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Murder of Jean McConville

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Jean McConville (née Murray; 7 May 1934 – December 1972)[1] was a woman from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who was kidnapped and murdered by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and secretly buried in County Louth in the Republic of Ireland in 1972 after being accused by the IRA of passing information to British forces.[2][3]

Jean McConville
Born
Jean Murray

7 May 1934
Belfast, Northern Ireland
DisappearedDecember 1972 (aged 38)
County Louth, Republic of Ireland

In 1999, the IRA acknowledged that it had killed McConville and eight others of the "Disappeared".[4] It claimed she had been passing information about republicans to the British Army in exchange for money and that a transmitter had been found in her flat.[5][6] A report by the Police Ombudsman found no evidence for this or other rumours.[7]

Before the Troubles, the IRA had a policy of killing informers within its own ranks. From the start of the conflict the term informer was also used for civilians who were suspected of providing information on paramilitary organisations to the security forces. Other Irish republican and loyalist paramilitaries also carried out such killings.[8] As she was a recently-widowed mother of ten, the McConville killing was particularly controversial. Her body was not found until 2003, and the crime has not been solved. The Police Ombudsman found that the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not begin to investigate the disappearance properly until 1995.

Biography

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Jean Murray was born on 7 May 1934 to a Protestant family in East Belfast but converted after marrying Arthur McConville, a Catholic former British Army soldier,[9] with whom she had ten children. After being intimidated out of a Protestant district by loyalists in 1969, the McConville family moved to West Belfast's Divis Flats in the Lower Falls Road.[10] Arthur died from cancer in January 1972.[2]

At the time of her death, Jean McConville lived at 1A St Jude's Walk, which was part of the Divis Flats complex.[11] This was an IRA stronghold, from which attacks were regularly launched against the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Since the death of her husband, she had been raising their ten children, who were aged between six and twenty. Their son Robbie was a member of the Official IRA and was interned in Long Kesh at the time of her death. He defected to the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in 1974.[12]

Killing

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In the months leading up to her death, tension and suspicion grew between McConville and her neighbours.[13] One night shortly before her disappearance, she was allegedly attacked after leaving a bingo hall and warned to stop giving information to the British Army. According to police records, on 29 November 1972 a British Army unit found a distressed woman wandering in the street. She told them her name was McConville and that she had been attacked and warned to stop informing. One of McConville's children claimed she was kidnapped the night after this incident, but others gave the date of the kidnapping as 7 December.[14]

On the night of her disappearance, four young women took McConville from her home at gunpoint,[2] and she was driven to an unknown location. Dolours Price claimed that she was one of those involved in driving her across the border.[15] McConville was killed by a gunshot to the back of the head; there was no evidence of any other injuries to her body.[16][17] Her body was secretly buried across the border on Shelling Hill Beach (also known as Templetown Beach) at the south-eastern tip of the Cooley Peninsula in the north of County Louth, about 50 miles (80 km) from her home. The place of her death is uncertain.

Although no group admitted responsibility for her disappearance, there were rumours that the IRA had killed her for being an informer. The Guardian newspaper said that she was killed because neighbours claimed they saw her helping a badly wounded British soldier outside her home;[18][2] McConville's children say they recall her helping a wounded British soldier some time before their father died in January 1972.[19] In a 2014 interview published in the Sunday Life, former Irish republican Evelyn Gilroy claimed the person who had tended to the soldier was her [Gilroy's] sister.[20]

The IRA did not admit involvement until after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. It claimed she was killed because she was passing information about republicans to the British Army. Former IRA member Brendan Hughes claimed the IRA had searched her flat some time before her death and found a radio transmitter, which they confiscated.[21] He and other former republicans interrogated her and claimed she admitted the British Army was paying her for information about republicans. Hughes claims that, because of her circumstances, they let her go with a warning. However, he claims when the IRA found she had resumed working for the British Army, it decided to "execute" her.[21]

Usually the bodies of informers were left in public as a warning, but the IRA secretly buried McConville, apparently because she was a widowed mother of ten. The IRA had first done this two months earlier, when it killed and buried two IRA members who were alleged to be working undercover for the British Military Reaction Force (MRF).[22][23]

Aftermath

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After her disappearance, McConville's seven youngest children, including six-year-old twins, survived on their own in the flat, cared for by their 15-year-old sister Helen.[13] According to them, the hungry family was visited three weeks later by a stranger, who gave them McConville's purse, with 52 pence and her three rings in it.[13]

On 16 January 1973, the story of the abduction appeared on the front page of the Belfast Telegraph, under the headline "Snatched mother missing a month".[24] The following day, the children were interviewed on the BBC television programme Scene Around Six.[24] The children reported to the social services, and were immediately brought into local council care.[25] The family was split up by social services.[13] Among the consequences of the killing, McConville's orphaned son Billy was sent to De La Salle Brothers Boys' Home, Rubane House, Kircubbin, County Down, notorious for child abuse; he testified in 2014 to the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, describing repeated sexual and physical abuse, and starvation, saying "Christians looking after young boys – maybe they were Christians, but to me they were devils disguised in that uniform."[26]

Within two days of her kidnapping, one of her sons reported the incident to the RUC and the British Army. However, the Police Ombudsman did not find any trace of an investigation into the kidnapping during the 1970s or 1980s.[24] An officer told the Ombudsman that CID investigations in that area of Belfast at that time were "restricted to the most serious cases".[24] On 2 January 1973, the RUC received two pieces of information stating: "it is rumoured that Jean McConville had been abducted by the [IRA] because she is an informer".[27]

In March 1973, information was received from the British Army, saying the kidnapping was an elaborate hoax and that McConville had left of her own free will.[27] As a result, the RUC refused to accept that McConville was missing, preferring to believe an anonymous tip that she had absconded with a British soldier.[13] The first investigation into her kidnapping appears to have taken place in 1995, when a team of RUC detectives was established to review the cases of all those who were thought to have been kidnapped during the conflict.[24]

In 1999, the IRA gave information on the whereabouts of her body.[28] This prompted a prolonged search, co-ordinated by the Garda Síochána, the Republic of Ireland's police force, but no body was found. On the night of 26 August 2003, a storm washed away part of the embankment supporting the west side of Shelling Hill Beach car park, near the site of previous searches.[29] This exposed the body.[13] On 27 August, it was found by passersby while they were walking on Shelling Hill Beach (also known as Templetown Beach) in County Louth, at the south-eastern tip of the Cooley Peninsula.[30] McConville was subsequently reburied beside her husband Arthur in Holy Trinity Graveyard in Lisburn.[31][32]

Investigation

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Police Ombudsman's report

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In April 2004 the inquest into McConville's death returned a verdict of unlawful killing.[33]

In 2006 the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Nuala O'Loan, published a report about the police's investigation of the murder. It concluded that the RUC did not investigate the murder until 1995, when it carried out a minor investigation.[24] It found no evidence that she had been an informer, but recommended the British Government go against its long-standing policy regarding informers and reveal whether she was one.[34] Journalist Ed Moloney called for the British Government to release war diaries relating to the Divis Flats area at the time. War diaries are usually released under the thirty-year rule, but those relating to Divis at the time of McConville's death are embargoed for almost ninety years.[35]

The police have since apologised for its failure to investigate her abduction.[13] In January 2005, Sinn Féin party chairman Mitchel McLaughlin claimed that the killing of McConville was not a crime, saying that she had been executed as a spy in a war situation.[36] This prompted Irish journalist Fintan O'Toole to write a rebuttal, arguing that the abduction and extrajudicial killing of McConville was clearly a "war crime by all accepted national and international standards".[37] The IRA has since issued a general apology, saying it "regrets the suffering of all the families whose loved ones were killed and buried by the IRA".[38]

PSNI investigation and Boston College tapes

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In August 2006, the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Sir Hugh Orde, stated that he was not hopeful anyone would be brought to justice over the murder, saying "[in] any case of that age, it is highly unlikely that a successful prosecution could be mounted."[39]

Boston College had launched an oral history project on the Troubles in 2001, called the Belfast Project. It recorded interviews with republicans and loyalists about their involvement in the conflict, on the understanding that the tapes would not be released until after their deaths.[40][41] Two of the republican interviewees, Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price, both now deceased, admitted they were involved in McConville's kidnapping.[40] Both became diehard opponents of the Good Friday Agreement and Sinn Féin's support of it. They saw Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams as a traitor for negotiating the agreement and persuading the IRA to end its campaign.

In 2010, after Hughes's death, some of his statements were published in the book Voices from the Grave.[21][42] He claimed McConville had admitted being an informer, and that Adams ordered her disappearance.[21][43] In a 2010 newspaper interview, Price also claimed Adams ordered her to participate in McConville's kidnapping.[44] Price, who died in 2013,[45] said she gave the interviews as revenge against Adams.[15] Former republican prisoner Evelyn Gilroy, who lived near McConville, claimed Adams was an IRA commander and the only person who could have ordered the killing.[46]

Adams has denied any role in the death of McConville.[43] He said "the killing of Jean McConville and the secret burial of her body was wrong and a grievous injustice to her and her family".[47]

In 2011, the PSNI began a legal bid to gain access to the tapes.[40] Acting on a request from the PSNI, the United States Justice Department tried to force Boston College to hand them over. Boston College had promised those interviewed that the tapes would not be released until after their deaths, and other interviewees said they feared retribution if the tapes were released.[41] Following a lengthy court battle, the PSNI was given transcripts of interviews by Hughes and Price.[40]

2014 arrests

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In March and April 2014, the PSNI arrested a number of people over the kidnapping and killing of Jean McConville. Ivor Bell, former IRA Chief of Staff, was arrested in March 2014.[48] Shortly afterwards, he was charged with aiding and abetting in her murder.[49][50] In April, the PSNI arrested three people who were teenagers at the time of the kidnapping: a 56-year-old man and two women, aged 57 and 60. All were released without charge.[51][52]

Following Bell's arrest in March, there was media speculation that police would want to question Gerry Adams due to the claims made by Hughes and Price. Adams maintained he was not involved,[47] but had his solicitor contact the PSNI to find whether they wanted to question him.[53] On 30 April, after being contacted by the PSNI, Adams voluntarily arranged to be interviewed at Antrim PSNI Station. He was arrested and questioned for four days before being released without charge. A file was sent to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) to decide whether further action should be taken,[54] but there was "insufficient evidence" to charge him.[55]

The arrest took place during an election campaign. Sinn Féin claimed that the timing of the arrest was politically motivated; an attempt to harm the party's chances in the upcoming elections. Alex Maskey said it was evidence of a "political agenda [...] a negative agenda" by elements of the PSNI.[56]

Jean McConville's family had campaigned for the arrest of Adams over the murder.[57] Her son Michael said: "Me and the rest of my brothers and sisters are just glad to see the PSNI doing their job. We didn't think it would ever take place [Mr Adams' arrest], but we are quite glad that it is taking place."[58] In a later interview on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, he stated that he knew the names of those who had abducted and killed his mother, but that: "I wouldn't tell the police [PSNI]. If I told the police now a thing, me or one of my family members or one of my children would get shot by those [IRA] people. It's terrible that we know those people and we can't bring them to justice."[59]

2018

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Patrick Radden Keefe's 2018 book Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland focuses on the history of the Troubles starting from McConville's death. According to Keefe, Dolours Price told Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre that three IRA volunteers were present at McConville's killing: former Unknowns commander Pat McClure, Price and a third volunteer whom Price alleged fired the fatal shot. However, Moloney and McIntyre refused to tell Keefe who this person was, as the volunteer was still alive at the time.[60]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Jean McConville's daughter 'will give names'" Archived 2 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine. RTÉ News. 2 May 2014; accessed 17 May 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d McKittrick, David (2001), Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Random House. p. 301
  3. ^ ""Jean McConville: Ivor Bell to be prosecuted for aiding murder", BBC News, 4 June 2015". BBC News. 4 June 2015. Archived from the original on 8 October 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  4. ^ "Jean McConville: The Disappeared mother-of-ten" Archived 3 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 1 May 2014.
  5. ^ "Man to face McConville prosecution". BBC News. 4 June 2015. Archived from the original on 8 October 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  6. ^ Moloney, Ed (2002). A Secret History of the IRA. New York: W.W. Norton. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-393-05194-0.
  7. ^ "Jean McConville murder: Woman released pending PPS report". BBC News. 10 April 2014. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  8. ^ Melaugh, Martin. Killings of Alleged Informers Archived 24 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine, cain.ulst.ac.uk; accessed 5 May 2014.
  9. ^ Police Ombudsman: Report (2006) into complaint by James and Michael McConville regarding the police investigation into the abduction and murder of their mother, Mrs Jean McConville (Page 3) Archived 7 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine, cain.ulst.ac.uk; accessed 7 May 2014.
  10. ^ David McKittrick. The London Independent. 25 September 2003
  11. ^ Police Ombudsman's report (2006), p.2
  12. ^ Hanley & Millar, B&S (2009). The Lost Revolution: The story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party. Ireland: Penguin Ireland. p. 285. ISBN 978-1-84488-120-8.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Amanda Foreman (4 December 2010). "Sinn Fein should never be able to escape Jean McConville's ghost". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  14. ^ Police Ombudsman's report (2006), p.4
  15. ^ a b Graham, Bob (23 September 2012). "IRA bomber says Gerry Adams sanctioned mainland bombing campaign". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. Archived from the original on 21 January 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  16. ^ "Tests confirm identity of IRA victim McConville". Irish Independent. 21 October 2003. Archived from the original on 10 August 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2016. The DNA tests were carried out in London after an earlier post-mortem examination at the Louth Co Hospital had concluded that Mrs McConville had been shot once in the back of the head. It ruled out suggestions that she had been mutilated and tortured before being murdered.
  17. ^ "McConville son says family endured 31 years of 'hell'". Irish Times. 5 April 2004. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2016. Dr Marie Cassidy, the State Pathologist, told the inquest Mrs McConville died from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. A flattened .22 calibre lead bullet was found in her nasal passage during post-mortem. Dr Cassidy said there was no pathological evidence to suggest if Mrs McConville was kneeling when she was shot. She also said there was no evidence on Mrs McConville's skeletal remains to suggest that she had suffered any other injuries prior to her death.
  18. ^ "'Give me my mam'". The Guardian. 30 May 1999. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
  19. ^ Police Ombudsman's report (2006), p.7
  20. ^ "My sister lived five doors from Jean McConville in Farset Walk in the flats. Weeks before Jean was killed, a soldier was hit on the head by a brick thrown by a local lad. My sister heard him crying. She was a very soft, warm woman and she brought him into the hallway and gave him a glass of water. "Her act of compassion didn't go down well with some. 'Touts Out' and 'Soldier Lover' was painted on her door. The incident was reported to the media. My sister gave an interview to Downtown Radio about her act of mercy and the intimidation that followed."
    'Arrest Gerry Adams now' - former republican prisoner breaks her silence on IRA murder of Jean McConville, Evelyn Gilroy interview Archived 24 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Sunday Life, 24 April 2014; accessed 5 May 2014.
  21. ^ a b c d Moloney, Ed. Voices from the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland. Faber and Faber, 2010. pp. 128-129
  22. ^ McKittrick, Lost Lives, p. 275
  23. ^ Dillon, Martin (2012). The Dirty War. Random House. pp. 49-51
  24. ^ a b c d e f Police Ombudsman's report (2006), pp. 5-6
  25. ^ Bowcott, Owen (15 August 2006). "Belfast police sorry for failing woman's family". The Guardian. London, UK. Archived from the original on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  26. ^ UTV:Jean McConville's child 'abused at Rubane', 6 November 2014 Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ^ a b Police Ombudsman's report (2006), p. 10
  28. ^ No evidence for McConville agent claim: O'Loan Archived 22 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine; accessed 7 May 2014.
  29. ^ "Body found was McConville: Gardaí" Archived 2 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine; accessed 7 May 2014.
  30. ^ "No evidence for McConville as British agent claim: O'Loan". RTÉ News. 7 July 2006. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
  31. ^ "Jean McConville laid to rest after 31 years." Archived 14 January 2005 at the Wayback Machine
  32. ^ "Adams 'at heart' of IRA's most shameful killing campaign", guardian.co.uk; accessed 7 May 2014.
  33. ^ "Unlawful killing of McConville: verdict". RTÉ News. 5 April 2004. Archived from the original on 3 April 2010. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  34. ^ Police Ombudsman's report (2006), p.12
  35. ^ "Could British war diaries help solve the Jean McConville murder?" Archived 4 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine. TheJournal.ie. 14 July 2013.
  36. ^ "Resignation call rejected" Archived 24 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine. BBC News.
  37. ^ Cusack, Jim (23 January 2005). "The murder of Jean McConville was a crime, by any standards anywhere". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  38. ^ P. O'Neill (8 July 2006). "Statement on the Abduction and Killing of Mrs Jean McConville in December 1972". Irish Republican Publicity Bureau, Dublin. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  39. ^ IRA murder prosecution 'unlikely' Archived 21 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine, BBC website, 14 August 2006.
  40. ^ a b c d "What are the Boston tapes?" Archived 4 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine. BBC News, 1 May 2014.
  41. ^ a b Devlin Barret (9 January 2012). "IRA History Project Snags U.S. School". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 23 September 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
  42. ^ Taylor, Peter (1997). Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 156–157. ISBN 978-0-7475-3818-9.
  43. ^ a b "Gerry Adams ordered Jean McConville killing, says ex-IRA commander on tape" Archived 2 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 3 November 2013; accessed 5 May 2014.
  44. ^ Susan McKay: Tormented ghost of Dolours Price poses no risk to peace process Archived 16 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine; Irish Independent, 23 April 2013. Accessed 14 November 2020.
  45. ^ "Dolours Price dies". The Guardian. London, UK. Archived from the original on 16 March 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  46. ^ "'Arrest Gerry Adams now' - former republican prisoner breaks her silence on IRA murder of Jean McConville" Archived 24 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine, The Belfast Telegraph, 24 April 2014; accessed 5 May 2014.
  47. ^ a b "Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams held over Jean McConville murder". BBC News. London. 30 April 2014. Archived from the original on 21 August 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  48. ^ "Man arrested in Northern Ireland over 1972 case of 'disappeared' mother" Archived 4 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 18 March 2014; accessed 5 May 2014.
  49. ^ "Man in court over McConville murder" Archived 4 May 2014 at archive.today. UTV News. 22 March 2014; accessed 5 May 2014.
  50. ^ "Pensioner bailed over McConville murder" Archived 4 May 2014 at archive.today. UTV News. 26 March 2014; accessed 5 May 2014.
  51. ^ "Man, 56, released in McConville case" Archived 4 May 2014 at archive.today. UTV News. 2 April 2014.
  52. ^ "Further arrests over McConville murder" Archived 4 May 2014 at archive.today, UTV News, 17 April 2014; accessed 5 May 2014.
  53. ^ "Adams contacts police over McConville" Archived 4 May 2014 at archive.today. UTV News, 24 March 2014; accessed 5 May 2014.
  54. ^ "Gerry Adams freed in Jean McConville murder inquiry" Archived 4 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine. BBC News. 4 May 2014.
  55. ^ "Reports: ‘Insufficient evidence’ on Adams" Archived 11 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Evening Echo. 6 May 2014.
  56. ^ Beaton, Connor (30 April 2014). "SF MLA: Adams arrest 'negative PSNI agenda'". The Targe. Archived from the original on 7 October 2020. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  57. ^ Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams arrested over murder of widowed mother abducted in 1972 Archived 20 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  58. ^ "Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams held over Jean McConville murder" Archived 24 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine, bbc.co.uk; accessed 5 May 2014.
  59. ^ "Son says he knows killers". BBC News. 1 May 2014. Archived from the original on 5 May 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  60. ^ Keefe, Patrick Radden (2018). Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (First ed.). New York: Doubleday. pp. 340–342. ISBN 978-0-385-52131-4. Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
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