Finucane inquiry: DUP figures remind MPs about IRA terror – including role of dead lawyer’s three brothers

Sammy Wilson, Gregory Campbell, and Jim Shannon all raised the matter of republican terror as MPs discussed the government’s refusal to grant a full public inquiry at this time into the Pat Finucane shooting of 1989.

Mr Campbell told MPs there was “no justification” for the murder, but went on to add: “Unlike thousands of other wrong and unjustifiable murders there had been however investigations, people in court, and people convicted of this murder.

“Thousands of other relatives had none of these outcomes...

“To properly deal with the past, we need to see the same unequivocal condemnation that exists across this House about the murder of Pat Finucane, about all the other murders – including the terror campaign that was carried out by the organisation that Pat Finucane’s brothers, Seamus, John and Dermot, were all part of for many years.”

Mr Wilson then rose to tell the House: “Millions, tens of millions, indeed hundreds of millions of pounds have already been spent on four investigations into the murder of Pat Finucane, whose family had well-documented terrorist links.

“One brother died whilst engaged in terrorist activity, two were captured while engaged in terrorist activity.

“And indeed, informers have alleged that Pat Finucane himself, for one reason or another, was the solicitor of choice for IRA terrorists when they were captured.

“And the expenditure contrasts starkly with the derisory efforts which have been made to deal with the cases of thousands of people who were killed by the IRA and whose cases haven’t been investigated nor anyone brought to justice.

“I think it’s a great pity that he [NI Secretary Brandon Lewis] has not unequivocally ruled out the expenditure of more British taxpayers’ money on a further investigation sometime in the future.

“I think many people in Northern Ireland would’ve had much more comfort had he done so today.”

Meanwhile Jim Shannon MP rose to his feet to speak about the likelihood of inquiries into such bloodbaths as the La Mon inferno, in which the IRA incinerated 12 people at the hotel of that name in 1978.

“We need equality, and we want to see it,” he told the House.

The book Lost Lives says Pat Finucane was the 3,012th person murdered in the Troubles, with several hundred more killed after that – with the IRA by far the most prolific in terms of deaths.

It has been documented that Pat Finucane’s brother John, Seamus, and Dermot were all involved in republicanism (John was an IRA man killed in 1972, Seamus was arrested with Bobby Sands in 1976 after a firefight, and Dermot was part of the 1983 IRA Maze breakout).

Click here: ‘Focus on murder of Pat Finucane shows how other victims have been devalued’ Click here: IRA victim’s daughter: ‘Pain of the Finucane family is no different to our own – why do we not get the same consideration?’A message from the Editor:

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