Provisional IRA – Page 3 – Slugger O'Toole

“It is rather as if the US and Europe ended up not only accepting the right of ISIS to exist but went on to embrace Islam as their state religion…”

Pete Baker on August 1, 2015, 5:03 pm

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At The Broken Elbow, Ed Moloney responds to the Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams’ recent claim that “the IRA was never defeated” and, in the process, provides a useful corrective to the partial, ahistorical, view held by some. From The Broken Elbow post Adams was also responding, according to press reports, to recent remarks by British premier, David Cameron that, “British resolve saw off the IRA’s assaults on our way of life”, i.e that Britain defeated the IRA. So, who is …

“it looks like they were repeatedly blocked from accessing vital pieces of evidence or pursuing certain suspects…”

Pete Baker on March 7, 2015, 4:54 pm

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The Guardian and Observer’s Berlin correspondent, Kate Connolly, reports on the campaign for justice by the family of Heidi Hazell, the 26-year-old German wife of a British army sergeant, murdered by the Provisional IRA outside her married quarters in Unna-Massen, a Dortmund suburb, on 7 September 1989. From the Guardian report The following day the IRA claimed responsibility for what was its first and only murder in West Germany of a British soldier’s wife. In a statement the organisation said she had …

The Taoiseach: “I will ask them the question that the Deputy will not answer.”

Pete Baker on November 1, 2014, 7:54 pm

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There was a clear attempt at political revisionism this week, as the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, TD, sought to, as Anthony McIntyre put it, “claw back lost ground” following an “unprecedented” Leaders’ questions in the Dáil on Wednesday 22 Oct – aided and abetted by interventions from the legal representative of four of those accused, and acquitted, in the Maíria Cahill case. [added in-line link] This is the position the Sinn Fein president attempted to end the week with “I further understand that Peter …

Sinn Féin’s Peadar Tóibín: “I have no doubt that in the IRA modus operandi of the time that people were moved…”

Pete Baker on October 24, 2014, 5:25 pm

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With the out-going MP for Newry and Armagh, Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy, declaring his ignorance of alleged abusers in the republican movement being moved out of Northern Ireland – BBC report “I’ve never heard that in all my life as a republican,” [Conor Murphy] said. …it’s worth extracting from the Fireman’s post some quotes from the interview on Newstalk Breakfast with Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín – who, according to the SF website, is a “current member of the Sinn Féin Ard Comhairle.” Here’s …

Another Cahill angle entirely…

Brian Walker on October 21, 2014, 2:45 pm

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Well I never. Mairia Cahill’s late doting old great uncle exposed as a tout by – the Daily Mirror! According to Mairia he had advised her to go the RUC . It smelt like an alibi for the Provos when she referred to it in that riveting Spotlight interview. But this! Joe Cahill, who helped found the Provisional IRA, was pictured abusing a 14-year-old girl in a car in the 1970s, the sources said. But instead of being prosecuted, the images were used by …

Gerry Adams: “this can be too easily twisted into a view that since everyone was to blame, nobody was to blame…”

Pete Baker on June 21, 2014, 4:46 pm

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The Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, TD, has been blaming others, again, for the failure to agree a comprehensive package on, among other issues, dealing with the past – in particular, a failure to agree on the holistic approach that could be said to characterise the mechanisms contained in the Haass proposals. But he had some interesting comments to make last weekend on a specific topic from the past elsewhere – [Not here? – Ed] No, there – that could help inform further discussion. Here’s …

Martin McGuinness: “I mean I remember, I remember, I remember…”

Pete Baker on June 17, 2014, 4:06 pm

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Or not, as the case may be. Faced with evidence to the contrary, the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, has admitted that he was not, as he had claimed in an interview with RTÉ’s Marian Finucane, in Portlaoise prison when “Patrick Duffy was killed and his body secretly buried”. As the News Letter reports In a statement, [Martin McGuinness] said: “The facts are that I served a six-month sentence in Portlaoise jail in 1973 and another in …

Sinn Féin: “What happened was done with British cabinet approval…”

Pete Baker on May 13, 2014, 6:22 pm

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A few days ago on Eamonn Maillie’s blog, Brian Rowan gravely informed us that, rather than the wild paranoid ramblings of a party desperate to distract attention from their threat to “review” their support for policing if the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, was charged as a result of the investigation into the abduction, murder and secret burial of Jean McConville in 1972, Sinn Féin’s latest outburst is evidence that “we’re not out of the political woods just yet.” The …

DPP: it could be “many many months” before a decision is made on whether or not Gerry Adams will be prosecuted…

Pete Baker on May 10, 2014, 7:06 pm

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As Newton Emerson notes in today’s Irish News – on some of the coverage of the arrest and questioning of Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, in relation to the abduction, murder, and secret burial of Jean McConville in 1972. Mystery surrounds BBC claims that the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) would not be bringing charges against Gerry Adams. The BBC began reporting this on early Monday evening, barely 24 hours after Adams had been released pending a file to the Public Prosecution …

Matt Baggott: “Under the Patten architecture, to which all political parties have signed up…”

Pete Baker on May 6, 2014, 5:39 pm

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PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott has rejected Sinn Fein’s claims of “political policing” in the arrest and questioning of party president Gerry Adams. And in doing so he highlights an inconvenient truth for the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister. From the BBC report In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Baggott said the accusation of a “dark side” within the PSNI was one he refuted. “Under the Patten architecture, to which all political parties have signed up, there are numerous ways …

Con Politics…

Pete Baker on May 3, 2014, 5:07 pm

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Just saying… [Put… the bunny… back… in the box. – Ed] Pete Baker

“Something, Something, Something, Dark Side…” – redux

Pete Baker on May 1, 2014, 7:02 pm

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More sound and fury from Sinn Féin over the continuing, agreed, questioning of party president Gerry Adams, TD, about the abduction, murder and secret burial of Jean McConville in 1972. This time the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, is recycling a 2011 phrase from his party chairman, Declan Kearney. And, apparently, he has super-sekrit sources… Mr McGuinness, Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, told a press conference at Stormont that the arrest of his party leader and “friend” was politically …

Instead of slugging it over the police, the politicians should take responsibility for the past

Brian Walker on May 1, 2014, 6:34 pm

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Does the conspiracy theory work, that Gerry Adams got himself arrested in order to clear his name? Does it square with Martin McGuinness’ charge that the timing is politically motivated? Or are Sinn Fein stunting synthetic rage about the timing in order to make his release an even bigger triumph? Ed Moloney speaking Radio 4 believes there was a logic to the timing of the arrest after the evidence of the Boston tapes, quite apart from elections. However he questions …

Gerry Adams: “I have no recollection of that whatsoever.”

Pete Baker on April 23, 2014, 11:13 pm

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A couple of points to note about the BBC report of the interview with former Provisional IRA member Peter Rogers. From the BBC report An ex-IRA man has made new allegations about Gerry Adams, in which he raises questions about the Sinn Féin leader’s claim to have never been in the IRA. Peter Rogers has alleged that Mr Adams and his Sinn Féin colleague Martin McGuinness ordered him to transport explosives to Great Britain in 1980. Both Sinn Féin men declined interviews …

Belfast City Council: “what happened on Saturday evening is a clear breach of our terms and conditions of hire.”

Pete Baker on April 1, 2014, 4:16 pm

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The News Letter has an updated comment from the spokeswoman for Belfast City Council about the (Provisional) IRA commemoration at Whiterock Leisure Centre on Saturday night. From the News Letter report Belfast City Council says a republican event in one of its leisure centres was clearly in breach of terms and conditions, after critics objected to use of a Sinn Fein banner, replica weapons and paramilitary flags. The event, in Whiterock Leisure Centre on Saturday, was strongly condemned yesterday by …

“Unlike Gerry Adams & Mary Lou McDonald…”

Pete Baker on March 30, 2014, 8:56 pm

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In a follow-up to a previous post on his Broken Elbow blog, as noted here, Ed Moloney has “an answer to Gerry Adams, Mary Lou McDonald and other critics of the Boston archive“. Aside from myself and Anthony McIntyre there is only one other person who has read all of the interviews lodged in the Belfast Project oral history archive at Boston College and that is Judge William Young of the Federal District Court in Boston, Massachusetts. Judge Young got to read …

“when a major political leader tells such an obvious falsehood about a defining part of his life…”

Pete Baker on March 25, 2014, 9:42 pm

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Also for the record, Ed Moloney has responded to Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams’ attack on the Boston College oral history project. From Ed Moloney’s blog I don’t intend to spill a lot of ink responding to Gerry Adams’ recent statement taking yet another swipe at the motives of those who were interviewed and who did the interviewing for the Boston College oral history archive. That is because I have already answered a very similar charge from Mary Lou McDonald. …

Ivor Bell charged in connection with Jean McConville abduction and murder

Pete Baker on March 21, 2014, 8:36 pm

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The BBC are reporting that Ivor Bell, who was arrested earlier this week, has been charged in connection with the abduction and murder of Jean McConville in December 1972. From the BBC report Ivor Bell, 77, who was a senior leader in the Provisional IRA in the 1970s, was arrested at his home in Andersonstown on Tuesday. He has been charged with aiding and abetting murder and membership of the IRA. He is expected to appear in court on Saturday. …

OTR scheme review judge named, and NI Affairs Committee launches inquiry

Pete Baker on March 11, 2014, 10:01 pm

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Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey might well think “it would’ve been better to have left the issue alone” [I couldn’t possibly comment… -Ed]. But that’s not happening. Today the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, informed the House of Commons that “the Rt Hon Lady Justice Hallett DBE has been appointed to conduct an independent review of the administrative scheme to deal with so-called ‘on-the-runs’”. The terms of reference of the review are: to produce a full public account of the operation and …

“Sit down and stop acting like a petulant child.”

Pete Baker on March 3, 2014, 11:13 pm

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According to the BBC’s Mark Simpson, former Provisional IRA OC in the Maze Prison, now Sinn Féin leader in Belfast City Council, Cllr Jim McVeigh, objected tonight when DUP Cllr Ruth Patterson put on a Linfield football scarf while speaking on a motion calling on the council to honour out-going Linfield manager David Jeffrey. From the BBC report The monthly meeting of the council on Monday was held up for more than 10 minutes as a result of complaints from Mr McVeigh. …