Just imagine the outcry if PJ McGrory had been a loyalist

If it was disclosed a well-known “loyalist” solicitor concocted stories to ameliorate the position of RUC and UDR personnel accused of serious criminal offences just imagine the outcry in the press, the BBC, and from human rights bodies.
By Lyle Cubitt
Published 19th Aug 2020, 13:23 GMT
16/03/88: Funeral in west Belfast for trio of would-be bombers shot by the SAS in Gibraltar; an Irish state file says PJ McGrory tried to get the IRA to issue a statement on the shootings, as a PR exercise to influence the inquest jury16/03/88: Funeral in west Belfast for trio of would-be bombers shot by the SAS in Gibraltar; an Irish state file says PJ McGrory tried to get the IRA to issue a statement on the shootings, as a PR exercise to influence the inquest jury
16/03/88: Funeral in west Belfast for trio of would-be bombers shot by the SAS in Gibraltar; an Irish state file says PJ McGrory tried to get the IRA to issue a statement on the shootings, as a PR exercise to influence the inquest jury

Sinn Fein and no doubt the Alliance party would be among those demanding a public inquiry into such a disclosure.

It might even merit comment from the Law Society.

Why is there no outcry about the disclosure of the comments by the late Paddy ‘PJ’ McGrory to Mr McMahon in 1988 suggesting a concoction to Sinn Fein in respect of the Gibraltar bombing?

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Indeed it raises the question whether as a defence lawyer this was a one-off, and as such should all the criminal cases in which he was personally involved be fully re-investigated?

Does this issue not give grounds for an independent investigation into the workings of the legal profession, and the associated legal aid system, or has our society become so corrupted that honesty is no longer considered fundamental to practice law?

[This letter relates to an article in the News Letter on August 6 concerning a declassified file, which described a meeting between well-known Troubles lawyer PJ McGrory and an Irish official about the deaths of an IRA trio in Gibraltar. It says Mr McGrory tried, via Sinn Fein, to get the IRA to claim that no people in Gibraltar had been at risk from its members, in a bid to favourably influence the jury at their inquest].

Lyle Cubitt, Retired solicitor, practicing c.1970 to 2005, Ballymena

Related topics:BBCSinn FeinIRAGibraltar