Ted Howell Sinn Fein funeral: Spanish victims group says 'humiliating' for terror victims to see Sinn Fein leaders carry IRA man's coffin

Ted Howell, who was one of Sinn Fein's key backroom figures through political negotiations and the Stormont Assembly, died at the age of 78 last week.

Speaking at his funeral on Tuesday, Gerry Adams said Mr Howell had returned from living in Canada during civil rights protests "and then joined the Irish Republican Army".

Ed Moloney, author of a Secret History of the IRA, previously described Mr Howell as Gerry Adams’s “most trusted adviser and counsellor” and “a highly secretive figure” who was “arguably one of the most influential figures in the Provisionals”.

Some of the tributes to Howell this week were from Spanish Basque figures.

But Inés Gaviria of Spanish terror victims group COVITE, was angered by the events.

"We must express that we find it extremely humiliating for the victims of the IRA, and concerning in terms of building democratic values, that a public funeral–tribute is held for this individual, portraying him as a patriotic hero when he is nothing like that," she said.

"We find this unacceptable. However, it does not surprise us, as the same happens in the Basque Country with ETA terrorists."

Former IRA bomber turned blogger Shane Paul O'Doherty uncovered clippings from Reuters and the Belfast Telegraph about Howell's arrest in 1982 at the US-Canada border.

He had a weapons shopping list, thousands of dollars and a notebook containing names of leading IRA members.

After being deported from Canada, he was soon arrested by Garda, who saw him receiving a bag from IRA Chief of Staff, Joe Cahill, containing $80,000.

Mr O'Doherty added: "Having been arrested, photographed and fingerprinted in three different jurisdictions there was nothing left for the IRA leadership but to dump 'howler' Howell into some area where he could do least damage, such as a so-called 'think tank'."

Leading Sinn Fein figures Mary-Lou McDonald, Michelle O’Neill and Gerry Adams took turns carrying Howell's coffin this week.

Kenny Donaldson, director of Troubles victims group SEFF, said: "The imagery of Sinn Fein's top brass carrying the coffin of a former Provisional IRA terrorist has been a regular occurrence, so these images are far from surprising.

"Sadly Sinn Fein is still inextricably committed to the legacy protection of The Provisional IRA, which murdered over 1,700 innocent men, women and children from among their neighbours."

He said the Sinn Fein concept of "a First Minister For All” was not about non-republicans, "but rather to provide cover for the ongoing eulogising and romanticisation of terrorism/criminal violence".

Former IRA prisoner turned academic Anthony McIntyre said he only attended one meeting with Mr Howell, whom he considered a key republican strategist.

"He seemed fastidious and single minded - not really open to a different take on things," he said.

Ultimately, he said, Howell helped deliver an outcome that "inverted" IRA logic by accepting the Belfast Agreement and the British view that the Troubles were an internal problem within Northern Ireland.

Mr Howell came to wider public prominence during the Cash-For-Ash inquiry in 2017-18.

At that time it emerged that Sinn Fein’s finance minister Mairtin O Muilleoir sought approval from Howell to sign off on a business plan.

This was then used to criticise Sinn Fein as a party ultimately controlled by “shadowy” figures.

MOLONEY: IRA CAN STILL BE EXPANDED IN EMERGENCY

On his blog in 2020 Ed Moloney said that "the IRA has not gone away, most certainly in the North, where its continued existence as a smaller but nonetheless lethal force is seen as a deterrent to Loyalist violence".

He added: "The Provos most certainly would not like to see the dissidents step into the breach should Loyalist paramilitaries re-activate. After all they came into being in 1969 as the defenders of the Catholic community, that was their raison d’etre. They are not about to hand that laurel over to anyone else."

He noted that the Irish government has stated that the IRA continues to hold assets worth 400m Euros.

"So there is a well-funded structure there which could, at reasonably short notice, be expanded in an emergency," he added.

In 2022 at the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, SDLP MP Claire Hanna asked members of the paramilitary watchdog the Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) what had been done about the assets.

IRC Commissioner John McBurney replied that he did not see a formal process of disbandment or de-proscription of terror groups going into such matters because "it would get terribly bogged down".

Irish Government representative on the IRC, Tim O’Connor, said: "On the question about funding and assets, that is going to be a very difficult part of all of this.... That question is certainly going to have to be resolved in any satisfactory process of group transition and disbandment."