In a radio interview on Monday Gerry Kelly was correct to bat away contrived SDLP concern about Sinn Féin’s response to the conviction of ‘Slab’ Murphy for tax evasion. The SDLP had simply jumped on the bandwagon alongside every party in the Republic once Dublin’s Special Criminal Court had handed down its decision.
As Kelly pointed out, the SDLP have no dog in the fight. They don’t stand in the Republic’s elections or play any part in its politics. It was simply an opportunity to have a crack at Sinn Féin. He might also have pointed out that the BBC took no notice of the worst floods for years in the Republic with thousands of acres inundated by the River Shannon and water rising at Shannon Pot near the Fermanagh border. Yet a comment by Gerry Adams about a Dublin court case merited a lengthy interview.
You could hear the frustration in Kelly’s voice at the hypocrisy because the SDLP like all the other parties lining up to take a pop, know, or if they don’t should know, why Gerry Adams felt it necessary to issue a detailed statement about the case.
Let’s not beat about the bush here. Slab Murphy lost a libel case in Dublin before a jury, please note, whom he failed to convince that allegations about his IRA activities were false. Murphy became IRA chief of staff at a crucial time in the peace process, the end of 1997. At an IRA general army convention in Gortahork then the quartermaster Michael McKevitt led a dangerous split out of which emerged the Real IRA but he was unable to take any substantial group with him.
Murphy was able to hold the vast majority of the IRA, but critically carry south Armagh with him into the Good Friday Agreement and the commitment to exclusively peaceful and democratic means. Murphy presided as chief of staff through the process of elections and decommissioning and for all we know may still be on the army council.
Gerry Adams owes him an enormous debt of gratitude. Murphy’s people in south Armagh think to be pursued through the courts is a poor reward for his efforts through those difficult and dangerous years. The offences of which he was found guilty were committed more than ten years ago, 1996-2004 – a different time. What’s Adams supposed to do? Walk away? Join the condemnation? He knows, as Gerry Kelly knows and all those sanctimonious critics north and south know, that if it hadn’t been for Murphy events after 1997 would have taken an entirely different direction.
To say the least it wouldn’t go down too well in south Armagh if Gerry Adams were now to rat on the man to whom he owes so much. Of course Slab Murphy is not related to the Archangel Gabriel or even a mere Irish saint. He has been linked to many dreadful incidents but like many of those now in prominent positions in northern politics that was then.
People forget that Murphy is not the only one who has fallen foul of officials pursuing cases they were unable to prosecute before 1998. His close colleague Sean Hughes, the man the British army nicknamed ‘The Surgeon’ because of the precision of his IRA operations, was prosecuted in 2001 for money laundering and other offences. He pleaded guilty. The then Minister for Regional Development Conor Murphy MP said: ``I know him [Hughes] very well. He’s a good friend of mine and has been for very many years and I’m very proud of that.''
Hiding behind parliamentary privilege as senior DUP men tend to do, Peter Robinson said Hughes had been appointed to the IRA army council in 2002. And why might that have been except to consolidate the position of the supporters of the peace process in the IRA as the movement edged towards decommissioning?
Now none of this is secret. On the contrary, if those politicians wringing their hands in righteous rage at tax evasion don’t know chapter and verse of this detail they shouldn’t be in politics. On the other hand because they do know but ignore the real background they provide an authentic example of politicians’ behaviour. Not edifying.
