US politicians rap UK over Finucane inquiry

By a margin of 390 to 5 the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation calling on Britain to widen the scope of the Inquiries Act with regards to the 1989 murder in Belfast of Irish human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. In effect the Americans are demanding that Britain hold a more public inquiry into reports of “collusion” between the security forces and the UDA in the killing of Finucane. Apparently the nation that currently holds hundreds of people without trial in Guantanamo, refuses to let human rights groups and media in to see them, and is considering ‘star chamber” style private trials of terrorist suspects isn’t happy with what they deem to be the lack of openness in Britain’s inquiry into the killing. The White House agrees with the House of Reps.

The House decision was welcomed by Sinn Fein and Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern, who of late has been involved in lobbying U.S. politicians to reject the House immigration bill which he says will hurt what he calls “the undocumented”. Congressmen, particularly Peter King of New York, who supported the more restrictive immigration bill have come under increasing attack in the Irish-American press for supposedly abandoning the interests of Irish-Americans. Perhaps the vote in the House was just a sop to the Irish American lobby.

But it just goes to show what power ethnic lobbies have. Most Irish moved to America in the 19th century and are indistinguishable from other Americans yet in 2006 a lobby to protect their ethnic interests exists. If the millions of immigrants today from Latin America get their act together and imitate the Irish, Cubans, Albanians and Jews, they will have considerable clout with U.S. politicians.

Posted by Matra on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at 11:36 AM in Irish Politics
Comments (8) | Tell a friend

Comments:

Posted by Lurker on May 21, 2006, 08:20 PM | #

Lest we forget he was not a “human rights lawyer”, getting that term into circulation, as regards Finucane, is in itself a propaganda coup for the IRA.

Ive said it before, his role for the IRA was like that of Robert Duvall’s lawyer character in The Godfather.

Posted by Matra on May 22, 2006, 03:48 PM | #

Lurker,

Good point. But I thought referring to him as a “human rights lawyer” was damning in itself.

Posted by Laban on May 22, 2006, 04:57 PM | #

Former IRA Southern Command chief Sean O’Callghan :

When an IRA member was arrested, the first person to gain access to him was usually a solicitor. The organisation on the outside was often desperate to discover if the prisoner had made any statements incriminating himself or others, had provided information on arms dumps or future IRA operations or even had been turned by the security forces.

This was where an individual solicitor such as Finucane was invaluable to the organisation. He was different to many other lawyers who held strong political views. The renowned Belfast solicitor Paddy McCrory was undoubtedly a staunch republican, but he was a constitutionalist who demanded the highest standards from the state and never believed that the law was a weapon to be exploited by a terrorist organisation.

Pat Finucane was first and foremost an IRA volunteer, and he exploited his position ruthlessly to wage his war on the state. In Crumlin Road, I once explained to him that I had admitted the attempted murder of a UVF member from Portadown and went into some detail.

When I finished he looked at me with contempt on his face: “And after all that, you missed him.” Hardly what you would expect to hear from a peace-loving man who believed in the primacy of law.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/04/18/do1801.xml&site=15

Posted by Matra on May 22, 2006, 11:26 PM | #

Laban,

I’m surprised Sean O’Callaghan is still alive.

Good blog you’ve got there.

Posted by john rackell on May 23, 2006, 03:38 AM | #

Maybe someone can answer these questions.

I believe and have understood that one of the deals struck with the IRA by HMG with the Good Friday accords was release of IRA terrorists from British prisons - a general pardon - presumably including murderers? Does that include any paramilitary who commited any murder or just IRA murderers of only British troops or RUC or against the general population. Was there a deal struck with protestant paramilitaries of this sort. Are all political crimes pardoned in NI and is any Finucane investigation more of a truth and reconciliation thing than an attempt at apprehending the guilty, presumably someone who would warrant a pardon if IRA murderers have been pardoned.

Posted by Matra on May 23, 2006, 04:12 PM | #

John Rackell,

All terrorists from groups that agreed to the terms of the Good Friday agreement, including loyalists, were released from jail a few years ago. I believe those who weren’t in jail at the time but subsequently convicted of a crime that was committed before the agreement were jailed, including Pat Finucane’s killer, but they will all get an early release. Last I heard there are still a couple of wanted IRA men on the loose for murders committed during the Troubles who refuse to return to Ireland to spend some time in jail. It’s been one of many sticking points between Sinn Fein and the government.

Posted by Matra on May 23, 2006, 04:29 PM | #

Speak of the devil.

A loyalist terrorist convicted of murdering one of Belfast’s most high-profile Catholic solicitors was released from prison today after serving less than two years of his sentence.

Ken Barrett, a member of the Ulster Freedom Fighters, was given a life sentence in September 2004 and was told he would spend at least 22 years in jail for his role in the 1989 murder of Patrick Finucane.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2193783,00.html

Sinn Fein aren’t interested in keeping loyalists like Finucane’s killer in jail. What they want is to clearly establish before the world and especially the Irish electorate that there was collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.

Posted by john rackell on May 23, 2006, 05:10 PM | #

Matra, thanks for the insight.

I remember the Maze prison protests when I was in England and Thatcher’s categorical determination not to give the IRA POW status. The British have given up a lot to get peace.

A strange thing when murderers (of either side) are given freedom, and kind of an insult to honorable men who have died - RUC and British soldiers.

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