PSNI to ‘review’ Joe Brolly Troubles legacy video footage

The revelation led to a leading victims’ group calling for the claim to be investigated by police.

Speaking to Virgin Media Sports, Mr Brolly said that his decision to donate a kidney to a stranger in 2012 was to “atone for the taking of human life by people close to me”.

He did not elaborate on when or who he was referring to.

Mr Brolly described his childhood in Dungiven and how IRA members, including the late Martin McGuinness, would use his home as a safe house while on the run.

Kenny Donaldson of IVU (Innocent Victims United) said the PSNI should examine the video “to establish if there are grounds for Mr Brolly to be spoken to on these matters,” and added: “Giving a kidney is an admirable thing to do but if Mr Brolly or anyone else has information on serious crimes having been committed, they need to disclose that knowledge and in-so-doing, potentially bring transparency to events which have created many innocent victims”.

A PSNI spokesperson said: “We are aware of comments made in the interview, and of subsequent press reporting in relation to those comments, and will review the content of the interview.”

It is understood that officers from the PSNI’s Legacy Investigation Branch will be involved in reviewing the video footage.

During the video interview, Mr Brolly said he was “so excited” during the donation kidney process and “felt ecstatic” afterwards.

However, he added: “Then I hit the wall shortly after that. I think for years I had blocked out childhood – I couldn’t even remember childhood properly.

“I realised soon afterwards that the reason I’d given the kidney was to, I think, atone for the taking of human life by people close to me, and to sort of somehow make amends for that.”

Clearly emotional, he added: “I suppose feel that I could breathe more easily then – that I could take my place and have some peace in society.”

Mr Donaldson said: “What taking of human life is Mr Brolly referring and who close to him took life?”

The video also refers to other aspects of Mr Brolly’s upbringing in Co Londonderry and the Troubles. The pundit hit out at what he called an “orthodoxy that started in the south” that everything in Northern Ireland would have been fine “if nationalists had not taken to the gun – completely ignoring the reality of soldiers just coming in and machine gunning people to death and then walking away”.

Writing in the News Letter earlier this week, in response to those claims, Mr Donaldson said: “Zero reference was made by Mr Brolly of those who murdered the majority of his neighbours in the Troubles - the Provisional IRA. No mention is made of the Claudy massacre or many other acts of PIRA terror perpetrated in the area in which Mr Brolly was raised.”

Mr Brolly has not yet responded to a request for comment.

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