to justice.

‘If Price mentions Gerry Adams in the tapes, that he was in some way involved and if it can be proved, he should be tried,’ Michael says. ‘At the very least I’d like to see him stand in court and answer the accusations.

‘You can’t turn around and say it is right to kill someone the way they did, especially a mother, no matter what your beliefs are.’

Michael’s mother, Jean, a Protestant who converted to Catholicism when she married husband Archie, had moved to the staunchly Republican Divis Flats in the Lower Falls area after being intimidated out of a Loyalist area.

When the IRA eventually confessed to abducting and killing her, they claimed it was because she was a ‘tout’ who was passing information to the British Army.

The McConville family has always insisted that their mother’s only involvement with the Army was that she once gave succour to an injured squaddie.

Michael has yet to hear the tapes. But shortly before she died Delores Price chillingly told me of her role in the murder of his mother – one of 17 IRA victims known as the Disappeared. She told me that her memoir, including her role driving away the Disappeared, was recorded in the Boston Project – as the collection of tapes are known.

Price, who led the IRA terror squad that bombed the Old Bailey in 1973, admitted she drove Mrs McConville to Dundalk in the Irish Republic.

She confessed she was a member of a select unit of the IRA’s Belfast Brigade, codenamed the Unknowns, whose mission was to take those believed to have betrayed Republicans for interrogation.

For those found guilty by the Republican kangaroo courts, the only sentence was death. ‘I never knew for sure their ultimate end, I was simply told by Gerry Adams to take the people away,’

Price admitted. ‘Some, I knew their fate, some I didn’t. I took seven in all. My job was to hand them over to others. I don’t even remember some of their names.

‘I drove Jean McConville away. She was a very, very unpleasant woman. I know I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead and I don’t think she deserved to die. I didn’t know she was a mother.

‘I had a call one night and Adams was in a house down the Falls Road. McConville had been snatched and held for several days.

‘It was part of my job to take them across the border to hand them over. She got into my car and as far as she was concerned she was being taken to a place of safety by the Legion of Mary [a Catholic charity].

‘She went on and on about “them f****** Provies, they wouldn’t have the balls to shoot me. F*** them”. I was saying to myself “please don’t say any more”. But she went on and on, she convicted herself out of her own mouth.

‘It wasn’t my decision to “disappear” her, thank God. All I had to do was drive her. I even got her fish and chips and cigarettes before I left her.’

Price refused to enlarge on why Adams ordered Mrs McConville’s execution, but commented: ‘You don’t deserve to die if you are an unpleasant person, as she was, but you do deserve to die if you are an informer. Particularly in a war. That is the Republican way.’

For the McConville children, their mother’s death blighted their lives for ever. Today a fragmented family, they rarely meet or discuss the trauma of her being taken.

Michael remembers his older brother Archie, then 16, followed the terrorists dragging his mother onto the street, begging: ‘Can I go with my Mammy?’ One of the gunmen took him aside, put his pistol to the teenager’s temple and told him to ‘f*** off’.

He added: ‘Not long after she was taken, a local IRA man knocked on the door and handed Mum’s purse and wedding ring to my sister.

I knew then she hadn’t just been murdered but executed. We found out she had been taken to a beach, had her hands tied, was knocked to the ground beside what would be her own grave and shot in the head.’

The Provisional IRA immediately imposed a menacing omerta among the West Belfast community. To talk of Jean McConville’s fate was to invite a visit from a death squad.’

When, 30 years after her abduction, the IRA admitted they had killed Mrs McConville, exhaustive searches found no body. Then, in August 2003, walkers stumbled upon her remains buried on Shelling Hill beach, Dundalk.

Now, for Michael McConville and his family, justice is at last in sight.

Adams appeals for help in finding IRA ‘disappeared’

Adams appeals for help in finding IRA ‘disappeared’
MICHAEL BRENNAN DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR
Irish Independent
22 JUNE 2013

SINN Fein leader Gerry Adams is calling for information in finding the bodies of victims secretly killed and buried in unknown locations by the IRA, despite still being implicated in such murders himself.

Mr Adams continues to be hounded by accusations from former IRA members that he ordered the kidnap and murder of Belfast mother-of-10 Jean McConville in 1972.

The Catholic woman was among dozens of people – later known as the ‘disappeared’ – who were abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA during the Troubles.

The Sinn Fein leader is continually named as a leader of the Provos throughout that period.

IRA Old Bailey bomber Dolours Price, who died in January, and another former IRA member, the late Brendan Hughes, both claimed Mr Adams ordered the killing and burial of Ms McConville – one of the most notorious murders of the Troubles.

Mr Adams has repeatedly denied ever having been in the IRA or any knowledge of Ms McConville’s killing.

Labour Party TD Sean Kenny said nobody believed Mr Adams’s many denials of being a senior IRA commander in the past.

“If he is appealing to people who are not coming forward and being helpful, then that is to be welcomed,” he said.

Mr Adams is now calling for “anyone with information” on the whereabouts of those secretly killed and buried by the IRA to come forward.

His comments come as Hollywood star Liam Neeson and fellow actor James Nesbitt also issued an appeal for information on the seven of the ‘disappeared’ whose bodies have still not been found.

In total, 17 people were murdered and buried in secret, mainly by the Provisional IRA, during the Troubles.

Ten bodies have been recovered but a further seven have never been found.

Those missing include west Belfast IRA men Joe Lynskey and Brendan McGraw, as well as Captain Robert Nairac of the SAS. All three were killed by the IRA.

Mr Adams said he wanted to appeal again for anyone with any information on those killed and secretly buried by the IRA to contact the families, the Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains or himself.

The Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains was set up after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement to get confidential information that might lead to the location of those whose bodies have never been found.

IRA Disappeared victim Jean McConville’s murder should be treated as a “war crime”

IRA Disappeared victim Jean McConville’s murder should be treated as a “war crime”
News Letter
20 June 2013

Jean McConville’s IRA killers should stand trial at the Hague, her son has said.

Michael McConville, who was aged 11 when his mother was snatched from her west Belfast home more than 40 years ago, claimed her death should be treated a war crime.

“Those that took my mother away and senior Sinn Fein figures that supported them should be rounded up and made to stand trial at the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, but that will never happen, not in this country,” he said.

Mrs McConville, a widowed mother-of-10 was one of 17 people abducted, killed and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries during the Troubles.

She was dragged from her home at Divis flats by a gang of up to 18 IRA men and women in January 1972.

Her body was found more than three decades later at Shelling Beach, Co Louth in August 2003. Forensic tests revealed she had been badly beaten and shot in the back of the head.

The discovery was made by a member of the public.

Mr McConville, who spent five years in a children’s home separated from his siblings after his mother’s disappearance, said the family still had many unanswered questions.

“Apparently this man came across her body by accident; he found a rag and started digging with his kids’ bucket and spade and then he came across a human bone and when he dug some more he got her body.

“This is the official version but the family have always disputed this; I think it is too convenient. My mother was missing for over 30 years and her body just happened to be found on a beach by a man playing with his kids,” he added.

To date the bodies of 10 people – who became known as The Disappeared – have been recovered.

A further seven people including west Belfast IRA man Joe Lynskey, Brendan McGraw from Twinbrook and SAS-trained officer Captain Robert Nairac have never been found.

Writing in a new book alongside relatives of other victims, Mr McConville recalled the frantic moments he last saw his mother alive.

“A rap came to the door and a gang of men and women piled into the flat. They were looking for our mother and when they got her they tried to pull her outside. We were all crying and holding on to her so they stopped and tried to calm us down; they said that (his brother) Archie could go with her but when they got Archie and mother outside they told Archie to **** off. We looked from the balcony as they bundled her into a van. There were two cars with men and women in them, in total there was about 18 people who took my mother away. I have no idea why it took so many as she wasn’t a big woman.”

Former IRA man Brendan ‘Darkie’ Hughes, who led the 1981 hunger strike, claimed Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams had authorised the abduction of Jean McConville.

The allegations were made in a series of interviews which Hughes gave to a researcher for Boston College in 2001 and 2002 on the condition the material would not be publicised until after his death.

Old Bailey bomber Dolours Price, who died earlier this year, also alleged Mr Adams had been her IRA Officer Commanding during the early 1970s and specifically implicated him in the murder of Jean McConville.

Mr Adams, now a Louth TD, has always denied being a member of the IRA.

Meanwhile, a fourth search is being carried out in Co Monaghan for the body of Columba McVeigh who disappeared from Dublin in 1975.

Also, writing in the new book, his brother Oliver said more should be done to recover the bodies of those still missing.

“In my opinion Sinn Fein and the IRA need to answer for what they have done. They may have admitted to their sins, they may feel their conscience has been cleansed and that all of us will just go away in time but this is not over by a long shot. They need to recover all the bodies.

“We have all waited and suffered for long enough. I know there are people out there who know something. Gerry Adams once said that he was ‘prepared to do everything humanly possible to help recover Columba’s remains but he hasn’t. It’s obvious he was only paying lip service to the issue. If they put the same effort into finding the bodies of The Disappeared as they did into getting the political institutions up and running all the bodies would have been found by now,” Mr McVeigh said.

The Commission for the Location of Victims Remains was set up after the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement to obtain information, in confidentiality, which may lead to the location of the remains of victims.

Information provided to the commission cannot be used for a criminal prosecution and cannot be disclosed.

Kieran McGraw, whose 24-year-old brother Brendan went missing from Twinbrook in 1978, appealed for anyone with information about the Disappeared to come forward.

He said: “Our mother died in 2002 and I know Brendan’s disappearance had a massive impact on her. Mammy tried her best to conceal it outwardly but I knew she was suffering on the inside.

“It is immensely frustrating that our mother died before we could bring Brendan’s body home to Belfast for him to have a Christian burial.”

The book, The Disappeared Of Northern Ireland’s Troubles, will be launched at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre tomorrow at 11am.

A total of 17 people were acknowledged as Disappeared – abducted, murdered and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries – during the Troubles.

In 1999, the British and Irish governments set up the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) to help co-ordinate searches.

To date, 10 bodies have been recovered.

They are:

:: Eugene Simons disappeared from Castlewellan in 1981. His body was recovered on May 24 1984 in a bog in Dundalk, Co Louth.

:: Eamonn Molloy disappeared in 1975. His body was recovered on May 28 1999 in a coffin at the Old Faughart Cemetery outside Dandily, Co Louth.

:: John McClory disappeared in 1978. His body was recovered on June 30 1999 at Colgagh, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan.

:: Brian McKinney disappeared in 1978. His body was recovered on June 30 1999 at Colgagh, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan.

:: Jean McConville disappeared in 1972. Her body was recovered on August 27 2003 at Shelling Beach, Co Louth.

:: Gareth O’Connor disappeared in 2003. His body was recovered on June 11 2005 at Victoria Quay, Newry Canal, Co Louth.

:: Danny McIlhone disappeared in 1981. His body was recovered on November 10 2008 at Blessingtown, Co Wicklow.

:: Charlie Armstrong disappeared in 1981. His body was recovered on July 29 2010 at Colgagh, Iniskeen, Co Monaghan.

:: Gerry Evans disappeared in 1979. His body was recovered on October 15 2010 at Carrickrobin, Co Louth.

:: Peter Wilson disappeared in 1973. His body was recovered on November 2 2010 at Red Bay, Waterfoot, Glenariff, Co Antrim.

A further seven bodies remain to be found.

:: Joe Lynskey disappeared in 1972 from west Belfast. His case became prominent in December 2009 and was added to the list of Disappeared in 2010.

:: Kevin McKee disappeared in 1972 from west Belfast with Seamus Wright. A search conducted at Wilkingstown, Co Navan failed to locate his body.

:: Seamus Wright disappeared from west Belfast in 1972 with Kevin McKee.

:: Columba McVeigh disappeared in 1975. Searches have been conducted at Emyvale Forest, Co Monaghan.

:: Captain Robert Nairac disappeared in 1977 from a south Armagh pub. He was murdered and secretly buried.

:: Brendan Megraw disappeared in 1978 from Twinbrook. Searches have been conducted in Oristown, Co Navan.

:: Seamus Ruddy disappeared in 1985 in Paris. His body has never been recovered despite a search being conducted in 1999 and again in 2008 at a forest near Rouen, France.

‘Treat mother’s death as war crime’

‘Treat mother’s death as war crime’
Belfast Telegraph
20 JUNE 2013

Jean McConville’s IRA killers should stand trial at the Hague, her son has said.

Michael McConville, who was aged 11 when his mother was snatched from her west Belfast home more than 40 years ago, claimed her death should be treated a war crime.

“Those that took my mother away and senior Sinn Fein figures that supported them should be rounded up and made to stand trial at the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, but that will never happen, not in this country,” he said.

Mrs McConville, a widowed mother-of-10 was one of 17 people abducted, killed and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries during the Troubles. She was dragged from her home at Divis flats by a gang of up to 18 IRA men and women in January 1972.

Her body was found more than three decades later at Shelling Beach, Co Louth, in August 2003. Forensic tests revealed she had been badly beaten and shot in the back of the head. The discovery was made by a member of the public.

Mr McConville, who spent five years in a children’s home separated from his siblings after his mother’s disappearance, said the family still had many unanswered questions.

“Apparently this man came across her body by accident; he found a rag and started digging with his kids’ bucket and spade and then he came across a human bone and when he dug some more he got her body. This is the official version but the family have always disputed this; I think it is too convenient. My mother was missing for over 30 years and her body just happened to be found on a beach by a man playing with his kids,” he added.

To date the bodies of 10 people – who became known as The Disappeared – have been recovered. A further seven people including west Belfast IRA man Joe Lynskey, Brendan McGraw from Twinbrook and SAS-trained officer Captain Robert Nairac have never been found.

Meanwhile, a fourth search is being carried out in Co Monaghan for the body of Columba McVeigh who disappeared from Dublin in 1975. Writing in a new book, The Disappeared Of Northern Ireland’s Troubles, which will be launched at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre on Friday, alongside relatives of other victims, his brother Oliver said more should be done to recover the bodies of those still missing.

“In my opinion Sinn Fein and the IRA need to answer for what they have done. They may have admitted to their sins, they may feel their conscience has been cleansed and that all of us will just go away in time but this is not over by a long shot. They need to recover all the bodies,” he said.

Jean McConville murder: Son says IRA killers should stand trial for war crimes

Jean McConville murder: Son says IRA killers should stand trial for war crimes
BY LESLEY-ANNE MCKEOWN
Belfast Telegraph
20 JUNE 2013

Jean McConville’s IRA killers should stand trial at the Hague, her son has said.

Michael McConville, who was aged 11 when his mother was snatched from her west Belfast home more than 40 years ago, claimed her death should be treated a war crime.

“Those that took my mother away and senior Sinn Fein figures that supported them should be rounded up and made to stand trial at the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, but that will never happen, not in this country,” he said.

Mrs McConville, a widowed mother-of-10 was one of 17 people abducted, killed and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries during the Troubles.

She was dragged from her home at Divis flats by a gang of up to 18 IRA men and women in January 1972.

Her body was found more than three decades later at Shelling Beach, Co Louth in August 2003. Forensic tests revealed she had been badly beaten and shot in the back of the head.

The discovery was made by a member of the public.

Mr McConville, who spent five years in a children’s home separated from his siblings after his mother’s disappearance, said the family still had many unanswered questions.

“Apparently this man came across her body by accident; he found a rag and started digging with his kids’ bucket and spade and then he came across a human bone and when he dug some more he got her body.

“This is the official version but the family have always disputed this; I think it is too convenient. My mother was missing for over 30 years and her body just happened to be found on a beach by a man playing with his kids,” he added.

To date the bodies of 10 people – who became known as The Disappeared – have been recovered.

A further seven people including west Belfast IRA man Joe Lynskey, Brendan McGraw from Twinbrook and SAS-trained officer Captain Robert Nairac have never been found.

Writing in a new book alongside relatives of other victims, Mr McConville recalled the frantic moments he last saw his mother alive.

“A rap came to the door and a gang of men and women piled into the flat. They were looking for our mother and when they got her they tried to pull her outside. We were all crying and holding on to her so they stopped and tried to calm us down; they said that (his brother) Archie could go with her but when they got Archie and mother outside they told Archie to **** off. We looked from the balcony as they bundled her into a van. There were two cars with men and women in them, in total there was about 18 people who took my mother away. I have no idea why it took so many as she wasn’t a big woman.”

Former IRA man Brendan ‘Darkie’ Hughes, who led the 1981 hunger strike, claimed Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams had authorised the abduction of Jean McConville.

The allegations were made in a series of interviews which Hughes gave to a researcher for Boston College in 2001 and 2002 on the condition the material would not be publicised until after his death.

Old Bailey bomber Dolours Price, who died earlier this year, also alleged Mr Adams had been her IRA Officer Commanding during the early 1970s and specifically implicated him in the murder of Jean McConville.

Mr Adams, now a Louth TD, has always denied being a member of the IRA.

Meanwhile, a fourth search is being carried out in Co Monaghan for the body of Columba McVeigh who disappeared from Dublin in 1975.

Also, writing in the new book, his brother Oliver said more should be done to recover the bodies of those still missing.

“In my opinion Sinn Fein and the IRA need to answer for what they have done. They may have admitted to their sins, they may feel their conscience has been cleansed and that all of us will just go away in time but this is not over by a long shot. They need to recover all the bodies.

“We have all waited and suffered for long enough. I know there are people out there who know something. Gerry Adams once said that he was ‘prepared to do everything humanly possible to help recover Columba’s remains but he hasn’t. It’s obvious he was only paying lip service to the issue. If they put the same effort into finding the bodies of The Disappeared as they did into getting the political institutions up and running all the bodies would have been found by now,” Mr McVeigh said.

The Commission for the Location of Victims Remains was set up after the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement to obtain information, in confidentiality, which may lead to the location of the remains of victims.

Information provided to the commission cannot be used for a criminal prosecution and cannot be disclosed.

Kieran McGraw, whose 24-year-old brother Brendan went missing from Twinbrook in 1978, appealed for anyone with information about the Disappeared to come forward.

He said: “Our mother died in 2002 and I know Brendan’s disappearance had a massive impact on her. Mammy tried her best to conceal it outwardly but I knew she was suffering on the inside.

“It is immensely frustrating that our mother died before we could bring Brendan’s body home to Belfast for him to have a Christian burial.”

The book, The Disappeared Of Northern Ireland’s Troubles, will be launched at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre tomorrow at 11am.