Hunger striker defends Adams over Disappeared
A former hunger striker has defended Gerry Adams’s position on the Disappeared but said he would “plead the fifth Amendment” on whether the Sinn fein president was in the IRA.
Writer Laurence McKeown (57), right, insisted that the Louth TD and party leadership have “tried in a very forthright way to deal with issues, Disappeared or otherwise”.
The Randalstown native was speaking after the republic’s Justice Minister Alan Shatter suggested there was an “enormous credibility gap” surrounding Mr Adams’s stance on those abducted and murdered by the Provisional IRA, including Belfast mother-of-10 Jean McConville.
Mr McKeown, who was jailed for attempting to murder an RUC officer and spent 70 days on hunger strike in 1981, was asked by RTE’s Sean O’Rourke whether he believed Mr Adams was ever in the IRA.
He replied: “I would probably plead the fifth Amendment on that one. What I believe is that [the Louth TD] is a republican and I think he has brought our situation from one of conflict — him and others who I greatly respect — to a position where today we are having… engagement.”
Mr McKeown is currently working with retired RUC chief superintendent Roger McCallum (60) to promote a new play by Jonathan Burgess, Crows on the Wire, which looks at the 2001 changeover from the RUC to the PSNI. On Mr Adams’s past, Mr McCallum said: “I guess he has taken a certain stance and he has to go down that particular stance.
“Maybe there will be more light thrown on the subject in the years to come.”
