Video adds to McArdle resignation calls
A video featuring Mary McArdle saying she wanted to kill prison officers has sparked fresh calls for the Sinn Féin advisor’s resignation – including from the families of IRA victims.
Five years ago, the convicted killer of magistrate’s daughter Mary Travers took part in a propaganda video in which she gave an account of her “enraging” time behind bars.
“All you wanted to do was kill them (the prison officers),” Ms McArdle said on camera. “I just wanted to kill them.”
Now appointed as a special advisor to Sinn Féin Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín, Ms McArdle was jailed for life for her role in Mary Travers’ murder in 1984 but released early under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
The 22-year-old teacher was shot in the back by an IRA gang as she left mass with her family in south Belfast. Her father – Judge Tom Travers – was also shot six times, but survived.
The Travers family has already made numerous calls either for Ms McArdle to resign or for Sinn Féin to reconsider giving her such a position at Stormont.
Adding her voice to those opposing the appointment is Paula McCartney – whose brother Robert was stabbed and beaten to death outside Magennis’s bar in Belfast, in an IRA-linked attack in 2005.
Despite a high-profile international campaign, no-one has ever been convicted of her brother’s murder.
“Why can Mary McArdle not just step down if she’s genuine at all about the pain she caused the Travers family?” she said.
While Ms McCartney says a Truth and Reconciliation Commission should be considered for Northern Ireland, she added: “What compounds the grief is when people who were involved, indirectly or directly, are then given rewards for their past actions.”
A review of the appointment of all special advisers is underway at Stormont after Finance Minister Sammy Wilson was asked to look at the procedures by First Minister Peter Robinson.
McArdle pressure mounts
Analysis
“Legacy of the past”
