A Tangled Web

THE FINUCANE SAGA.



The wife of murdered solicitor, Pat Finucane, has been droning on at the West Belfast Festival (where else?) on the issue of what she imagines to be "British State collusion" in the murder of her husband, Pat, 15 years ago.



Here's a few thoughts:-



Ulster Unionist former Security Expert and former UDR Major, Lord Maginnis MP said on 28/04/1999 "The reality is that Pat Finucane was a member of a dedicated Republican family, many of whose members were actively engaged in terrorist activity - that is a proven fact."



Further, Pat Finucane's brother, John, an IRA man, was killed on active service in a car crash in the Falls Road, Belfast, in 1972. Another terrorist brother Dermot successfully contested attempts to extradite him to Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic, while a third brother was the fiancée of Mairead Farrell, one of the IRA trio shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in 1988.



Sir John Hermon, the former RUC Chief Constable, stated that Pat Finucane had been associated with the IRA and had used his position to "act as a contact between suspects in custody and republicans on the outside". Would the Chief Constable not be in a position to know about these matters?



Former IRA Chief of Staff, Sean O'Callaghan revealed,



"Pat Finucane was firstly an IRA volunteer of some seniority and secondly a solicitor who mostly represented IRA prisoners or the families of IRA volunteers killed by the security forces. I speak from personal knowledge. I first met Pat Finucane in 1980 at a high-level IRA finance meeting in Letterkenny in the Irish Republic. Also present were Gerry Adams, Pat Doherty, Tom Cahill, Gerry Fitzgerald and several other people. The meeting took place in the upstairs room of a pub. Adams and Pat Finucane arrived together in the morning and left at lunchtime. At that time, IRA finances were in a dire state and the meeting drew together people from IRA GHQ and its Northern and Southern Commands to discuss ways of putting its financial operation on a more structured footing. Pat Finucane may have been introduced by name; others, such as Tom Cahill, certainly were. At the time I was working for the Irish government and faithfully reported back details of the meeting, which was exclusively composed of members of the IRA."



Now none of this proves that Pat Finucane was a terrorist but it does provide a little context - ignored by a complacent and pliable Media.