Andrew Kearney (c. 1965 – 19 July 1998) was a

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

man who died as a result of a punishment shooting carried out by members of 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 reu ...

(IRA).

Background

A native of Belfast's Twinbrook Estate, Kearney was a member of an Irish republican family who supported

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

. His maternal grandfather "was in the IRA at the same time as

Joe Cahill , birth_date = , death_date = , birth_place = Belfast, Ireland , death_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland , image = Joe Cahill.png , caption = Cahill, early 1990s. , allegiance = Provisional Irish Republican ...

and

Gerry Adams Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. ...

' father." A professional footballer and a father of four, Kearney had no paramilitary involvement himself. According to ''Lost Lives'', Kearney "had a reputation for getting involved in fights". McKittrick, David. ''Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles''. Random House, 2001. p. 1436. In the months leading up to his death, he had been involved in a number of non-political confrontations with local republicans and had been threatened as a result. Two weeks before his death, Kearney allegedly beat a man unconscious in a pub brawl. The man was allegedly a north Belfast IRA commander.

Shooting

On the night of 19 July 1998, at least five men broke into Kearney's eighth-floor flat in the New Lodge area of Belfast. He was up late minding his two-week-old daughter, Caitlin Rose, who was asleep on his chest. The men put Caitlin and her mother, Lisa, into a bedroom and disabled the telephone. They overpowered Kearney, allegedly with the help of chloroform, and tied his hands behind his back. He was dragged out to the lift (elevator) and shot three times: once in each knee and once in the ankle. Lisa found him unconscious and bleeding heavily. She could not get any of the neighbours to answer their doors, and had to run to another floor to find a telephone. The lift doors had also been jammed and she had to run to the ground floor to unblock them. An ambulance rushed Kearney to the Mater Hospital, but he is believed to have died on the way.

Aftermath

When his mother, Maureen, a diabetic, heard of his death, she suffered a heart attack, but survived. It is believed that the shooting was the result of a personal grudge, and was ordered by the aforementioned IRA commander. Republicans claimed that the commander had been 'stood down' at the time, but had persuaded some associates to carry out the shooting. The shooting came at a time when the IRA was on ceasefire and unionists were demanding that Sinn Féin be excluded from plans for a new government for Northern Ireland. 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 ...

had been signed only three months before. Maureen Kearney said she did not want Sinn Féin punished for the attack and blamed 'gangster' elements in the IRA. She added: "Without them inn Féinwhat hope have we got? If they kick Sinn Féin out we'll be back to square one. I don't blame Sinn Féin for this but I do blame elements within the IRA". Local Sinn Féin councillors attended Kearney's funeral Mass, as well as some local IRA members who had attended school with him. Gerry Kelly, a senior local Sinn Féin member, offered his condolences to the family and said the killing was "wrong and should not have happened".

also called to commiserate, but "disappointed her for not staying in touch". Afterwards, she began a campaign to have her son's killers brought to justice, saying "They left him to die in a filthy, urine-soaked lift with the blood gushing out of him. Nobody treats my child like that and gets away with it. I didn't rear him for that. I was always very critical of the RUC but they would have treated Andrew far more humanely than the IRA did". She went to Sinn Féin's head office and presented them with the funeral bill, but got no reply. She explained: "It’s not the money, I would have burnt it. I want to make them accountable for my son's death." Maureen Kearney died of diabetes less than a year after her son's death. Despite the similarity between the death of Andrew Kearney and the

murder of Robert McCartney The murder of Robert McCartney (1971 – 31 January 2005) occurred in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and was carried out by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. McCartney was the father of two children and was engaged to be married in Ju ...

, the death of the former had little impact. Journalist Suzanne Breen wrote:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kearney, Andrew Year of birth uncertain 1998 in Northern Ireland 20th century in Belfast July 1998 events in the United Kingdom 1998 murders in the United Kingdom Murder in Belfast Paramilitary punishment attacks in Northern Ireland People murdered in Belfast

Background

Shooting

Aftermath

See also

References