Gerry Adams has been arrested

[Cocolepew]

He's being questioned about Jean McConville.

The death of Jean McConville was horrendous. A widowed mother of ten dragged off in front of her terrified children, and her resting place only discovered 40 years later.

I hope the people responsible - including the women who abducted Mrs McConville - are finally prosecuted, convicted and made to serve full life sentences.

A priest was said by witnesses at the time to have refused to help her children, branding them as outcasts because their poor murdered mother was (wrongly) branded an informer. Despicable.

The only thing is- would he really go in 'voluntarily' so close to an election? Maybe they have more than letting on. Fingers crossed! (Although I have just been talking to a barrister friend in Belfast who says they will be amazed if they have enough on him to charge!) Now time for Stephen Nolan Show, should be interesting!

Scarlet, can you imagine the field day the press would be having if he was arrested at his home? He and his legal team knew this was coming- damage limitation! This way they can paint it as Gerry being a good lad going to have a wee chat with the peelers, because he's got nothing to hide. I would've liked to see him getting dragged out of the house in his dressing gown though.

According to SS's file on the family at the time, the priest thought they were tarnished for the sins of their mother- those being a) being an informer and b) a prod. Nice one. He admitted that the neighbours were unsympathetic, but sure what did they expect? Knob.

Killing her wasn't just an attack on another civilian like so many all paramilitaries picked off, it was an attack on the notion of the working class family. That's what disgusts people and makes this such a stand-out crime. Those children had no-one, not even the church or their neighbours, to help them.

Some good news at last, however, I fear he will wriggle out of it.

Or rather, he will be wriggled out of it, you only have to look at the recent case of John Downey to see how they are helped from above.

Killing her wasn't just an attack on another civilian like so many all paramilitaries picked off, it was an attack on the notion of the working class family.

TheCraicDealer can you expand on that? Interesting.

Generally speaking, most of the people killed during the troubles were in the wrong place at the wrong time (Shankill Butcher's victims, for example), bomb vIctims or involved some way, shape or form with either the security forces or paramilitaries. The families could have expected to have sympathy and support from their wider family, community and whatever church they may have belonged to. To enter a home in a deprived area and literally rip away the only parent, protector and provider from those children's arms and make her disappear is just so far beyond the typical stories of loss we hear. It's compounded by the fact that the working class community we would expect to "rally round" after such a loss abandoned those kids and left them to fend for themselves. They were already isolated by the virtue of their parents' mixed marriage, and when their mum (the lynchpin of so many working class Irish families) was taken they had no one.

Yes, I agree with all that (and much of that holds true for others of the Disappeared), but don't see how her murder was 'an attack on the notion of the working class family'.

It's horrible thinking of ten orphaned children left to fend for themselves, with people turning away from them or even sneering at them (like that bastard priest. I'm agnostic to atheist but I'd like to think I was wrong and that man was judged in the afterlife.

Good. Vile bastard. Repeat everyone's sentiments, hope this sticks

He'll get away with it all, he's too well connected, but I truly hope that one day he and McGuinness will be found guilty of their crimes.

I whooped with joy when I read this. It pleases me to read other people despise Adams as much as I do. He is a loathsome snake of a man and I cannot abide his rewriting of history to excuse his own rotten deeds.

Oops, silly me, Adams was never in the IRA, of course .

The documentary on the Disappeared shown last year (it's available in full on YouTube) was heartbreaking. The suffering of the McConville family as described upthread was horrendous.

Even more poignant was that during previous abortive attempts to find her body, her children would put flowers at the site and one daughter would sit and watch the excavation.

IIRC, if any paramilitary information had led to her body being discovered, then there would be immunity from prosecution. However Mrs McConville's body was discovered by a man walking his dog, so there is no immunity in place.

I cannot believe Shinners are already bellyaching about the timing being suspicious. Maybe if her body hadn't been undiscovered for nearly 40 years, causing immense suffering to her family the timing could have been a bit more suitable for the poor persecuted Sinn Fein Party .

Well said Gosh. It seems we're all unanimous on here. Hope those people who are saying he'll get away with it are wrong. I feel optimistic that justice will be done.

Can the faithful amongst us pray "Thy will be done"?

I hope justice will be done, but I'm sure that vile man will do his utmost to find some way to wriggle out of it.

PinkSquash I really, really hope that Martin McGuinness is arrested one day too but he hasn't been since the 1970s and there are lots of rumours why he hasn't been, sad if they are true.

Whoever it was took the decision to kill her knew that for this working class family she was the only thing keeping those children together, as a family in that tiny flat. That home, cramped and familiar to so many at that time, would be expected to be a safe haven away from the shit going on outside. They took her from that home in front of her kids and then intimidated them into keeping quiet. To kill her (the Irish matriarch, keeping the hearth fires burning single handedly) and watch the family slowly disintegrate as they were each moved into care, what else is that? They were quite literally saying, "we don't care what gender you are, we don't care about your family, we don't care if we have to pull them off you before executing you- you cross us, you're gone".

I'm not articulating myself very well. The Irish habit of seeing mums as Madonna-like figures, the fact that even they weren't 'safe' in the family home...that's pretty much what I'm getting at.

I sincerely hope and pray that the McConville family see justice done.

I get what you are saying TheCraicDealer. This was more than just the abduction and murder of an innocent woman, more than the tearing apart of a family. It was the IRA asserting their authority and putting the fear of God into their own community. Taking a widow away from her children and murdering her showed the community that nothing was beyond them and was designed to terrify people.

Let's hope justice is done.

I hope justice is done but also hope this doesn't kick things off again in NI which it could if he is subsequently charged and jailed

Is there any more news on Adams? Has he been released yet?

No way on this earth will this man ever be brought to court over any crimes. Just won't happen.

One of Jeans sons was on local radio saying that he knows some of the men involved but can't say anything because there are still people who would see that as grassing.
Terrible situation.