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Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams held over 1972 Jean McConville killing Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams held over 1972 Jean McConville killing
(about 1 hour later)
Sinn Féin's president Gerry Adams has been arrested and questioned about one of the most notorious killings of the Troubles – the kidnapping, murder and secret burial of widowed mother of 10, Jean McConville, republican sources said on Wednesday night. The Sinn Féin leader and chief architect of the Irish republican movement's peace strategy, Gerry Adams is being questioned by police over a notorious Troubles murder that has haunted his political career for decades.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said that a 65-year-old man was detained in connection with the investigation into the McConville murder. The suspect was taken to the PSNI's serious crime suite at Antrim police station. Adams put himself forward for questioning by the Police Service of Northern Ireland in connection with the kidnapping, killing and secret burial of mother of 10, Jean McConville.
McConville was dragged at gunpoint from her children just before Christmas in 1972 and was later "disappeared" by the Provisional IRA. Her body was only recovered on a beach in the Irish Republic in 2003, four years after the IRA admitted they had killed her for being an alleged informer. Earlier this year, Adams said he would be prepared to be interviewed by the PSNI about a "killing he had nothing to do with". The family of the widow whom the IRA "disappeared" just before Christmas 1972 tonight welcomed the arrest and said they hoped it would lead to the whole truth ultimately being exposed about their mother's murder.
Sinn Féin said Adams went by prior arrangement to make himself available to the police in Northern Ireland. The PSNI would only confirm that a 65-year-old man was being questioned by detectives at the serious crime suite in Antrim police station.
Adams, 65, a former MP for West Belfast and now a representative for Co Louth in the Irish Dáil, presented himself at Antrim police station. He issued a statement minutes after the PSNI announced an arrest had been made. But just before Adams walked into the police station on Wednesday evening, he told RTE television that he had had nothing to do with the murder.
"Last month, I said that I was available to meet the PSNI about the Jean McConville case," he said. "While I have concerns about the timing, I am voluntarily meeting with the PSNI this evening. As a republican leader, I have never shirked my responsibility to build the peace. This includes dealing with the difficult issue of victims and their families. Adams also rejected recent claims by the former IRA bomber and convicted Garda killer Peter Rogers that he and Martin McGuinness had ordered him to transport explosives to bomb Britain in 1980.
"Insofar as it is possible, I have worked to bring closure to victims and their families who have contacted me. Even though they may not agree, this includes the family of Jean McConville. I believe that the killing of Jean McConville and the secret burial of her body was wrong and a grievous injustice to her and her family. Speaking before entering the police station in Antrim town, Adams said: "As a republican leader I have never shirked my responsibility to build the peace. This includes dealing with the difficult issue of victims and their families. Insofar as it is possible I have worked to bring closure to victims and their families who have contacted me. Even though they may not agree, this includes the family of Jean McConville.
"Well-publicised, malicious allegations have been made against me. I reject these. While I have never disassociated myself from the IRA and I never will, I am innocent of any part in the abduction, killing or burial of Mrs McConville." "I believe that the killing of Jean McConville and the secret burial of her body was wrong and a grievous injustice to her and her family."
Adams has not only denied ever being involved in the McConville murder but that he was ever a member of the IRA.
Sinn Féin has described the timing of the PSNI's decision to question its leader as politically motivated.
His former comrade and close friend, the late Belfast IRA commander Brendan Hughes, alleged in an interview published posthumously that Adams gave the order for Jean McConville to be removed by a specialist IRA unit the future Sinn Féin chief had set up to weed out nationalist informers in the city.
Jean McConville was taken from her 10 children at their home in the Divis Flats complex of west Belfast in December 1972. The IRA put out a bogus story that she had run away to England and abandoned her children. It also alleged that the 37-year-old Protestant born widow was an informer, which the then Northern Ireland police ombudsman Nuala O'Loan later concluded was untrue. It was not until 1999 that the IRA finally admitted it had abducted, killed and buried McConville on a beach in County Louth, across the border in the Irish Republic.
Helen McKendry, one of McConville's children who witnessed her abduction by several male and female IRA members, saidthat she and her husband Seamus were optimistic that justice would finally be done.
Seamus McKendry, who together with his wife started the campaign in 1994 to highlight the plight of the "Disappeared" – the 16 IRA victims shot and buried in secret during the 1970s and 80s – said: "The family are quite happy that Adams is being questioned about Jean's murder. But even if this inquiry fails we have always made clear that we will pursue a civil legal action against Adams, just like the families of the victims of the Omagh bomb prosecuted their civil case against Real IRA leaders."
He added: "It should be noted that the IRA and people in Sinn Féin like Mr Adams always insisted that this was a war. Under the Geneva Convention to 'disappear' someone in a war is a war crime. He should keep that in mind in these days ahead because it has long been our view that what happened to Jean was a war crime."
McKendry and his wife said Adams facing questions over the murder vindicated the PSNI's pursuit of the Boston College Belfast Project Tapes, a five-year oral history project aimed at documenting perspectives on the Troubles from those involved in the conflict. A number of people have already been arrested and questioned in relation to the McConville killing after the PSNI was able to seize taped testimony from IRA veterans who talked openly to the project about their role in the armed campaign, including the murders of the Disappeared.
Brendan Hughes was not alone in talking to the Belfast Project about the IRA campaign against informers and the use of disappearances to cover up controversial murders, such as that of Jean McConville, in the early Troubles. The Belfast Project tapes, which also include frank testimonies from ex-loyalist paramilitaries, were only meant to have been made public once the person who had given candid testimony about their role in the violence had died.
McKendry said the PSNI's decision to go after the material in the US courts was justified: "We had insisted that the police go after every small piece of the jigsaw in relation to Jean's disappearance and murder. That is why it was right to pursue those tapes. What the family now hope and pray for is that Jean's grandchildren do not have to pass on this fight for justice onto the next generation."
Another of Adams's one-time republican comrades who, like Brendan Hughes, became a bitter critic of the Sinn Féin president, is currently on bail facing charges in connection to the McConville murder. A former IRA negotiator with the British government, Ivor Bell faces charges of aiding and abetting in the killing. Bell, who was expelled from the IRA in the early 1980s after being accused of attempting to stage an internal coup against its leadership, denies all the charges.