#BreakingNews: Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams arrested over murder of widowed mother abducted from her home in 1972 Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was arrested by police for the murder of a widowed mother of ten who was abducted from her home in 1972. The freedom fighter-turned-politician who is 65, was arrested at home shortly before tea-time. He is accused of the murder of Jean McConville, who was abducted and murdered by the Provisional IRA and secretly buried on a beach in the Republic of Ireland. Witnesses to her abduction claimed she had gone to the aid of a wounded British soldier, shot by the IRA. But the terror organisation later claimed she had been passing information about IRA activities in the area around the notorious Divis Flats in West Belfast, a claim her family always denied. Adams, who was born in Belfast to parents who were staunchly Republican, was an important player in the Northern Ireland peace process, meeting frequently with Tony Blairs advisors including Jonathan Powell and the then Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain. He was first interned in 1972 for being an alleged member of the IRA. He was again interned in 1973 at Long Kesh, and later, in 1976. Adamss prominence as an Irish Republican leader was increased by a ban on the media broadcasting his voice. The ban was imposed by the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on October 1988, the reason given was to starve the terrorist….of publicity on which they depend. However, broadcast media outlets soon found ways around the ban, first with the use of subtitles, then with the use of an actor reading his words over images of him. The ban was lifted by British Prime Minster John Major in 1994. In 1983 he was elected President of Sinn Fein and became the first Sinn Fein MP elected to the House of Commons since the mid-1950s. Source: DM
Posted on: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 20:20:36 +0000
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