Over To You Barra!

Barra McGrory – North’s Director of Public Prosecutions

According to the BBC, Gerry Adams is to be released from custody at Antrim police station but a file will be sent to the Public Prosecution Service. For those not familiar with legal practice in the UK and Ireland, that means that the police think they may have material for a charge but want the Director of Public Prosecutions to make the final decision, which is usually governed by a calculation of whether a conviction can be secured.

Presumably the possible charge facing Gerry Adams, is in relation to the matter he has been questioned about, the disappearance of Jean McConville.

The irony of course is that the man in charge of the prosecution service, the Director of Public Prosecutions or DPP, is Barra McGrory who until his appointment in 2011 was none other than Gerry Adams’ own lawyer. Barra’s late father Paddy, a famous figure in the North’s legal and political world, was Adams’ lawyer before that (full disclosure: both Barra and Paddy were/are good friends of mine, as is his mother and sisters, and have been for many years).

Presumably, Barra McGrory will have to recuse himself from the decision-making process meaning that Gerry Adams will have a few more nervous months of waiting before he knows whether he is out of the woods.