Sinn Fein MP John Finucane pressed on IRA murder of UUP barrister Edgar Graham

Sinn Fein MP John Finucane has stopped short of explicitly condemning the murder of UUP member Edgar Graham by the IRA in 1983.
By Philip Bradfield
Published 26th Nov 2020, 09:14 BST
Updated 1st Dec 2020, 09:15 BST
John Finucane MP was speaking to the BBC. Photo: Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.John Finucane MP was speaking to the BBC. Photo: Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.
John Finucane MP was speaking to the BBC. Photo: Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

He was challenged over the issue on Good Morning Ulster yesterday, as his family waits to hear if they will get a public inquiry into the murder of his father, the lawyer Pat Finucane.

A presenter told Mr Finucane that people like Anne Graham, the sister of barrister Edgar Graham, say that she just wants Sinn Fein to condemn her brother’s murder. “Are you prepared to condemn his killing?” he asked.

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Mr Finucane replied: “We are straying into the different hats that I wear, but the hurt that anybody else has went through – I mean I have went through this – I am not going to play games with that.

“I think that there is a danger that people have tried to target me with selective condemnation and I don’t think that is particularly helpful in the context of legacy.”

The presenter responded that for some people, condemnation would make a difference and that even though he too had been through the pain of his father’s murder “you still struggle to say it was wrong ... and doesn’t that say something in itself?”.

Mr Finucane replied: “No, I don’t have any difficulty, I mean any death was wrong. Any death in the context in which it happened here was wrong. I think that people realise that there was a conflict here. There are very different narratives as to what happened in that conflict.” He added: “I don’t elevate the pain which my family has went through above any other family.”

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He called for a process that would give all families complete information about the death of their loved ones.

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