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Tag: Sinn Féin Leader

  • Gerry Adams Released, Criticizes His Arrest

    Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has been released from police custody following four days of questioning by Northern Ireland authorities. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) had arrested Adams last Wednesday on suspicion of involvement with a 1972 murder.

    In a press conference following his release Adams criticized the PSNI, suggesting that the timing of his arrest may have had something to do with impending elections in Northern Ireland. Adams also stated that while he does not dissociate himself with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the past, the era of the IRA is over.

    “The IRA is gone,” said Adams. “It’s finished.”

    Adams was arrested last week on suspicion of his involvement in the 1972 murder of Jean McConville. McConville, a woman living in Belfast, was kidnapped and murdered by the IRA for her suspected collusion with British forces. Her body was buried in County Louth. The murder was one of many on both sides of the Irish War of Independence, during which suspected informants were routinely murdered and buried in secret.

    In 1999 the IRA officially claimed responsibility for McConville’s murder. The group claimed to have found a transmitter in the woman’s home, a claim contested by Northern Ireland police.

    According to a BBC News report, 33 taped interviews with Adams were conducted during his four days in custody. The interviews and the McConville case have been sent to the Public Prosecution Service, but Adams’ release from police custody signals that there is not enough evidence to link the man to the McConville murder.

    Though Northern Ireland has largely seen peace for over a decade now, Adams’ arrest demonstrates just how much influence the IRA and other paramilitary organizations still have over Northern Ireland politics. As the leader of Sinn Fein, Adams has been instrumental to the peace process in Northern Ireland.

    Image via Sinn Fein

  • Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams Arrested For IRA’s 1972 Slaying Of A Widow

    Irish republican and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was arrested and interrogated on Wednesday for being a suspect in the killing of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of 10, in 1972. Adams confirmed his arrest and called it voluntary and pre-arranged.

    The murder happened during a turbulent time for Ireland, when the IRA (Irish Republican Army) was killing people almost daily.

    McConville was accused of being a British spy by the IRA, so they killed her and told her children that their mother had abandoned them. McConville’s body was then secretly buried, and the IRA only admitted to the crime in 1998. McConville’s shattered skeletal remains were found near a shoreline in 2003.

    When Adams was taken in, he was interrogated about IRA activities, such as shootings that happened in the 70s and 80s, bombings, and the car-bomb offensive in Belfast. Adams insisted that he has never had a position in the underground army, and said that he has only been convicted for a single IRA offense, which was a failed escape when he was imprisoned without going to trial.

    Before he entered the Belfast police station, Adams gave television interviews saying “Well publicized, malicious allegations have been made against me. I reject these.” He also said that he will never disassociate himself from the IRA but he is “innocent of any part in the abduction, killing, or burial of Mrs. McConville.”

    According to Ed Moloney, one of Ireland’s leading reporters,  it is unlikely that the authorities will charge him unless he confesses to committing the crime.

    The authorities who are in charge of McConville’s case have been arresting suspects based on taped interviews. These tapes, obtained from Boston College, consist of interrogations of IRA veterans. The only condition the IRA veterans had was that the tapes only be revealed when they are dead.

    In one of the tapes, Adams’ confidante Brendan Hughes, admitted that the one who ordered the killing of McConville was “the head of Sinn Féin.” Hughes died in 2008.

    Gerry Adams Interview

    Image via YouTube