Jean McConville

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Jean McConville was a Belfast-born mother of 10 who was abducted from her home and murdered by the Provisional Irish Republican Army around Christmas time in 1972.

Her body was buried secretly on a beach in County Louth, about 50 miles from her home. The IRA did not admit their involvement until over 20 years later, when they passed information on the whereabouts of the body.

After a prolonged search, co-ordinated by the Garda Síochána - during which the search area and time involved was expanded by the Gardaí - the search was abandoned, as no body could be located in the area specified by the IRA.

In August 2003, her body was accidentally found by members of the public while they were walking on Shelling Hill beach.

"A Garda escort accompanied the cortege to the border from where it made its way to Crumlin in County Antrim to be waked at the home of her son Michael. The funeral took place on Saturday with Requiem Mass at St. Mary's Church in Belfast. In his homily, Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Patrick Walsh referred to Mrs. McConville's killing as touching "the depths of depravity". Monsignor Tom Toner, a friend of the McConville family, said, "Jean McConville and the other disappeared will forever stand in judgement on the shame and guilt of their murderers". A Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Ruth Patterson, read out comments from Mrs. McConville's children. "Among the mourners were Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader Mark Durkan and some of his colleagues. The Ulster Unionist Party was also represented but Sinn Féin politicians decided not to attend." ^[1]

Mrs. McConville, a Catholic convert, was buried beside her husband, Arthur, a British soldier who died from cancer, in Holy Trinity graveyard, Lisburn, County Antrim.

Her family contend that she was killed as a punishment for aiding a dying British soldier in West Belfast, but the IRA claimed that they had discovered she was passing information on local republicans to the security forces via a secret radio transmitter.

Jean McConville's children reject this claim and have called on the IRA to clear her name. In January 2005, Sinn Féin party chairman, Mitchel McLaughlin, claimed that the killing of Jean McConville was not a criminal act ^[2].

In response to McLaughlin's statement, SDLP Justice Spokesperson Alban Maginness suggested that the IRA were culpable for War crimes as Jean McConville was "killed ‘without previous judgement pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all judicial guarantees which are generally recognised as indispensable’, and that constitutes a war crime in the definition of the International Criminal Court". A second war crime occurred by the IRA’s ‘ refusal to acknowledge deprivation of [her] freedom or to give information on [her] fate or whereabouts’" ^[3].

In July 2006, Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan stated after an investigation by her office that there is no evidence that Jean McConville ever passed information to the security forces. Mrs O'Loan said she would give the family more details of the findings of her investigation in the near future and would make those details public.

Mrs O'Loan said it was not her normal role to confirm or deny the identity of people working as agents for the security services. "However, this situation is unique. Jean McConville left an orphaned family, the youngest of whom were six-year-old boys. The family have suffered extensively over the years, as we all know, and that suffering has only been made worse by allegations that their mother was an informant. As part of our investigation we have looked very extensively at all the intelligence available at the time. There is no evidence that Mrs McConville gave information to the police, the military or the security service" ^[4].

In August 2006, Northern Ireland's chief constable Sir Hugh Orde said he is not hopeful anyone will be brought to account over the murder. Sir Hugh said: "Any case of that age, it is highly unlikely that a successful prosecution could be mounted." ^[5]