Daughter of Disappeared victim vows to get justice

Daughter of Disappeared victim vows to get justice

23 October 2019

THE daughter of Belfast mother Jean McConville said she wasn’t surprised that former IRA man Ivor Bell was cleared of her mother’s murder last week.

Crossgar woman, Helen McKendry, told the Recorder that she does not know whether she will ever learn the full truth about who abducted and killed her mother in 1972.

However, the grandmother of 14 vowed that her children and grandchildren will continue her campaign to bring those responsible to justice.

The case against Mr Bell — one of the men mentioned in connection with Mrs McConville’s murder in the controversial Boston tape interviews which implicated several people — was ped last Thursday after a judge ruled that the interviews were unreliable as evidence.

Mr Bell was the only person to face two charges of soliciting murder for one of the most shocking deaths in the Troubles.

Mrs McConville was a single widow of ten children when she was taken from her Divis home in west Belfast by a mob of IRA members before being driven across the border and shot in the head.

One of the most prominent murders of The Disappeared — victims of IRA summary justice during the conflict— Mrs McConville’s body was found in 2003 at a Co Louth beach. 

The IRA claimed responsibility for the murder in 1999.

Mrs McKendry and her siblings were left orphans and for years were left in the dark as to what had happened to their mother. The McConvilles have always strenuously denied claims that their mother was an army informer.

She said: “When I heard the results of the case last week I wasn’t expecting anything else really. It seems like the government is out to protect the people who did this and not the family as

 they don’t give two hoots about the family.

“There are nine tapes in total and we never got to listen to all of them before it went into the court and I’m sorry about that.”

Sinn Féin TD, Gerry Adams, gave witness evidence for the defence that he had “no part to play” in Mrs McConville’s murder and described it as “very wrong” in last week’s case.

He told the court: “The IRA were totally wrong to have shot and secretly buried these folks.” 

He also denied being in the IRA.

Mr Adams has consistently denied any involvement in Mrs McConville’s death

However, Mrs McKendry said that she plans to take a High Court civil case against the former Sinn Féin leader next year, explaining that he is named in the Boston tapes in connection with her mother’s murder.

She said: “I am taking a civil action against Mr Adams and my barrister is flying over next month to consult with me as we couldn’t go until the Ivor Bell case was completed.”

Mrs McKendry is also waiting on next moves from the PSNI and the Public Prosecution Service whom, she claims, are still investigating her mother’s murder.

She added: “I have said years ago that I’m not giving up. If I don’t achieve it in my lifetime, there’s always my children and grandchildren to carry on.

“I really don’t know if I will get all the truth about my mother’s death but all I can do is hope, that’s all I have ever had.”