Kneecap band: Sinn Fein silent on QUB professor Liam Kennedy's claim it facilitated IRA kneecapping

QUB Professor Liam Kennedy made the claims in the context of a debate about a controversial West Belfast band using the term 'Kneecap' for its brand.

He was speaking after Liam Barker, 53, went public to tell how he was sexually and physically abused as a child in Turf lodge - with no supportive follow-up.

Mr Barker went on to engage in crime and as a 15-year-old, the IRA kneecapped him twice with a gun and paving slabs.

Mr Barker said he was "shunned" by his community and had to learn to walk again - twice.

"I couldn't get a job, I had no sense of hope and fear, always twitching and looking behind me," he said.

Speaking of the band's use of the term, he said: "They are not representing me or anybody like me. Nowhere near it.

"They are abusing people's disabilities and mental health."

"They need to know what a person that has been kneecapped had been through.

"They have been making a living out of other people's misery. Kneecapping is a life of mental and physical trauma."

Prof Kennedy, who campaigned against such attacks for 20 years, rejected the legitimacy of a band adopting the form of "torture" as their brand.

He said that some 6000 such attacks took place, many of them on children, and there had been around 24 by loyalist gangs and dissidents since 2022 - which he said was still 24 too many.

The attacks have tapered off, he said, because terror groups have scaled down in structure at this time - but he singled out Sinn Fein for specific criticism.

"There isn't the infrastructure that was there in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and it gives me no pride to say, but you know that the Sinn Fein office structure was part of the infrastructure - in terms of organizing and arranging these kinds of beatings and shootings," he told the Stephen Nolan Show on Friday.

Mr Nolan interjected that Sinn Fein would clearly deny this.

"Oh yes, of course," Prof Kennedy replied. "But I've spoken to too many people who've been through the so-called punishment system, and in a number of cases, they were summoned to a Sinn Fein office, sometimes warned, sometimes not, sometimes just taken out in the way Liam was [and kneecapped]," he said.

"There is no doubt that Sinn Fein and loyalist front groups supported this kind of repression within their own communities, which is so astonishing."

He added: "It's an appalling dark side of the history of the troubles."

And he was angry that despite so many calls for judicial investigation into Troubles violence, the issue is not discussed at all.

"We have so many people talking about justice and legacy and so on, and this is a stream of legacy that has gone on beneath the surface for five decades now," he said.

Part of the reason for this, he said, was that the victims of such attacks are still terrified to speak out about what was done to them.

Commending the courage of Mr Barker for speaking out now, he gave an example of how during the Troubles one victim spoke anonymously on television about what he suffered. But the paramilitaries recognised his distinctive shoes and "gave him a more severe beating" a week later.

Mr Nolan said that Sinn Fein had been given a full opportunity to challenge Prof Kennedy's claims - but that the party did not deny them.

Speaking on Friday, the presenter said: "We went to Sinn Fein with the professor this morning from Queen's University, claiming that people were sometimes brought to offices of Sinn Fein. This is in the past.

"We asked Sinn Fein if they denied any of its offices were used for arranging paramilitary style shootings and beatings?

"We asked, 'Does Sinn Fein deny any officials took part in arranging paramilitary shootings and beatings?' and in their statement, Sinn Fein did not deny it.

"They just talked about the present tense and said there is no role for paramilitaries."

The News Letter also invited Sinn Fein to respond.