Former would-be killer and ex-junior IRA leader among those involved with Irish language group that has been promised £4m by the Tories

An Ciste Infheistiochta Gaeilge – or Irish Language Investment Fund in English – was promised the sum by Brandon Lewis, the erstwhile Northern Ireland secretary (he has since gone on to quit amid last week’s Conservative leadership turmoil).

In a statement on May 25 saying he aimed to impose a language bill on Northern Ireland via London, he pledged: “The Government will also provide £4m to An Ciste Infheistíochta Gaeilge.”

This reporter had never heard of the fund, so looked into what it is.

‘DEVELOPING LANGUAGE COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE NORTH’:

The outfit is registered as both as a not-for-profit company (set up in 2010) and as a charity (since 2015).

It is based in Londonderry, and its most recent accounts show net assets of about £2.5m for 2021, with incoming resources of about £946,500 and outgoings of roughly £729,000.

Its accounts state that it “has spent the last 10 years playing a central and critical financial role in the development of £20m+ Irish language community infrastructure projects in the North”.

It adds: “After successfully lobbying the Department of Communities, they have been chosen to distribute significant Covid mitigation public funding to assist the Irish language community sector tasked with managing and sustaining their usually vibrant community hubs.”

Its charity trustees include Rosaleen McCorley, who was convicted of attempted murder of a police reservist in Belfast Crown Court in 1991, and ex-IRA Fianna figure Gearoid O hEara (who formerly held a directorship of the company).

Meanwhile Maria Caraher is a current company director (she formerly stood for election for Sinn Fein, and had an uncle, father, and two brothers in the IRA, with the family having won praise from Gerry Adams for its republican credentials).

There are other current and former trustees and directors, and there’s nothing whatsoever to suggest that any of them have been involved in any criminality or wrongdoing.

Among them is Mairtin O Muilleoir, the former Sinn Fein MLA; he resigned as a company director in 2013.

‘THIS WAS PART OF PACKAGE INCLUDING MARKING CENTENARY’:

The News Letter tried to contact the charity to ask the following:

There have always been unionists who have stuck by the line that the Irish language is a political tool of Sinn Fein, and that it is connected in the minds of many with republican paramilitarism.

Is the fund concerned that, by having members with past IRA ties will just feed into that belief, and undermine unionist acceptance of the language?

The same question was also put to Sinn Fein.

No response was received from either of them.

The News Letter also tried to get messages to Ms McCorley, Mr O hEara, and Ms Caraher, but these were not returned.

The Northern Ireland Office was asked if it knew about the Sinn Fein links and former IRA ties of some of those involved in the fund before deciding to gift it £4m.

It said: “The announcement by the UK Government of £4m in funding for An Ciste Infheistíochta Gaeilge was part of the package which was a matter of careful negotiation between the parties in New Decade, New Approach.

“The funding package covered a broad range of additional initiatives, including marking NI’s Centenary, measures around Ulster Scots and the appointment of the NI Veterans Commissioner.”

WHO IS ROSALEEN MCCORLEY?

The charity describes her as a “political advisor to Sinn Féin” who also serves on the board of the Community Relations Council.

On January 15, 1990, Ms McCorley was part of a two-person IRA team which hid a bomb under an RUC reservist’s car.

The intended victim lived in Belfast with his wife and children.

After scoping out the scene at 11pm, the duo moved in and affixed the magnetic device under the driver’s seat.

It was armed and triggered by a mercury tilt switch.

She and her co-bomber were seen, chased, and caught, and she was given a 22-year jail term.

She went on to claim this was “manifestly excessive” and tried to appeal it.

Court documents show she had argued that because she was “an unmarried woman of 34, the sentence of 22 years was a particularly heavy one for her, because it would mean that she would probably lose the opportunity to have a married life and would certainly lose the opportunity to have children”.

But the appeal court threw out her claim, and said her sentence was “entirely proper”.

The judge, Brian Hutton, said: “The facts we have set out show how coldblooded and evil was the murder which the appellant attempted to commit.

“The crime of placing a booby trap bomb under a car is easy committed and it is difficult to arrest and convict those who carry out the crime, though fortunately this case was an exception.

“It is a crime which has been frequently committed in this jurisdiction and it has brought death or terrible injuries to countless persons and mourning and great distress to their families.”

In the end, the judge’s conclusion didn’t matter much, because she was freed early in 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement.

She was co-opted to the Assembly in 2012, and served until 2016.

Despite her conviction for trying to kill a policeman, her biography on the charity’s website states that she currently serves on the West Belfast District Policing Partnership.

WHO IS GEAROID O HEARA?

Gearoid O hEara (aka Gerry O’Hara) was formerly a Sinn Fein mayor of Londonderry.

He also leads An Gaelaras, a different Irish language organisation based in the same building as An Ciste Infheistiochta Gaeilge.

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry heard evidence from him that he was the leader of the Provisional Fianna at the time of the massacre.

He disputed the extent of the Fianna’s direct involvement in paramilitarism, and sought to draw a line between it and the IRA.

He said Fianna members were merely involved in “street activity”, “rioting”, and “surveillance”, and described the Fianna as “a scout organisation which was linked to a military organisation”.

He had previously been a member of the Official Fianna, but after the Official / Provisional split he decided that the Provisionals “appeared to be doing more than the Officials to challenge British occupation”, the Bloody Sunday report says.

He told the inquiry that “he reported to a member of the Provisional IRA who had been appointed to act as Liaison Officer” between the two wings.

The inquiry concluded that “members of the Provisional Fianna are unlikely to have had regular access to firearms or nail bombs, though it seems to us that they were drilled and were involved in intelligence gathering for the Provisional IRA”, and that “they may have attended training camps, or training meetings in the city, where they were shown how to use firearms”.

In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2005, Mr O’hEara was quoted as saying: “I believed at the time that armed struggle was the only way to get the British out of Ireland and I suppose I felt a responsibility to be involved in it. That’s what I said to the Saville Enquiry.”

Haaretz says he then added with a smile: “And that’s as close as you’ll get to a confession.”

The article also states at one point that “his involvement in numerous shootings and bombings has been ‘suggested’ says O’hEara, who admits to being arrested over 200 times”.

WHO IS MARIA CARAHER?

The charity lists her as the principal of Bunscoil an Iuir, an Irish primary school in Newry, though it appears she has now left that role.

She stood in the 1996 NI Forum elections for Sinn Fein in Newry and Armagh.

Though many of her immediate family have been involved with the IRA, there’s no suggestion she was ever a member.

Maria Caraher’s brother Fergal was shot dead by British Army troops in 1990; Sinn Fein honours him as a “volunteer” in the South Armagh Brigade.

Another brother, Michael (sometimes spelled Miceal) was shot in the same incident, but survived.

He was part of the notorious south Armagh sniper team and went on to be jailed for IRA activity including attempted murder.

Gerry Adams has written in his Leargas blog that her uncle Francie “died in 2005 at the age of 73, a volunteer of Oglaigh na hÉireann”.

And of her father Peter John (PJ, also now dead) Mr Adams has written that he was an “OC” (officer commanding) in south Armagh – though it is not clear if he had command over the whole area or just his home village of Cullyhanna.

Mr Adams said of him that “in this community he was an authority figure and a huge influence on the republican struggle... he was totally unselfish in his commitment”.

He added: “If you want a role model for our time, then Peter John is that role model. He personified all that is sound about our struggle.”

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Below are some links to an occasional feature the News Letter runs about some of the lesser-known victims of the Troubles, as the anniversaries of their deaths fall due:

‘UDA could not have picked worse target’: remembering the murder of primary school teacher Cyril Murray in east Belfast exactly three decades ago

WATCH – IPLO murder 30 years on: Random Protestant victim Billy Sargent had survived Nazi machine gun attack only to be shot while having a pint

50 years of silence broken: sisters tell of anguish over IRA murdering their brother in bed

DUP brother of UDA sectarian murder victim Gavin Brett breaks 20 year silence

Police family speaks out for first time 35 years after IRA murdered their brother and three other young officers