Joseph Rafferty (c. 1974 – 12 April 2005) was an Irish murder victim. Following the assault of Rafferty's sister Carmel at a party, Rafferty confronted the alleged attacker, who reportedly told him that his family had connections to the "

IRA Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

" and could get him killed. Rafferty continued to receive threats that the IRA would get him for several months before his killing. The Rafferty family met with Daithí Doolan, the local

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 ...

representative, asking him to have the threat stopped. On 12 April 2005, Rafferty was shot twice with a sawn-off shotgun, once in the leg and once in the chest, as he left his flat in

Ongar, Dublin Ongar is an outer western suburb of Dublin, Ireland. Developed on a greenfield basis since 2001, it comprises the townlands of Castaheany (northerly) and "Hansfield or Phibblestown" (southerly), within the ancient Barony of Castleknock, Count ...

to go to work. Then

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the o ...

Bertie Ahern Bartholomew Patrick "Bertie" Ahern (born 12 September 1951) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1994 to 2008, Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997, Tánaiste a ...

stated in September 2005 that he was satisfied that there was no official involvement from the IRA. Ahern stated the murder was committed by "Elements, probably of criminality, claim ngthey had links with republicans." Both Doolan 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. ...

have called for co-operation with the Garda in the investigation of Rafferty's murder. Adams stated he would be willing to meet with members of the Rafferty family. The tenth and twelfth reports of the

Independent Monitoring Commission The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) was an organisation founded on 7 January 2004, by an agreement between the British and Irish governments, signed in Dublin on 25 November 2003. The IMC concluded its operations on 31 March 2011. Remit ...

(IMC), released in April and October 2006 respectively, contain a table on the number of murders believed to be linked to paramilitary groups between March 2003 and August 2006. While Rafferty's murder is not included in the table, a footnote states that "a member or former member of

PIRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

may have been involved", and that while the IMC have no reason to believe the attack was carried out by the PIRA, they believe that members of Sinn Féin and the PIRA "were aware in advance of the threat and did not take sufficient action to prevent it." Rafferty's other sister, Esther Uzell-Rafferty, said "It's what we have been saying all along. We've never said he murderwas sanctioned by the IRA's top man, but other Sinn Féin members knew it was going to happen and did nothing about it." Uzell-Rafferty ran as an independent candidate in the

2007 Irish general election The 2007 Irish general election took place on Thursday, 24 May after the dissolution of the 29th Dáil by the President on 30 April, at the request of the Taoiseach. The general election took place in 43 parliamentary constituencies throughou ...

for Dublin South-East to call on Daithí Doolan to fully co-operate with the Garda investigation into her brother's killing. Rafferty's family have stated there are similarities between the murder of Rafferty and that of Robert McCartney.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rafferty, Joseph 2005 murders in the Republic of Ireland Date of birth missing Deaths by firearm in the Republic of Ireland Deaths by person in the Republic of Ireland Murder victims from County Dublin People murdered in the Republic of Ireland Place of birth missing

See also

References