Terror watchdog IRC still to address murder which prompted its creation six years ago

The Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) was set up following political fall out over the murder of Kevin McGuigan in 2015, which police said at the time was carried out by members of the Provisional IRA.

In the subsquent political turmoil, the Northern Ireland Office commissioned an assessment on paramilitaries which quickly concluded that although “committed to the peace process”, the PIRA Army Council was still overseeing both Sinn Fein and the remaining structures of the terror organisation with an “over arching strategy”, and that the IRA was still gathering intelligenace, engaging in criminality, retaining weapons and still involved in “isolated incidents of violence, including murders”. In April Chief Constable Simon Byrne confirmed the report was still accurate.

In April this year it was also revealed by former Chief Constable George Hamilton that the murder of Kevin McGuigan was most likely sanctioned by senior republicans, something not admitted by the PSNI while he was in office. He said: “As the investigation developed, it became clear that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that this [murder] was with the knowledge and concurrence of senior figures within the republican movement.”

However in its first report since his comments, released this week, the IRC did not make any mention of Mr Hamilton’s revelations. Furthermore, a cursory check of all four IRC reports to date confirmed no apparent mention of Kevin McGuigan’s murder anywhere, despite the fact it was this killing that precipitated the foundation of the organisation.

Yesterday the News Letter invited the IRC to comment on George Hamilton’s revelations about the murder, and asked if the panel had discussed them. It also asked why none of the four IRC reports have ever mentioned the murder of Kevin McGuigan.

The IRC responded: “The IRC does not comment on its meetings or discussions. As the Report says, paramilitary activity is unacceptable.  The IRC has no operational role and does not make detailed security or threat or status assessments of the various paramilitary groups.  The more important point is the one made about the very real risk that the continuing existence of paramilitaries presents to our society.  The IRC remains deeply worried about the risks posed to society by the continuing existence of paramilitary structures – regardless of whether they are republican or loyalist paramilitary groups – which can be harnessed for the purposes of violence or the threat of violence.”

Catherine McCartney, whose brother Roberty McCartney suffered a fatal attack by IRA members in Belfast in 2005, responded that the IRC was created for “political theatre” to shore up the peace process. She says it should be asking specific organisations and people why there have been no convictions for dozens of IRA murders carried out since the organisations final ceasefire in 1994. She says the IRC should be meeting terror victims rather than ‘community sources’.

Ms McCartney told the News Letter: “The IRC is nothing but a political body that will follow the agenda of the establishment. They were set up off the back of Kevin MvGuigan’s murder because Stormont was in danger of collapsing. So the Government said, ‘Let’s set up a body here to pretend that we are dealing with these issues and we will put them over there in this tent and it shouldn’t really affect power sharing in the main house.

“The IRC does not deliver anything on the ground. They don’t even approach victims yet they will run to who they call ‘community groups’ - whoever these gatekeepers are - whom they cite in their reports.”

She said that IRA members had carried out 39 murders from the organisation’s final 1994 ceasefire until 2005. Last year the News Letter reported, unchallenged, that IRA members had killed 26 people since the Good Friday Agreement.

“But I don’t think the IRC should be just monitoring the number of murders,” she added. “I think they should be asking why nobody has been convicted for them. The answer people want is - why are there no convictions for paramilitary murders, whether loyalist or republican? When it comes to the murder of ordinary civilians it is just as though the system even see them.”

She does not see that the IRC serves any genuine purpose that the PSNI does not serve.

“It is just political messaging which does a disservice to victims, because we all know they are not going to deliver anything.

“As for Robert’s case, they don’t think to ask, ‘Why don’t people in government cooperate with the police investigation?’”

She repeated the NIO report’s assertion that the IRA is still overseeing Sinn Fein, which she noted is in government.

“Why do they not follow that trail, and ask [a named MLA] do they not know anything about what is going on on the ground?

“The IRC is just political theatre you have to be very wary of - what are they not telling us? What message are they trying to give us this time? I haven’t read this latest report but it appears to boil down to - ‘Oh here we go, these loyalists are trying to destabilize Northern Ireland because of the Protocol’. But what about paramiltary activity on the ground in terms of criminality and murders?”

The IRC responded to her that it meets on a confidential basis with a wide range of groups and individuals, but does not comment on specific meetings it holds.  

“The Commissioners are acutely aware of the harm caused by paramilitary activity, including the impact of coercive control on communities, and society as a whole,” it added.

Political commentator Alex Kane acknowledged the revelations by George Hamilon in April about who was behind the McGuigan murder.

“Given this new intelligence it does seem odd that this latest IRC report doesn’t even refer to Hamilton’s comments - particularly since they drew considerable attention in NI media at the time,” he said. “And even more so, given the fact that the report is clearly allowed to refer to and comment on ‘published’ information which might be relevant.

“This latest report makes much of the need to find ways of closing down all paramilitarism in Northern Ireland. But that can only be done if the IRC’s information and conclusions in previous reports have actually stood the test of time.”

Academic and former IRA prisoner Anthony McIntyre said he thinks that everybody agrees on the accuracy of the comments made by George Hamilton in April.

“But senior [IRA] members approving an operation does not mean the organisation sanctioning it,” he said. “My own understanding of it is that the event led to a parting of the ways with the senior members leaving. Some of those senior members were very close to Jock [Davison].”

Kevin McGuigan was a former IRA subordinate of Jock Davison. Mr McGuigan was suspected of killing his former boss three months before he too was killed, potentially in a revenge attack.

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