Jean McConville (''née'' Murray; 7 May 1934 – December 1972) was a woman from
Belfast, Northern Ireland, who was kidnapped and murdered by the
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reun ...
(IRA) and secretly buried in
County Louth in the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...
in 1972 after being accused by the IRA of passing information to British forces.
[McKittrick, David (2001), ''Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles''. Random House. p. 301]
In 1999, the IRA acknowledged that it had killed McConville and eight others of the "
Disappeared
An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organi ...
". It claimed she had been passing information about republicans to the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
in exchange for money and that a transmitter had been found in her flat.
A report by the
Police Ombudsman
The Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (OPONI; ga, Ombudsman Póilíní do Thuaisceart Éireann, Ulster-Scots: ''Owersman fur tha Polis o Norlin Airlann'') is a non-departmental public body intended to provide an independent, im ...
found no evidence for this or other rumours.
Before
the Troubles
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...
, the IRA had a policy of killing informers within its own ranks. From the start of the conflict the term informer was also used for civilians who were suspected of providing information on paramilitary organisations to the security forces. Other
Irish republican and
loyalist paramilitaries also carried out such killings.
[Melaugh, Martin]
Killings of Alleged Informers
, cain.ulst.ac.uk; accessed 5 May 2014. As she was a widowed mother of ten, the McConville killing was particularly controversial. Her body was not found until 2003, and the crime has not been solved. The Police Ombudsman found that the
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...
(RUC) did not begin to investigate the disappearance properly until 1995.
Biography
Jean Murray was born on 7 May 1934 to a
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
family in East Belfast but converted after marrying Arthur McConville, a Catholic former
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
soldier, with whom she had ten children. After being intimidated out of a Protestant district by loyalists in 1969, the McConville family moved to West Belfast's
Divis Flats
Divis Tower is a 20-floor, tall tower in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is located in Divis Street, which is the lower section of the Falls Road. It is currently the fifteenth-tallest building in Belfast.
History
The tower was built in 1966 ...
in the Lower
Falls Road. Arthur died from
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
in January 1972.
[
At the time of her death, Jean McConville lived at 1A St Jude's Walk, which was part of the Divis Flats complex. This was an IRA stronghold, from which attacks were regularly launched against the British Army and ]Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...
(RUC). Since the death of her husband, she had been raising their ten children, who were aged between six and twenty. Their son Robbie was a member of the Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA (OIRA; ) was an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a "workers' republic" encompassing all of Ireland. It emerged ...
and was interned
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
in Long Kesh
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
at the time of her death. He defected to the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in 1974.
Killing
In the months leading up to her death, tension and suspicion grew between McConville and her neighbours. One night shortly before her disappearance, she was allegedly attacked after leaving a bingo hall
Bingo is a game of probability in which players mark off numbers on cards as the numbers are drawn randomly by a caller, the winner being the first person to mark off all their numbers. Bingo, also previously known in the UK as Housey-Housey, ...
and warned to stop giving information to the British Army.[Police Ombudsman's report (2006), p.4] According to police records, on 29 November 1972 a British Army unit found a distressed woman wandering in the street. She told them her name was McConville and that she had been attacked and warned to stop informing.[ One of McConville's children claimed she was kidnapped the night after this incident, but others gave the date of the kidnapping as 7 December.][
On the night of her disappearance, four young women took McConville from her home at gunpoint,][ and she was driven to an unknown location. ]Dolours Price
Dolours Price (16 December 1950 – 23 January 2013) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer.
Early life
Dolours and her sister, Marian, also an IRA member, were the daughters of Albert Price, a prominent Irish republican and ...
claimed that she was one of those involved in driving her across the border. McConville was killed by a gunshot to the back of the head; there was no evidence of any other injuries to her body.
Her body was secretly buried across the border on Shelling Hill Beach (also known as Templetown Beach) at the south-eastern tip of the Cooley Peninsula
The Cooley Peninsula (, older ''Cúalṅge'') is a hilly peninsula in the north of County Louth on the east coast of Ireland; the peninsula includes the small town of Carlingford, the port of Greenore and the village of Omeath.
Geography
The ...
in the north of County Louth, about 50 miles from her home. The place of her death is uncertain.
Although no group admitted responsibility for her disappearance, there were rumours that the IRA had killed her for being an informer.[ Another rumour is that she was killed because neighbours claimed they saw her helping a badly wounded British soldier outside her home;][ McConville's children say they recall her helping a wounded British soldier some time before their father died in January 1972. In a 2014 interview published in the '' Sunday Life'', former Irish republican Evelyn Gilroy claimed the person who had tended to the soldier was her ilroy'ssister.
The IRA did not admit involvement until after the signing of the ]Good Friday Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...
. It claimed she was killed because she was passing information about republicans to the British Army. Former IRA member Brendan Hughes
Brendan Hughes (June 1948 – 16 February 2008), also known as "The Dark", and "Darkie" was a leading Irish republican and former Officer Commanding (OC) of the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was the leader ...
claimed the IRA had searched her flat some time before her death and found a radio transmitter, which they confiscated.[Moloney, Ed. ''Voices from the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland''. Faber and Faber, 2010. pp. 128-129] He and other former republicans interrogated her and claimed she admitted the British Army was paying her for information about republicans. Hughes claims that, because of her circumstances, they let her go with a warning. However, he claims when the IRA found she had resumed working for the British Army, it decided to "execute" her.[
Usually the bodies of informers were left in public as a warning, but the IRA secretly buried McConville, apparently because she was a widowed mother of ten. The IRA had first done this two months earlier, when it killed and buried two IRA members who were alleged to be working undercover for the British ]Military Reaction Force
The Military Reaction Force, Military Reconnaissance Force or Mobile Reconnaissance Force (MRF)Taylor, Peter (2001). ''Brits: The War Against the IRA''. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 128–130. was a covert intelligence gathering and counterinsurgenc ...
(MRF).
Aftermath
After her disappearance, McConville's seven youngest children, including six-year-old twins, survived on their own in the flat, cared for by their 15-year-old sister Helen.[ According to them, the hungry family was visited three weeks later by a stranger, who gave them McConville's purse, with 52 pence and her three rings in it.][
On 16 January 1973, the story of the abduction appeared on the front page of the '' Belfast Telegraph'', under the headline "Snatched mother missing a month".][Police Ombudsman's report (2006), pp. 5-6] The following day, the children were interviewed on the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
television programme ''Scene Around Six''.