Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil playing party politics with the grief of victims

» Mark Moloney

Who gave Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell the names he cited in the Dáil? Was it a journalist?

“ALL the appearances of a set-up” is how Vincent Browne described on TV3 on Thursday night the most recent orchestrated campaign to use victims of the conflict to politically attack Sinn Féin.

The events of the past fortnight illustrate that point clearly.

The Irish Independent, true to form, dragged up an issue that was dealt with extensively by Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD during February’s Dáil general election campaign.

Having been leaked email correspondence between Gerry Adams and the Garda Commissioner, the Indo repeated an assertion by Austin Stack in last Tuesday’s paper that he never gave any names of those who might have information on his father’s death.

On RTÉ’s Prime Time on Thursday, however, Austin Stack was now alleging that Gerry Adams breached the confidentiality agreement they had put in place by “disclosing things that were said at a meeting to An Garda Síochána”.

This clearly means that the names had been discussed.

It illustrates the level of twisting and turning of those commenting on recent developments, but let’s backtrack for a moment.

In the absence of an agreed process to deal with legacy issues such as the case of Brian Stack’s killing, Gerry Adams – in good faith and with the intention only of assisting the family and the Stack brothers – Austin and Oliver agreed a process in 2013 in order to gain answers and some measure of closure for the Stack family.

Through these meetings, Austin Stack gave the names of four people whom he claimed may have information of use.

Before meeting with Gerry Adams the family said they were not looking for people to go to jail  but were seeking an acknowledgement and some degree of closure.

The process Gerry Adams and the brothers put in place was based on confidentiality and trust. It culminated in a meeting, facilitated by Gerry Adams, between them and a former senior IRA person.

The brothers were given a statement which acknowledged that the IRA was responsible for their father’s death; that it regretted that it took so long to clarify this for them; that the shooting of Brian Stack was not authorised by the IRA leadership; and that the person who gave the instruction was disciplined.

The statement expressed sorrow for the pain and hurt the Stack family suffered.

That statement was publicly made available by the family.

In a statement following the meeting, the family acknowledged that the process “has provided us with some answers that three separate Garda investigations failed to deliver. We would like to thank Deputy Adams for the role he has played in facilitating this outcome.” 

Austin Stack, in an interview on RTÉ Radio’s Drivetime in the same period, said that he accepted that nobody would do jail time for his father’s killing and he called for a process whereby families could get answers without the fear or prosecution hanging over people’s heads. He said he wasn’t looking for revenge.

The process then came to an end.

Fast-forward from 2013 to the Dáil general election in February and the issue was raised in the pages of the Irish Independent, including the allegations that Gerry Adams was withholding information.

Gerry Adams made clear in a letter to the Garda Commissioner that he had no information in relation to the case and passed on the names supplied to him by Austin Stack.

● Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin

Austin Stack in 2016 gave names to the Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin in relation to the case.

It is clear that Gerry Adams has adhered to the process they established; Austin Stack has not.

The issue was raised in the Dáil twice in as many weeks by the vitriolic Fianna Fáil leader, Mícheál Martin, trying to do nothing but to score political points on the issue of victims.

He then proceeded to mislead the Dáil by claiming that Gerry Adams said four people were suspects in the killing of Brian Stack. Gerry never described anyone named as suspects.

He also said that Gerry took a note of the meeting between Austin and Oliver Stack and a former IRA leader in July 2013. Gerry Adams took no note of that meeting.

He said Gerry took Austin and Oliver Stack to that meeting in a blacked-out van. The Taoiseach even went so far as to say Gerry drove the van! That is untrue. Gerry had said he’d travelled with the Stack brothers in his own car to a prearranged place on the Border and then they all travelled in a van to the meeting.

If the Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael wanted to assist victims he could focus his energy on assisting to establish a proper truth recovery process (which Sinn Féin have been focused on) instead of making scurrilous and outlandish accusations.

Questions the media aren’t seeking answers to

OVER the past week, the Irish Indepenent had sought that Sinn Féin should confirm the names of the TDs that had been given to Gerry Adams by Austin Stack.

In the Dáil on Wednesday, Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell (pictured below) shockingly breached Dáil privilege by naming two Sinn Féin TDs.

Who gave him those names? Was it a journalist?

Independent TD Mattie McGrath said on RTÉ later that night that he was contacted three times with the names of those Dáil colleagues. Was is it the same person that gave them to Alan Farrell? Mattie McGrath said it was a journalist.

Was Alan Farrell’s breach of Dáil privilege approved in advance by the Fine Gael frontbench and Enda Kenny? He said he had discussed it with “a colleague”.

Who was that “colleague”?

The entire issue has become nothing more than blind political opportunism of the worst kind and nothing about helping victims. It’s simply about trying to attack Sinn Féin via an orchestrated political smear campaign of disgusting proportions.

In January of this year the British and Irish governments drafted and agreed an international agreement that would provide for truth recovery, including confidentially and inadmissibility of evidence of information retrieved. Yet this has not been enacted because the stalling of the British Government.

Instead of enacting this agreement, the Fine Gael-led Government and Fianna Fáil are playing party politics with the grief of victims.