News Letter
24 March 2015

A veteran former IRA man has said it is “shameful” for republicans to still defend the murder of Jean McConville.

Brendan Curran, who was Sinn Fein’s first councillor in Newry in 1985, said that the party needs to “honourably” accept that it “got things wrong”.

Mr Curran quit Sinn Fein a year and a half ago and last week he resigned from the council with a heated speech in which he claimed that there was a “Stakeknife-like” figure within Newry Sinn Fein, a reference to the notorious IRA informer from Belfast.

In his speech, Mr Curran alleged that he had warned the party of a paedophile priest (who is now dead) who was abusing children on a large scale, but he was told to stop talking about the issue.

Yesterday Mr Curran told local radio station Q Radio: “I know things have happened in the past which were bad, and things which maybe we all took part in and that was the way it was. But you know what? Now is not the time to call people like Jean McConville an executed tout. And nobody – particularly republicans – can stand by a remark like that.

“I’m simply highlighting something which is common currency in Patrick Street in Newry. Executed touts? Shameful. What happened to that woman was shameful.

“And I realise that it happened, I realise, in the whole darkness of the war. But you see now that we’re standing back and the smoke has cleared, we should be able to honourably turn round and say ‘You know what? Sometimes we got things wrong’.”

Northern Ireland police swoop on house in Newry nets man they believe was behind bomb blast that killed 29 people in 1998

Henry McDonald
The Guardian
11 November 2014

**See also: Arrests in Ardcarne Park, Newry, 'linked to Continuity IRA'



Police officers and firefighters inspect the damage caused by the bomb explosion in Omagh, Northern Ireland, in 1998. (Photograph: Paul Mcerlane/PA)

One of the chief suspects in the Real IRA bombing in Omagh has been arrested in a major security operation against republican dissidents.

The veteran republican was detained along with 11 others in the Newry area, close to the border with the Irish Republic.

The men, aged between 36 and 75, were arrested at a house in the Ardcane Park in Newry on Monday evening.

All 12, including the man police believe made the bomb that devastated Omagh in 1998, killing 29 people, are being questioned at the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s serious crime suite in Antrim.

It is understood that all 12 detainees were attending a republican meeting when the PSNI swooped on the house on Monday night.

Det Supt Kevin Geddes from the PSNI’s serious crime branch said: “Police are determined to investigate those individuals suspected of involvement in serious crime. This investigation is an example of our commitment to keep everyone in the community safe.”