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Mary McArdle: omicidio Travers fu “un tragico errore”

McArdle’s mistake comments ‘insulting’

The sister of IRA victim Mary Travers has branded comments by convicted killer Mary McArdle “insulting”, after the Sinn Féin advisor claimed the murder was a “tragic mistake”.

Joan e Ann Travers ai funerali di Mary“Mistake? Mistake? My sister was murdered,” Ann Travers told U105’s Frank Mitchell Show.

Young teacher Mary Travers was leaving mass with her family, at a church in south Belfast in April 1984, when they were ambushed by an armed IRA gang.

The 22-year-old was shot in the back, while her magistrate father Tom Travers was hit six times but survived. His wife also had a gun held to her head, but escaped when it misfired.

Mary McArdle, who has been appointed as a political advisor to new Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín, was jailed for life for murder but released under the Good Friday Agreement.

Speaking to the Andersonstown News, Ms McArdle said: “I want to state clearly that the killing of Mary Travers was a tragic mistake and I regret that it happened.”

But Ann Travers says she finds that insulting to her family and the memory of her sister.

“The IRA knew my dad was unarmed, they knew he didn’t have a police bodyguard, they knew that he was a soft target. So surely if they didn’t want to make such a ‘tragic mistake’, they would only have sent one gunman,” she said.

Carál Ní Chuilín’s statement that people either accept the Good Friday Agreement or they don’t has also been met with criticism, as Ann Travers insists she has accepted Mary McArdle’s early release under its terms.

However, she feels it is Sinn Féin who are failing to uphold the agreement.

“Ministers have to ensure good community relations and equality of all. Well, I don’t feel this is ensuring good community relations. Neither do I feel that I am being treated as an equal,” she added.

Calling for Mary McArdle to step down from her position as a political advisor, she said: “I don’t want to take away from any of the good work that she may have done after coming out of prison, but that doesn’t give her a get-out-of-jail-free card for this.

“I do absolutely understand that there was dreadful pressure put on young people from different parts of Belfast, on both the loyalist and republican sides.

“I’m pleased that’s she’s doing good work for her community, but it doesn’t take away from the pain and the suffering that’s still being caused to myself and my family.”

Rejecting suggestions her father was a ‘legitimate’ target because of his job, Ann Travers said he and her sister were not involved in any kind of war.

“My dad had no way to defend himself – my dad didn’t carry a gun,” she said.

“My dad didn’t have a police bodyguard, because he didn’t want another family to suffer the grief and he couldn’t live with the guilt if someone was killed because of him – and he ended up losing his own daughter.”

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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