A sickeningly low point
There were many good reasons why the British Army wasn't popular in working class Catholic districts of Belfast in 1972. Nevertheless, the impulse to go to the aid of a wounded soldier was a natural and humane one. It was an impulse, however, that had tragic consequences for one Belfast family.
Jean McConville was a protestant from East Belfast (Belfast was - and still is - largely divided along religious lines between the protestant East and the Catholic West). When she married Arthur McConville, a Catholic, she herself converted to Catholicism. That didn't save the couple from persecution by both communities and the family had to move on a number of occasions, ending up on the Falls Road, West Belfast. By the time Arthur died of cancer in 1971, the family had 10 children.
It was only a few months later that Jean was allegedly seen going to the aid of a wounded soldier. That led to her being beaten up in a bingo hall. The following day a gang of masked men and women burst through the front door of the house. Years later, her son, Archie, who was 16 at the time, recalled how they told his mother to put on her coat and took her away. They waited all night for her return - and the next night too. Helen, who was 15, tried to look after the younger siblings, including 6-year-old twin brothers. After three weeks of waiting, and by now hungry as well as frightened, they were visited by a stranger who gave them their mother's purse, with 52 pence inside it, and her three rings. Two months after the abduction, the children were spit up by social services.
I recall seeing some of the McConville children on television when they were grown up and it was clear that the trauma would mark them for life. Again and again they were told that their mother had deserted them. The RUC (the then Northern Irish Police Force) were twice notified of her disappearance. But the RUC was overwhelmingly Protestant and deeply sectarian and they refused to investigate, choosing instead to believe an anonymous tip-off that she had absconded with a soldier.
It was nearly 30 years later, when the peace process in Northern Ireland was finally gaining traction, that I saw those McConville children on television. The occasion was the choreographed handing over of information from the IRA, which was now in ceasefire mode, to the Irish authorities. This led to the digging up of a car park on the County Louth coast (just south of the border) and the children were hoping that their mother's body would finally be found. By then the IRA had finally admitted her murder, alleging that she was an informer. In the event, her body was not found and the agony dragged on until 2003, when a storm washed away part of the embankment on Shelling Beach car park and exposed her body.
We now know that she had been brutally interrogated after her abduction. She had been beaten with such force that many of her bones were cracked and her hands were mutilated. the cause of death was a single shot to the back of the head.
The British establishment acted with a generosity that was tragically rare in the history of the Northern Ireland conflict. Instead of hiding behind their "neither confirm nor deny" approach, the Lord Chief Justice ruled that there should be an investigation. in 2006, the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Nuala O'Loan, confirmed that Jean McConville was never an informer; simply the innocent victim of abduction and murder.
In the past, when Sinn Fein (the IRA's political wing) used to talk about "the politics of condemnation" I understood what they meant. Many politicians and commentators chose to emphasise IRA atrocities in order to downplay loyalist terrist atrocities (which were often even more sectarian) or the dirty deeds at times of the British and Northern Irish authorities. But the IRA (who never hesitated to do the reverse themselves) gave them plenty of pretexts for this behaviour. Whether it was bombing shop-goers in Belfast, innocent people enjoying a night out in Birmingham, Guildford and Woolwich, more innocent people attending a WWI memorial service at Enniskillen, two children shopping in Warrington or any of the other foul murders they carried out, they rarely failed to "top" an atrocity by following it with something even worse. Even by these grisly standards, Jean McConville's abduction and murder is particularly sickening.
No-one has ever been charged with Jean McConville's murder but circumstantial evidence is emerging that Gerry Adams, the man who subsequently led Sinn Fein into the Peace Process, is implicated. Most people don't want to know. They prefer that there is peace than that there is justice. They respect the fact that Gerry Adams took personal and political risks when, two decades later, he chose peace over continuing war.
I can understand that view. But sometimes I just have to hold my stomach. And I can perfectly understand why the McConville children don't buy into it.
Finally, it seems sad to me that very few articles about this case include Jean McConville's picture. I think we should see it from time to time - to be reminded that there was a real human being behind this tragedy. So here she is, with three of her children. I hope that the Guardian and the McConville family forgive me.
Jean McConville was a protestant from East Belfast (Belfast was - and still is - largely divided along religious lines between the protestant East and the Catholic West). When she married Arthur McConville, a Catholic, she herself converted to Catholicism. That didn't save the couple from persecution by both communities and the family had to move on a number of occasions, ending up on the Falls Road, West Belfast. By the time Arthur died of cancer in 1971, the family had 10 children.
It was only a few months later that Jean was allegedly seen going to the aid of a wounded soldier. That led to her being beaten up in a bingo hall. The following day a gang of masked men and women burst through the front door of the house. Years later, her son, Archie, who was 16 at the time, recalled how they told his mother to put on her coat and took her away. They waited all night for her return - and the next night too. Helen, who was 15, tried to look after the younger siblings, including 6-year-old twin brothers. After three weeks of waiting, and by now hungry as well as frightened, they were visited by a stranger who gave them their mother's purse, with 52 pence inside it, and her three rings. Two months after the abduction, the children were spit up by social services.
I recall seeing some of the McConville children on television when they were grown up and it was clear that the trauma would mark them for life. Again and again they were told that their mother had deserted them. The RUC (the then Northern Irish Police Force) were twice notified of her disappearance. But the RUC was overwhelmingly Protestant and deeply sectarian and they refused to investigate, choosing instead to believe an anonymous tip-off that she had absconded with a soldier.
It was nearly 30 years later, when the peace process in Northern Ireland was finally gaining traction, that I saw those McConville children on television. The occasion was the choreographed handing over of information from the IRA, which was now in ceasefire mode, to the Irish authorities. This led to the digging up of a car park on the County Louth coast (just south of the border) and the children were hoping that their mother's body would finally be found. By then the IRA had finally admitted her murder, alleging that she was an informer. In the event, her body was not found and the agony dragged on until 2003, when a storm washed away part of the embankment on Shelling Beach car park and exposed her body.
We now know that she had been brutally interrogated after her abduction. She had been beaten with such force that many of her bones were cracked and her hands were mutilated. the cause of death was a single shot to the back of the head.
The British establishment acted with a generosity that was tragically rare in the history of the Northern Ireland conflict. Instead of hiding behind their "neither confirm nor deny" approach, the Lord Chief Justice ruled that there should be an investigation. in 2006, the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Nuala O'Loan, confirmed that Jean McConville was never an informer; simply the innocent victim of abduction and murder.
In the past, when Sinn Fein (the IRA's political wing) used to talk about "the politics of condemnation" I understood what they meant. Many politicians and commentators chose to emphasise IRA atrocities in order to downplay loyalist terrist atrocities (which were often even more sectarian) or the dirty deeds at times of the British and Northern Irish authorities. But the IRA (who never hesitated to do the reverse themselves) gave them plenty of pretexts for this behaviour. Whether it was bombing shop-goers in Belfast, innocent people enjoying a night out in Birmingham, Guildford and Woolwich, more innocent people attending a WWI memorial service at Enniskillen, two children shopping in Warrington or any of the other foul murders they carried out, they rarely failed to "top" an atrocity by following it with something even worse. Even by these grisly standards, Jean McConville's abduction and murder is particularly sickening.
No-one has ever been charged with Jean McConville's murder but circumstantial evidence is emerging that Gerry Adams, the man who subsequently led Sinn Fein into the Peace Process, is implicated. Most people don't want to know. They prefer that there is peace than that there is justice. They respect the fact that Gerry Adams took personal and political risks when, two decades later, he chose peace over continuing war.
I can understand that view. But sometimes I just have to hold my stomach. And I can perfectly understand why the McConville children don't buy into it.
Finally, it seems sad to me that very few articles about this case include Jean McConville's picture. I think we should see it from time to time - to be reminded that there was a real human being behind this tragedy. So here she is, with three of her children. I hope that the Guardian and the McConville family forgive me.
posted by Reluctant Irishman @ 9:36 AM
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