O’Connor & O’Connor: Put to the Back of the Victims' Bus

When Gareth O'Connor disappeared 12 years ago, Hugh Orde, the then PSNI Chief Constable, stated that the Provisional IRA was responsible of his abduction. The organisation denied it much as it denied Orde's allegation that it was behind the Northern Bank robbery. Not many queued up to believe it.

Gareth O'Connor was later found dead in a car that had been salvaged from a canal in Newry. His father Mark, who claimed his son had been involved in a Provisional IRA money scam, made it very clear that his son ‘was abducted and murdered by the Provisional IRA.’

He outlined his frustration in trying to extract information about his son’s fate.

After he disappeared, I rang everyone I could get. I rang Gerry Adams who said he was too busy. Gerry Kelly came down to the house on two occasions. He came in and took all his notes and said he would come back. He came back to say that he knew nothing, he could find out nothing and said all he knew was that our son was classed as an informer so that he couldn't help anybody.

In short he was given the run-around, in similar fashion to the stonewalling victims of British state killings endure when they seek information about the circumstances
pertaining to the deaths of their loved ones.

Against the claims of both Orde and Mark O’Connor, there was the assurance of Gerry Kelly that the Provisional IRA was not involved. Few considered that worth a hill of beans. 

An inquest into the Gareth O'Connor's death was adjourned after it emerged that Kelly had given an OTR letter to the man British police had targeted as the chief suspect. Given that Kelly appeared to be avoiding handing that type of letter out to those not belonging to the Provos - even refusing to testify on behalf of Gerry McGeough that such letters actually existed - suggest the main suspect in the case remained loyal to Sinn Fein. 

Kelly somewhat discomfited by the revelation sought to distance himself from it. His account of his dealings with the NIO might be accurate as there is no reason to be confident that the British are playing with a bat any straighter than the one Kelly wields. Yet it is hard to take Kelly seriously when he states that 'this family deserves access to truth and I would support them in that.'

He does not support them at all. He is merely positioning himself in relation to the issue, given that he can hardly say he does not support them. He supports the type of truth that the family of Joe O’Connor got from him and his cohorts three years prior to the disappearance of Gareth O’Connor. 

Unlike Gareth O’Connor the fate of Joe O’Connor was a much more open and shut case. He was not spirited away but gunned down in broad daylight in full view of passers-by. The Provisional IRA having killed him then lied to cover it up and followed up with the imposition of a regime of fear to underpin a "regime of truth" in which nothing was true other than the power to impose as truth the lie the IRA sought pedalled. The body was assisted by Sinn Fein who organized intimidation to silence anyone challenging the Provisional IRA narrative. 

The cases of both O'Connor victims demonstrates that Sinn Fein has an attitude to victims which mirrors that of the British state. The party only wants truth when it is politically advantageous to it and disadvantageous to its adversaries. Bottom line is victims don’t matter all that much unless there is political capital to be accrued. Within the hierarchy of victims that Sinn Fein loves to occupy the moral high ground in opposition to, people like Gareth O’Connor and Joe O Connor are at the bottom of the line, the back of the bus.

9 comments:

  1. "Sinn Fein has an attitude to victims which mirrors that of the British state. The party only wants truth when it is politically advantageous to it and disadvantageous to its adversaries. Bottom line is victims don’t matter all that much unless there is political capital to be accrued."

    Spot on, they milked what they could from the Bloody Sunday victims then dropped them like a wet hat into history.

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  2. Not an ounce not a bullet they said, a new beginning , they said , an island of equals they said ,put manners on the police they said ,we will never sign up to austerity they said, one could fill a book on the broken promises from the leadership of the PRM yet at the end of the day the only thing truthful that one can say is that they are lying bastards,dangerous lying bastards at that who need and are exposed on a regular basis as just that ,eventually their masters and the public will say enough is enough then we will see the rats scurrying out of here like their mate Scap,but while they remain a protected species then the families of the O,Connors the Quinns and Robert Mc Cartney need forget about getting or seeing justice done .

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  3. diesel launderers (who are poisoning the land of our beautiful country with toxic sludge - well done slaab and co you pack of greedy bullying rockefeller wannabe lazy fat-arsed slobs), marxists, touts, bone idle bullies, doublespeakers and pathological liars took over the movement. we should really put it up to these fuckers but we havent much hope considering whats protecting them. the dregs of the ira got to the top and its the same with the deluded militant factions. ni thiocfaidh ar la.

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  4. What people who vote for sinn fein fail to realise is that Adams & McGuinness are two of the most unscrupulous cunts in the history of Irish republicanism.

    These are the people who used the lives of the most committed, most dedicated republican volunteers as cannon fodder for sinn fein political gain.

    These are the people who lied to, deceived, and betrayed the rank & file of republican volunteers who were doing most of the heavy lifting and losing their lives.

    These are the people who had been secretly working with the British government on a pro UK settlement while at the same time telling volunteers the exact opposite.


    And here is my point,……If those two corrupt cunts could do all that to their own (which they certainly did), What chance has the average joe bloggs in the street ever being told the truth about anything from them?

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  5. What chance has the average joe bloggs in the street ever being told the truth about anything from them?

    Read the first few lines of marty's post. What did Joe Bloggs do when confronted with the truth then? Nothing. With the killings in the article, if one person pulled the trigger, but one hundred look the other way,so who is most responsible for the evasion? You need to separate what people claim they want, and want they secretly want, an area SF have a great insight into.

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  6. "Read the first few lines of marty's post. What did Joe Bloggs do when confronted with the truth then? Nothing. With the killings in the article, if one person pulled the trigger, but one hundred look the other way,so who is most responsible for the evasion? You need to separate what people claim they want, and want they secretly want, an area SF have a great insight into."


    The joe bloggs I’m talking about are people like you, the Johnny come lately variety, Fresh faced sinn fein know it alls straight from university who don’t know the half of it. It is your choice to believe gobshites if you wish, most people here are much older and see through their treachery for what it is.
    Yes Sinn fein do have a great insight but it’s an insight into just how far removed from republicanism they once were…

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  7. Daithi D Yeah quisling $inn £eind have such a great insight into the peoples wishes secret or not that people like Jonathan Powell have to write the president for life Ard Feis script for him ,they have played the "peace process" card to death the people are beginning to "move on" the problem is that quisling $inn £eind are stuck in a honey pot and they will remain there until their masters in London throw them to the wolves..

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  8. DaithiD,

    'You need to separate what people claim they want, and want they secretly want, an area SF have a great insight into.'

    This is an interesting and thought provoking point that touches on the black art of politics and it's insight and exploitation of human nature. It is difficult to suppress a wry smile that is illicited by my own personal and one time niavety that politics were about principles. Having said that I still think the real tension is between what people want and what they are prepared to do and forego to realise what they want.

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  9. Sean,
    Bless you , I don’t feel fresh faced anymore. My comment was much more pessimistic than you register. When faced with painful truths, or soothing lies, the Irish people chose the lie. Its now so embedded, they would be denying part of themselves to refute it. Johnny come lately, but better late than never.
    Marty,
    Powell drafting SF or Army Council responses to policy documents is a hidden in plain view gem, especially given who his father was/is. The GFA must be the only New Labour initiative not universally panned now?
    Robert,
    As I said to Sean, I am entirely pessimistic about politics, I think creatures like Blair, Clinton (and Adams) exhausted peoples will to follow what they were saying and to be held accountable thereon. I will never engage with elections in their current form. I think with technological advances, especially crypto-currencies, we wont need a government or elections. Political models have remained essentially static whilst technology and especially finance has become a different beast. I don’t believe human nature is static either, technology and environment shape it incredibly.

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