The last posting of 2013 on thebrokenelbow.com is given over to Catherine McCartney, whose brother Robert was brutally murdered by the IRA in January 2005 and who gives her own assessment of the Redemptorist priest, Fr Alec Reid who died last November. His passing was accompanied by a largely uncritical media and political acclamation of his role as the priest of peace, the intermediary whose secret diplomacy helped Gerry Adams bring the IRA’s war to an end.
Catherine has a somewhat more jaundiced view of Alec Reid, one fashioned by the cleric’s extraordinary intervention in the wake of the vicious beating of Geoff Commander, a family friend and campaigner for the truth about her brother’s death, an intervention made on behalf of those who had administered the beating not the victim.
As this posting appears, the former US diplomat Richard Haass is in the final stages of negotiating an agreement with Northern Ireland’s politicians that will propose a way of dealing with the past, specifically designed to establish the truth of who did what to whom and why during the Troubles. We shall see if the agreed process, assuming there is one, is capable of telling the truth about Robert McCartney’s death.
Catherine McCartney, pictured at the time of her brother’s death
By Catherine McCartney
The death of Alec Reid has brought with it the usual outpourings of inflated eulogies and unexamined claims about the life of the Redemptorist priest. Media, politicians, church and the Catholic faithful lined up to pay homage to the humanity of this great man while the presence of unionist politicians at his funeral was hailed as illustrative of the fruition of his peace work.
I hadn’t heard of Alec Reid before 2005 and news of his death evoked a different emotion in me. In January of that year my brother Robert was murdered by the IRA outside a Belfast bar, stabbed to death in the most cowardly way and the killing covered up using the full resources of the IRA and its leadership. Ordinarily the murder of a man such as Robert, a working class Catholic from a republican ghetto – Short Strand, the smallest and most vulnerable Catholic area in Belfast – who was killed by his own, would have warranted little attention. However various factors combined to make the fall out a little more extraordinary.
First, was the reaction of my family. We went public, naming the IRA as responsible and demanding his killers be brought to justice – as did the community. For them Robert’s murder could not be placed within an ‘excusable context’ i.e. punishment beating for drug dealing or some other charge, an attitude that indicated that people in Short Strand were fed up with the IRA’s thuggish treatment of them.
Second, his murder came on the heels of the Northern Bank robbery in December 2004 just before Robert’s murder. The cockiness of the IRA at a time when it was supposed to be moving towards decommissioning its weaponry, was a result of the destructive approach that both the British and Irish governments had adopted to IRA criminality for the previous decade. Both London and Dublin had decided to ‘turn a blind eye’ to IRA excesses on the grounds that the Provo leadership needed to reassure its grassroots that no sellout was planned; every now and then a robbery or a killing served to give that reassurance and both governments were complicit in the deceit.
But the robbery put the brakes on the infamous ‘peace process train’ and many commentators concluded that it could be years before there was any further movement. The fall out from Robert’s murder presented an opportunity to the establishment to start the train up again.
As a result the IRA/Sinn Fein came under pressure from the political establishment and our campaign was an instrumental cause of this. They, that is the Provisional leadership, viewed Robert‘s murder as an inconvenience and they were damned if they were going to allow it to lessen any leverage they held within the process.
The IRA leadership’s core objectives were: protecting the murderers, shutting the family up and maintaining control of the community.
Between January and October of that year we received three death threats, there were bomb warnings, and pickets were placed outside the house; eventually we had to move out of Short Strand where we had been born and bred. Essentially it was us against the might of the IRA.
The climax to the intimidation came in September. The community remained angry at Robert’s murder and this spilled over into an altercation with local IRA thugs. This signaled a loosening of the IRA’s grip. To bring the community back into line and steady the ‘green jackboot’ on the necks of the people Geoff Commander, a friend of Robert’s, was brutally attacked by up to eight men as he walked home alone one night.
Geoff refused to be bowed and reported the thugs to the police and charges were brought. Various interventions were made by groups and individuals on behalf of the IRA e.g. Community Restorative Justice (this organisation was closely affiliated to the Provos) to dissuade Geoff from proceeding with the case.
These overtures failed and Geoff and his wife Sinead remained steadfast in their determination to get justice. It was into this very intimidating and volatile situation that Fr. Alec Reid stepped. It would be natural to assume that given the circumstances this intervention would have been of a pastoral nature. Being devout Catholics both would have welcomed the support of a priest. But they were to be disappointed.
Alec Reid rang the Commander household and spoke with Sinead. He asked her to persuade Geoff to drop the charges against those charged. He didn’t give any specific reason as to why the men should not face justice; the fate of the peace process didn’t depend on it, the interest of ‘peace’ would not be served by it, the ‘greater good’ was not at stake.
There was no discernible reason given as to why Geoff should allow his brutal attackers escape justice, and not only that but allow the IRA to retain its grip on the community by increasing people’s fear of the consequences of reporting its crimes to the police. Alec Reid didn’t ask after the family. Sinead was flabbergasted at his request and told him: ‘Father my husband could have come home to me in a box, just like Robert McCartney’. He merely muffled acknowledgement of this but repeated his request for consideration of the matter.
This was how I came to know of Alec Reid. Alec Reid chose to stand with those responsible for the murder of an innocent man, the attackers of Geoff and the IRA in the intimidation and isolation of my family. By intervening on behalf of the IRA to have assault charges against Geoff’s IRA attackers dropped, Alec Reid intervened against the vulnerable, against right and against justice.
When I am asked what I think of Alec Reid my simple response is, ‘Provie priest’. In Belfast everyone knows what that means.
The Broken Elbow 
Reblogged this on seachranaidhe1.
agreed I always saw him as leaning towards the IRA far too many RC clergy in Ireland were Provvie sympathisers – much of it was because of the influence of RC education and the seminaries. Two brothers in my schooldays from south Armagh were already active Republicans…naturally, they joined the school FCA platoon, were issued with 303vLee Enfield rifles, and got (list most of us) whatever ammo they wanted and joined their comrades who came down in a Taxi to Dundalk for parade and training most Sundays. Their uniforms and guns were kept in the ROI. In a sort of a way, I can say that I grew up alongside the Ra – the brothers met with the fate I expected.
When I read the language of this post it reads like a Jim Allister rant which funnily enough is the reason why any initial sympathy the Short Strand Community and indeed the wider Republican community had for the Mc Cartney’s quickly evapourated.
Ian you’re warped bitter little mind baffles me, how could anyone not show sympathy to a family whose brother (a fellow republican) who had done nothing wrong got brutally attacked and murdered, putting the inevitable cover up aside father Reid a so called ‘man of the cloth’ thought the right thing to do in Gods eyes would be to cover up a vicious murder is seriously messed up! Not a Christian at all if he felt covering up a murder and serious assault was ok. If thats the case then he’ll be in hell not heaven!
As a Garden Center Unionist who may vote for the first time ( I’m 50 ), for NI21, I say,” more power to your elbow “, to the Commander and McCartney families. I hope, and unlike Fr Reid, I pray that the murderer(s),of Robert are brought before our courts very soon.
Ian – who are this wider Republican community? if a brother of mine got battered and knifed to death by a gang of drunken psycho-cowards trust me Jim Allister’s biggest ever rant would be a squeek compared to what would be coming out of my gob. This so called wider Republican community’s sympathy (according to you) for the mccartneys evapourated because of the type of language they used!!! yeah sure. More to do with fear of the Rafia. Happy New Year Catherine from a republican in galway who knows that the republicans who inspired me from your town – the likes of brendan hughes (who saw how ‘rotten’ belfast had become years ago) – ended up isolated, ignored and slandered – by the people who you are up against now. Keep you head high and know that some of us republicans who are not in fear of the Rafia have nothing but admiration and respect for you, whatever your politics are. ps Your post does not read like a rant either, keep writing, sure why not write a book – your brothers story and its aftermath is a story that will serve the truth process we all need never mind this phoney peace one. I only recently found out your brother was trying to defend his friend that night. R.I.P.
actually just came across your book on a link there!!! will get it soon
total bollox
do you think you could rise above a grunt tom, and tell us why you think this?
pigs can do nothin but grunt
true, but i cant see him bein involved in somethin like what happened that awful night, can u, and i gave up the gun years ago, prefer usin me tung now, bein a republican livin in a shoneen stronghold like galwaytown over last 30 years has copped me on a bit, am of the opinion there will never be a united ireland or any kind of healthy political entity on this island because ‘me fein’ is the way people are here now. i live in Englericaland.
and just as often, michael,from the comfort of madden’s bar……….
ive been in every county on this island, have you
ive been in every county in ireland, hav u, including laois
im not rambling at all michael, im just letting you know that u can stick ur imaginary war comment, and u can get kevin myarse to write ur book
a note to “michael”: you are perfectly entitled to engage in abusive commentary against myself but equally i am entitled to ask you to do so under your real name before i publish it – and by the way, section 31 applied only to named entities, not to anonymous one – as soon as you tell the readers of thebrokenelbow.com your real name i will quite happily reinstate your comments along with the abuse – until then post your anonymous insults elsewhere. i am under no obligation to give a platform to cowards. i publish everything here under my real name. if you are going to deal in insults then have the courage to do the same. otherwise and until then, please fuck off……..
you just don’t get it, do you “michael” – put your real name against your abuse and i will happily publish it. go on, be a man “michael”. have the courage of your convictions, stand up, tell us who you really are and repeat your insults!
i think he might be kevin my-arse after all
I met Geoff Commander and his wife Sinead shortly after the attack on Geoff. I was working at the time as an advisor to Mark Durkan. They were both clear to me on what Alec Reid stated to Sinead. The account written by Catherine McCartney is accurate.
Having worked and lived in Britain and other countries all my life, I’m only now indulging in the luxury of learning history and from the books I’ve read on the IRA, it would appear to me that the IRA had nothing but disdainful contempt for women. I say well done to the McCartneys and others that took them on. History will serve you well.
Ed. you’d expect a little more in the way of integrity and professionalism from the ex members of the IRA. Pig and grunt comes to mind.
The McCartney women like many other god women in Northern Ireland are an example to us all,their courage and determination is to be admired.I always had my my doubts about Alec Reid.