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Martin McGuinness confronted by son of murdered soldier

Son of Irish soldier murdered in 1983 demands “the truth” from presidential candidate

JAMES O'BRIEN,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Monday, October 10, 2011, 1:48 PM

Updated Monday, October 10, 2011, 2:57 PM

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Presidential candidate Martin McGuinness confronted over murder of Irish soldier

Photo by RTE

Presidential hopeful Martin McGuinness was confronted, by the son of a murdered Irish soldier, while canvassing in Athlone on Monday afternoon. He asked that McGuinness name those responsible for the IRA killing.

Dramatic RTE footage shows 35-year-old, David Kelly, whose father was murdered in 1983 confront McGuinness about his involvement in the IRA and his death.

His father, Patrick, was shot dead along with trainee policeman Gary Sheehan, 23, at Derrada woods near Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, during the rescue of kidnapped supermarket tycoon Don Tidey in 1983.
Kelly said “I want justice for my father, I believe you know the names of the killers of my father. You were on the Army council of the IRA”.

The presidential candidate repeatedly denied this and scoffed at Kelly’s claims that there was proof of his IRA membership in Ed Maloney’s book, “The History of the IRA”.

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Kelly continued “We’re not going to agree about the past but I want justice for my father. He was loyal to this Irish Republic, and I’m loyal to him as a son and I want to get justice for him. I accuse you today. I don’t believe you…you’re a liar.”

The candidate responded “I’m not a liar, I’m not a liar”.

He said “I sympathize with you. I have been at the heart of a very important peace process in the North over the last 20 years which has brought conflict and violence and death to an end. I’m going to continue with that work because that’s the work of peace.

This [Paddy Kelly’s murder] is in the past, you’re heartbroken on account of it and my sympathy is 100 percent with you and with your family.”

Kelly added that he believed the Irish presidential election should be about truth, saying that was all he was looking for. He also confirmed that coroner’s reports had confirmed, 100 percent, that Paddy Kelly had been killed by an IRA bullet.

Kelly ended by demanding truth now saying “I want truth now. Murder is murder.”

Nster.com

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35 Comments

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seanomelbourne | Oct 16, 2011, 04:08 AM EDT

your very forthright in naming so called atrocities by republicans,why not name and condemn british atrocities. I do not find the killing of soldiers/unionist terrorist/RUC or prison guards as a terrrorist act,I would call it engaging the enemy.To say that the armed struggle was a failure is a blinkered view of history.

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Fergananim | Oct 14, 2011, 08:27 PM EDT

@Seanmelbourne - No, nationalist gains in the north were made by votes, NOT by the gun and bomb. Not until after 1998, when the Belfast Agreement was signed north and south, did Sinn Fein begin to make electoral gains. Up till then they a small party whom the majority of northern catholics refused to vote for because Sinn Fein supported the IRA. The IRA made peace impossible for over twenty years precisely because they refused to stop killing. The SDLP were supported by all major political parties in the Republic, the same Republic with which the IRA was at war. Only in the late 80's/early 90's when the republican leadership realised that they IRA were never going to win did they begin to engage with the peace process as held out to them by John Hume and successive Irish (and British) governments. This was the Ireland I grew up in, where each and every IRA murder and atrocity was condemmed out of hand by the vast majority of the Irish people. The unionists because don't live in the Republic, and do not have a vote here, but even so I never advocated killing any of them. IRA acts such as La Mon, Bloody Friday, Enniskillin, Guilford, Bermingham, Manchester, the Kingsmill and Darkly massacres, all committed by the IRA, only made the IRA and their cause repulsive to most Irish people. And the IRA killed Catholics too - Tom Olver, Jean McConville, Ann Travers - a farmer, a widowed mother of ten and a 24 year old schoolteacher, to name just three. All Irish, as were so many of their victims. To vote in as President of Ireland a man who as Northern Commander of the IRA oversaw and approved so many of these killings, is wrong. Sin e!

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seanomelbourne | Oct 14, 2011, 07:46 PM EDT

Any gains made for the nationalist in the north was out of the barrel of a gun. You should remember that the first murders were committed by the UVF and the RUC. The nationalists pleaded with the government of the ROI(your pals) for help and they turned their collective backs on the northern nationalists,so they pleaded with Sinn Fein for help in defending their homes.Your comment that they persuaded themselves to kill people is ridiculous.Ask the same question of your unionist friends and their murderous campaign.

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Fergananim | Oct 14, 2011, 07:34 PM EDT

I don't give a damm about comparisions to De Valera, Nelson Mandela, or the Queen. None of them are running as candidates. We have to assess the candidates we have, and if they don't like the questions, tough. I had considered giving Norris my number one but the revelations made me think otherwiese. I'm not entirely happy with Gallagher's ties to Fianna Fail, and some of Mitchell's and Scallon's religious connections fail to impress me. McGuinness is rightly the most controversal of all, because none of the other candidates have his record. How can we support a man who remains proud of his membership of an organisation who killed so many - including many Irish people - and had such little support in both North and South?

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Fergananim | Oct 14, 2011, 09:37 AM EDT

@ Seanomelbourne - by persuading themselves that the murder of Irish Catholics and Protestants was the only way to achieve peace and equal rights for Catholics in Northern Ireland, supporters of the IRA denigrated themselves. Please consulte the CAIN website, which demonstrates that Irish republicans were responsible for more murders than the loyalist gangs and British security forces combined.

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seanomelbourne | Oct 12, 2011, 07:54 PM EDT

Warrenpoint they are not interested in truth or justice.They will use any means to denigrate republicans,they are not just west brits,they are anti Irish and they hide behind a cowards mask of faux justice.A reprehensible lot of cyber bullies pushing their misinformation and lies.

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warrenpoint00 | Oct 12, 2011, 11:06 AM EDT

The lovely english queen sitting on her blood soaked throne has never apologized for the slaughter of innocent people in Derry Ireland or for the murderous campaign of terror in Ireland by her terrorist subjects the british army that swears loyalty to her.All these brit lovers and west brits seem to forget the terror that they have inflicted upon the innocent of the world.They feel they have the right to be terrorists because of that "stiff upper lip old boy" I say old chap er...

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gobdawpaddy | Oct 12, 2011, 07:33 AM EDT

I see where the brother of Garda Frank Hand confronted McGuinness yesterday. Garda Hand was shot when a RA/SF gang, Martin's old pals, were involved in the noble act on behalf of Irish freedom of knocking over a bank in Meath.

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Realist | Oct 12, 2011, 06:12 AM EDT

For electing Martin McGuinness as head of state read, "We, the people of the Republic of Ireland, are morally as well as financially bankrupt". No need to worry however, as I, like the rest of the World, was more interested in the contents of my handkerchief that last time I sneezed....lol.

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gobdawpaddy | Oct 12, 2011, 06:01 AM EDT

McGuinness wants to be commander in chief of the Irish army of which Mr Kelly was a member of said army. sworn to protect the Irish state. One RA/SF thug here states 'The Irish states army took the side of the British, he (Mr Kelly's son) should be ashamed of his relative (the Irish soldier who was murdered)'. Surey this demonstrates the low IQ/intelligence levels of your average RA/SF sympathizer.

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AMWilson | Oct 11, 2011, 11:36 PM EDT

Again, why didn't this confrontation happen, say, as soon as McG entered the race? Why does it occur instantly on the heals of headlines of "SF becomes second most popular party"? The timing strongly suggests a political, rather than "truth-seeking", agenda.

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jacersagain | Oct 11, 2011, 07:44 PM EDT

@ seano – killing local innocent people in the cause of a local war is not something you can easily move on from. Clearly you’ve not been affected by “The Troubles”. I think it’s great that Nth Ireland’s republicans and loyalists have moved to the ballot boxes and done away with their guns and bombs - much thanks to US Senator George Mitchell, Martin McGuinness, the late Gusty Spence, Gerry Adams, ex-President Clinton, ex-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Ian Paisley, Albert Reynolds, the late David Ervine, Bertie Ahern and many others for that. But it will take a couple of generations for those innocents whose lives and bodies were and still are scarred by both loyalists' and republicans' actions during “The Troubles” to move on. Seano, if your legs or arms had been suddenly blown off during an innocent, quiet evening’s restaurant family meal-out I can assure you would not be able to “move on”. Now that’s what’s really tragic to this very day for thousands of ordinary innocent people in Nth Ireland. Whoever said “Lest we forget” was dead on. McGuinness isn’t dead on, yet, much as I’d like him to be. David Kelly showed him up on TV for what he is... a consummate liar, unbecoming of a potential President of Ireland. BTW - this jacers is NOT a "west Brit".

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seanomelbourne | Oct 11, 2011, 06:26 PM EDT

How the west brits love an anti republican story.They suck oxygen from the frailties of others. Move on, bite the bullet and remember 20% of the electorate support Sinn Fein and if we add the N.E. figures the support would be much stronger. All deaths are tragic and using them to make a bitter political point is also tragic.

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jacersagain | Oct 11, 2011, 06:00 PM EDT

I don’t think this was a political stunt by David Kelly. I think it was a brave personal attempt by him to confront Mr. McGuinness and learn on the matter of who McG did know, or might have known of, to have pulled the trigger of a gun aimed at an Irish soldier, his own dad, one that he never got to know, and at Gary Sheehan, a rooky member of An Garda Síochána. If McG gets to be President I hope, in his efforts to establish a Truth Commission for “The Troubles”, that he puts David Kelly’s father’s case upfront and foremost, alongside the Sheehan family’s case. The deliberate shootings dead of an official Irish soldier and an official Garda Síochána, both of them official defenders of peace in the Irish Republic, by unofficial Irish “soldiers” is nothing short of murder. They used to hang people for that in Ireland, didn't they? Well, if McGuinness doesn't own up, we'll hang him at the polls on election day.

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warrenpoint00 | Oct 11, 2011, 05:04 PM EDT

We all have lost loved ones in the struggle for Irish freedom.We all must confront those who we deem responsible

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