IRA statement - Murder offer alarmingly out of touch

The latest statement issued by the IRA must rank as one of the most extraordinary ever. It is a frightening exhibition of just how out of touch the organisation is with the constitutional process and the fundamentals of the judicial system.

Since the Northern Bank raid, Sinn Féin had been calling for due process, protesting that neither the party nor the IRA was behind the robbery and demanding that they should be considered innocent until proved guilty in court.

Now the IRA has announced that during a five-hour meeting with Robert McCartney’s partner and sisters, it offered the shoot those responsible for his murder, but this murderous offer was rejected by the family.

The IRA’s statement confirms that two of its members were directly involved in the killing of Robert McCartney and the wounding of Brendan Devine, and confirms that the IRA is aware the people in Magennis’s bar were threatened on behalf of the organisation.

Four men were involved in the attack and a fifth was at the scene but did not take part, according to the statement. One man procured the murder weapon from the kitchen of Magennis’s Bar, another man knifed the two victims and a third man kicked and beat Mr McCartney after the knifing. A fourth man assaulted Brendan Devine and another friend, while the man who procured the knife also retrieved it and then disposed of it, as well as threatening the staff and taking the CCTV tape from the bar.

The IRA has admitted that it is aware of who committed the murder. The statement put the blame squarely on four people, who would all appear to be just as guilty as the man wielding the knife. But the actual determination of their guilt should be for a court of law alone.

The IRA’s offer to act as judge, jury and executioner in relation to this murder is even more objectionable.

While the murder may have been committed in the passion of a violent dispute, their offer was made in cold blood, with no regard for the basic precepts of the judicial system that they promised to accept in the Good Friday Agreement, or the fundamentals of the republicanism that they purportedly espouse. The Good Friday Agreement was endorsed overwhelmingly by the democratic will of the people of the whole island.

The IRA appears unaware of its civic and, indeed, republican responsibility to ensure that the evidence is furnished to the authorities. Otherwise those who drew up the report on which the latest statement was based become an accessory to the murder.

It is alarming that they would offer to shoot the alleged culprits, and just as frightening that they would brazenly admit this, because the whole thing confirms their criminal nature and lack of respect for human life.

They are either totally ignorant or contemptuous of the fundamentals of a civilised judicial system.

The McCartneys have again distinguished themselves in the whole sorry episode. They are the ones who come out with dignity, having passed up an opportunity for vengeance. Their answer was essentially: “Thanks, but no thanks.”

We could not agree more.