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IRA victim’s daughter calls for public release of Boston College tapes

Helen McKendry makes request to US Attorney General

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Monday, January 30, 2012, 7:46 AM
Updated Monday, January 30, 2012, 11:24 AM

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Jean McConville with some of her 10 children - Woman murdered by the IRA
Jean McConville with some of her 10 children - Woman murdered by the IRA
Photo by Google Images


The daughter of a murdered IRA victim has called for the Boston College tapes to be made public.

Helen McKendry’s mother Jean McConville was abducted from her home in the Divis Flats complex in Belfast in 1972.

Her body was eventually unearthed years later on a beach in County Louth.

Details relating to the case were discussed by six of those interviewed by Anthony McIntyre and Ed Maloney on behalf of Boston College.

McIntyre and Maloney are attempting to block demands by the British government that the tapes – made as part of the Peace Process on condition that they remain under lock and key for 30 years – are handed over.

McIntyre’s family fear his life will be in danger if the interviews with paramilitaries from both sides of the Northern divide are made public.

A court case relating to the publication of the interviews in America has heard that six of the interviewees in the archive made reference to the murder and disappearance of McConville.

Judge William Young told the court that two of the interviews he had listened to contained information on the murder case.

Some interviews contained references to the death but he claimed it was not possible to say whether the interviewees were repeating stories they had heard or had actual knowledge of the event.

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Judge Young also revealed that two interviewees made reference to what he called a ‘shadowy sub-organisation’ within the IRA in Belfast.

McKendry has now called on the Judge to make the tapes relevant to her mother’s case public.

She told Irish state broadcaster RTE: “I want to know what people had to say about my mother in the interviews.

“There might be someone on the tapes telling the full story, who was actually there. Not knowing what happened is torture.”

Mrs McKendry has also written to the US Attorney General on the issue.

“I have appealed for him to see the family’s side of the story and hand over the interviews to British Authorities as requested,” she added on Irish radio.

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62 Comments

15 - 62 | See all comments

barneyjo | Feb 12, 2012, 05:59 PM EST
@seanomelb - I think we all have the potential to see the world in that way; very often without realising it; I know I most definitely do. How does the song go; "You say Tomayto I say Tomatoe" :)

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seanomelb | Feb 12, 2012, 04:51 PM EST
A fair and balanced statement barneyjoe I fear some posters live in a black and white world fed by their personal prejudices.

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barneyjo | Feb 11, 2012, 05:56 PM EST
Oh I dont believe I am playing any game; just offering my own viewpoint for what its worth. And besides seanomelb like the rest of us is bound to treat the efficacy of information from any source, even from Sinn Fein spokesmen.with a modicum of suspicion, and cynicism. Lets face it, if you want to consider Jean McConville as the "Enemy within" you cant reasonably do that without looking at the actions of people like Denis Donaldson, Freddy Scapatici and others who were intimately linked with the Republican Movement in Belfast during this period, and who had a profound influence on the development of Sinn Fein's political strategy; certainly so in the case of Denis Donaldson, who as it turns out, was the eyes and ears of the British Government inside the Sinn Fein group at Stormont. And who knows? if there was a leak of intel during this period in West Belfast, it could just as easily have been either of these Gentlemen, as a widowed mother who may well have been an easy target to have shunned by the community and framed to cover the tracks of the real mole; the real "Enemy Within"!!

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barneyjo | Feb 11, 2012, 05:55 PM EST
Oh I dont believe I am playing any game; just offering my own viewpoint for what its worth. And besides seanomelb like the rest of us is bound to treat the efficacy of information from any source, even from Sinn Fein spokesmen. Lets face it, if you want to consider Jean McConville as the "Enemy within" you cant reasonably do that without looking at the actions of people like Denis Donaldson, Freddy Scapatici and others who were intimately linked with the Republican Movement in Belfast during this period, and who had a profound influence on the development of Sinn Fein's political strategy; certainly so in the case of Denis Donaldson, who as it turns out, was the eyes and ears of the British Government inside the Sinn Fein group at Stormont. And who knows? if there was a leak of intel during this period in West Belfast, it could just as easily have been either of these Gentlemen, as a widowed mother who may well have been an easy target to have shunned by the community and framed to cover the tracks of the real mole; the real "Enemy Within"!!

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Realist | Feb 11, 2012, 04:54 PM EST
seanomelb: Lol...."another view"? You made statements about Mrs McConville that you cannot substantiate with either proof or evidence. You are a transparent back-peddling laughing stock my friend. Is any of this sinking in?

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seanomelb | Feb 11, 2012, 04:33 PM EST
You could be correct barneyjoe my posts were to give another view on Jean Mc Conville's demise as we seem only to hear from the anti Irish lobby who blame everything on Sinn Fein and garner their information from suspect sources. To be fair to O"loan she made a decision based on the facts presented to her.

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FallsRNat | Feb 11, 2012, 06:17 AM EST
barneyjo - dont play his game, he is a typical RA sympathiser who churns out complete utter rubbish about innocent victims of the trouble, he hopes if enough 'mud' sticks, then somehow the people will believe Mrs McConville was a spy, let me assure you, even here in the heart of the Falls, nobody believes it

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barneyjo | Feb 10, 2012, 07:03 PM EST
On the basis of what I know of Jean McConvilles life in West Belfast in 1972, she wasnt exactly welcomed with open arms by that community due to her protestant heritage. Her husband provided a certainty when he was alive, but after his death, I dont think too many favours came her way. I am quite prepared to believe that if the local volunteers had been "leeching"intel and suffering because of it, the community found an ideal scapegoat in the personage of Jean McConville, because of who she was and where she came from. Of course it is always possible that she had provided info to the British Forces; on balance though I dont think that she did, and my reason for believing that is I dont believe that Nuala O'loan would have put her name to a report which exonerated Jean McConville if she wasnt sure of her facts. Rather, she was a victim of circumstance who was in the wrong place at the wrong time!!

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Realist | Feb 10, 2012, 06:09 PM EST
seanomelb: What's to misread? Yet again, you've been 'busted'. Lol...my friend, your post of 30th January 2012 @ 10:47 is perfectly clear and speaks for itself. Therefore I will ask again, would you please support your statement with proof/evidence? What part of this do you not understand?

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seanomelb | Feb 10, 2012, 05:37 PM EST
Realist you fail to read ALL my post and I do not intend to repeat myself.You also misread what I've said and I have no intention in discussing your agressive post.My article is as valid as yours we may differ but using ignorant terms like "liar" diminishes your right to converse.

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Realist | Feb 10, 2012, 06:05 AM EST
seanomelb: As Dan already pointed out, on 30th January 2012 @ 10:47 you stated, and I quote, "One wonders if McConville had not spied for the would she still be alive today enjoying her children and grand children. How many nationalists were killed or incarcerated(if any) by information given by Mrs McConville to hjer British handlers." A straight question: Would you please support this statement with proof/evidence? Otherwise there are only 2 possible conclusions....either you do not know what you are talking about or you are a liar. It is as simple as that.

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Realist | Feb 10, 2012, 05:57 AM EST
seanomelb: The facts....in July 2006, the official Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan stated after an investigation by her office that there is no evidence that Jean McConville had ever passed information on to the security forces. The Provisional IRA have admitted that they executed her - also a fact.

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seanomelb | Feb 10, 2012, 04:07 AM EST
Barney I agree with the general thrust of your argument and respect your opinion on this matter.

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seanomelb | Feb 10, 2012, 04:06 AM EST
I gave you proof your flawed "proof" was just that flawed.The northern authorities dismissed that Mrs McConville was executed because she cradled a dying soldier.She was not a protestant as you stated (not that it really matters and Mitchell McLaughlin did accuse her of spying and she was warned on numerous occasions.McConville was executed/murdered by persons unknown most likely the IRA. A sad moment during difficult times.

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barneyjo | Feb 09, 2012, 06:39 PM EST
seanomelb - Oh I remember it all, because I lived through it; some of the major events were very personal to me. As a young man and not so young man, I attended the funerals of the victims of our war; both catholic and protestant and I saw and felt the pain that such deaths brought. And you know what, it was exactly the same in both Catholic and Protestant homes. However I digress.The journey you plot for the rise of Sinn Fein is somewhat "fastracked" and ignores certain key milestones; the fact that Thatcher faced down the hunger strike and that so little was achieved for the loss of so many precious lives. The shift by the Adams/McGuinness leadership away from the physical force tradition to a mainstream political dispensation; the Hulme/Adams initiative; I could go on. You're right when you say that the PIRA campaign both opened and focused minds. However the campaign went on 20 years longer than it should have with so many lost lives. The bare bones of what eventually became the Good Friday had been on the table for many years. The problem was that those within the leadership on the Army Council were too wedded to the war, and did not have the political awareness to realise that "their day had come" And too many lives were needlessly lost because of that!!

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