Ex-IRA bomber asks Pope to beatify NI judges just like Italian Mafia victim Rosario Livatino

A reformed IRA bomber has asked Pope Francis to extend the same honour NI lawyers murdered by the terror group that is being given to an Italian judge who was killed by the mafia.

Londonderry man Shane Paul O’Doherty was given 14 years as an IRA bomber in the 1970s and later turned his back on terrorism.

Late last year the Vatican announced that Italian judge Rosario Livatino, who was killed by the Sicilian mafia in 1990, will be beatified as a martyr.

In a letter to the Pope, Mr O’Doherty, a Catholic, has now said: “I read recently that you are going to beatify as a martyr an Italian judge – Rosario Livatino - who was murdered by the Mafia.

“I want to tell you about a number of judges, lawyers and family members who were murdered in Northern Ireland by terrorists of the IRA. I want you to consider beatifying as martyrs these innocent victims of the IRA. I write to you as a former member of the IRA who has repented.”

His letter listed Resident Magistrate William Staunton, shot on the Falls Road in 1972; Judge Rory Conaghan and Resident Magistrate Martin McBirney both shot on the same day in 1974 in Belfast;

Judge William Doyle shot as he came out of Mass in Belfast in 1983; Judge Tom Travers who was shot with his daughter, Mary, as they came out of mass in Belfast in 1984. He survived but she didn’t; Appeal Justice Maurice Gibson and his wife Cecily killed in a bomb attack in 1987 and Edgar Graham, a barrister and QUB lecturer shot in 1983.

He added: “If an Italian judge murdered by the Mafia is to be beatified as a martyr, why aren’t the judges and family members who were murdered by the IRA in Northern Ireland also to be beatified as martyrs?”

The News Letter invited a response from the Vatican but none has yet been received.

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