RTE defends Unquiet Graves decision amid mounting criticism

The film is produced and directed by Sean Murray – the son of senior Sinn Fein strategist and former IRA member Sean ‘Spike’ Murray – and deals with the Glenanne series of loyalist murders carried out in the 1970s.

Charlie Flanagan has written to RTE’s director of content Jim Jennings posing a number of questions around the decision to broadcast a film which relies heavily on the testimony of former IRA member Paul O’Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre, and of convicted killer John Weir.

In his letter to the Irish state broadcaster, Mr Flanagan describes Weir’s claims – including one that British Intelligence encouraged the UVF to carry out mass murder at a Catholic primary school – as being “at best, seriously questionable”.

The decision to broadcast the film on September 16, with no input from the police officers who brought Weir and his co-accused to justice, caused widespread anger.

Two of the former detectives who charged and successfully prosecuted Weir in the late 1970s have revealed that his claims about British Intelligence, and of senior security force figures sanctioning his terrorist activities, only began to emerge almost two decades after his conviction.

Mr Flanagan revealed the nature of his letter to RTE during a Newstalk radio programme interview on Thursday.

In response, RTE said: “Unquiet Graves was subject to editorial review within RTÉ prior to broadcast, including by our Editorial Standards Board.

“The programme draws on a number of sources, including an interview with John Weir. Mr Weir’s evidence has previously been assessed by An Garda Siochana and Mr Justice Barron, among others. Their assessment of his evidence is included in Mr Justice Barron’s report to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Right in December 2003.”

In relation to RTE’s due diligence around the film’s financial backers, the spokesman added: “RTÉ has no oversight of production budgets on acquired programmes, as our engagement with producers and/or distributors begins when the programme has already been completed.

“RTÉ acquires these productions on the basis of an editorial judgement and their suitability for transmission.”

Earlier this week, Sean Murray told the News Letter that his film was “privately funded” and “no political party made any contribution to the film”.

Mr Murray has also disputed the estimated £300,000 production cost, saying that most of those involved provided their services without payment. “The film was a socially committed project and most of the crew who assisted in the making of the film done so on a voluntary basis, including myself,” he said.

Commenting to the Belfast Telegraph following Mr Flanagan’s radio interview, he said: “The film has the support of the Glenanne families. Mr Flanagan appears to challenge the right of victims to tell their own story in whatever way they find appropriate. He has no right to censor or restrict how victims recount their own experiences.”

Former officers’ dismay at RTE platform for killer’s belated ‘collusion’ claims

Unquiet Graves: ‘Theory, opinion, belief but no new evidence – no hard facts’

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