"Orde Says IRA Offer 'was to Kill'"

IRA offers to kill own members

News article

By: BBC News Online

Date: March 9, 2005

Source: BBC News Online, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4331819.stm> (accessed July 10, 2005).

About the Author: BBC News Online went "live" in November 1997. This article was written by a staff writer.

INTRODUCTION

When Northern Ireland's main political parties signed the Good Friday Agreement, the political settlement which brought an end to the province's 30-year-long troubles in April 1998, it closed one chapter of violence in Ulster's history, but seemingly opened up another. Even at the time, the treaty's critics, seeing through the frenzy of excitement that greeted peace, pointed out that while the Good Friday Agreement proscribed paramilitary activity, it made no mention of organized crime.

When the Good Friday Agreement came into place it had a twofold effect: it reduced the donations terrorist groups received (causing cash flow problems), and it also removed hundreds of men from frontline paramilitary activity. Activities more synonymous with organized crime such as money laundering, drug dealing, protection rackets, and counterfeiting had long been amongst the principal money-raising methods of groups like the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the loyalist (pro-British) Ulster Defense Force (UDF). Short of money but rich in manpower, these illegal activities increased sharply in the months and years following the Good Friday Agreement.

Accompanying their transformation into criminal gangs came a shift in the rules of engagement. The previous politicization of paramilitary organizations tempered some of the excess in their own communities, but assassinations, punishment beatings, and kneecappings (where the knees or even elbows are shot or drilled) all rose exponentially. Extremist violence became more indiscriminate.

On January 30, 2005, Robert McCartney, a 33-year-old Catholic father of two, became involved in an altercation with Provisional IRA members in a Belfast city center bar. He was dragged outside, beaten, and stabbed. McCartney died of his injuries in hospital the following morning.

PRIMARY SOURCE

The IRA was prepared to kill those it claims were behind the murder of Belfast man Robert McCartney, the chief constable has said.

The IRA has offered to shoot the people who killed the 33-year-old after a row in a city centre bar on 30 January. His family have rejected the offer.

Hugh Orde said he had "no doubt" the IRA meant they would kill the men.

Mr. Orde said the police know who the suspects are, but could not make an arrest without evidence.

"We need people to give us the evidence that enables us to go and do our job properly," he told the BBC on Wednesday.

"This is an organisation theoretically on ceasefire. This is an organisation that is still prepared to kill people now from its own community."

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness said he was surprised by the IRA statement.

He said he thought it would have been "very unfortunate" if the organisation had shot the alleged killers.

"I think the difficulty about this particular sentence in the statement is it takes away from what I think is an awful lot of positive stuff," Mr. McGuinness said.

The U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, said it was "time for the IRA to go out of business."

Mr Reiss added: "It's time for Sinn Fein to be able to say explicitly, without ambiguity, without ambivalence, that criminality will not be tolerated."

In a statement on Tuesday, the IRA offered to shoot those directly involved in the murder and said it had given the family their names.

But Mr McCartney's cousin, Gerard Quinn, said: "I think the feeling is that to shoot and possibly kill these people is revenge and not justice. And revenge is not what the family is looking for."

A five-page statement from the IRA said the McCartney family had met the organisation twice and made it clear they did not want physical action taken against those involved.

The IRA said it had given the family the name of the man who allegedly stabbed Mr. McCartney and a second man who allegedly supplied, removed, and destroyed the murder weapon.

Both these men have been expelled by the IRA.

The republican organisation said it had also spoken directly to key eyewitnesses and told them they had nothing to fear from the IRA.

Former IRA hunger striker Tommy McKearney said the statement was extraordinary and showed an indecisiveness and lack of self-confidence within the IRA leadership.

Mr McKearney said he thought it was "inevitable" that Sinn Fein would have to break off from the IRA as the contradictions between them could not be reconciled.

"I think that's what we're seeing at the moment," he said.

Secretary of State Paul Murphy said he was appalled by the offer.

"There is no place for those who signed up to the Good Friday Agreement for the sort of arbitrary justice and murder that is being suggested here," he said.

DUP leader Ian Paisley called for the leaders of Sinn Fein to be arrested following the IRA statement.

"The offer to shoot those responsible for the murder of Robert McCartney confirms again that terrorism is the only stock and trade of Sinn Fein/IRA," he said.

Senior Ulster Unionist Sir Reg Empey said the statement proved the IRA had "clearly learnt nothing over recent weeks" and SDLp.m. Eddie McGrady condemned the IRA proposal as "obscene."

The IRA expelled three members over the murder and Sinn Fein subsequently suspended seven of its members.

SIGNIFICANCE

McCartney's murder gained instant notoriety, not just for the savagery of the attack, but because it emerged that Provisional IRA members had threatened drinkers at the bar lest they report or discuss what they had seen and had undertaken a "forensic cleaning" of the bar to remove any traces of evidence. Moreover, no ambulance was ever called for the dying man.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) met a wall of silence when investigating the murder. Those that they could pin down as being present all claimed to be in the toilet at the time. When police attempted a forensic examination of the pub, they were attacked by a stone-throwing mob. Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, waded into the argument, accusing the PSNI of heavy-handedness and using the investigation to disrupt Belfast's Catholic community.

Outraged not just at the murder of their brother, but at the apparent complicity of all levels of the Republican movement, McCartney's five sisters publicly accused the Provisional IRA of their brother's murder and the subsequent cover up.

The revelations about McCartney's death followed the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly because of the IRA's refusal to decommission its arms. A raid on the Northern Bank in December 2004, which had yielded 26.5 million pounds (approximately 50 million dollars) had been blamed on the IRA.

Representatives of Sinn Fein met with the McCartneys on several occasions during February and March 2005. As a result of those meetings, the IRA formulated their own unique solution that would bring Robert McCartney's murderers to justice: they offered to "shoot" his killers. Whether this was to be a punishment shooting (i.e., non-fatal) or an execution was not made clear. The McCartney sisters rejected the offer.

Revelations about the IRA's offer merely deepened the problems facing Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and increased the coverage of the McCartney sisters' bid for justice. They were invited by President Bush to Washington and to the White House's St. Patrick's Day celebrations; Adams was not. (Even at the height of the IRA's mainland bombing campaign in the 1980s, the Sinn Fein leader always visited senior U.S. politicians on St. Patrick's Day.)

Despite international press coverage, the McCartney sisters were apparently not beyond the threats of the IRA. The sisters claim that IRA militants threatened to burn their Belfast home unless they halted their crusade.

In April 2005, Sinn Fein suspended several of its members linked to the killing. However, the republicans alleged intimidation of potential witnesses and continual obstruction of the PSNI's investigation slowed the search for the killer. Finally, in June 2005, an arrest was made for the murder of Robert McCartney.

In July of 2005, Gerry Adams announced that the IRA was ending its armed campaign against British rule and would disarm. The announcement was met with praise from Tony Blair and from leaders in Ireland and the United States.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

McDowell, Jim. Godfathers: Inside Northern Ireland's Drugs Racket. Dublin, Gill & Macmillan, 2003.

McKittrick, David, and McVeigh, David. Making Sense of the Troubles. London: Penguin, 2003.

Web sites

Sinn Fein. <http://sinnfein.ie/> (accessed July 8, 2005).

Police Service of Northern Ireland. "Appeals for information: Murder of Robert McCartney." <http://www.psni.police.uk/index/appeals/appeals_for_information/mccartneymurder.htm> (accessed July 8, 2005).