Son of murdered Moate soldier criticises Sinn Féin tribute to former IRA leader

The son of murdered Moate soldier Patrick Kelly has said tributes to the late Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald felt “like bullets to the heart”.

The Sinn Féin President described McFarlane, an IRA leader and convicted murderer, who died on February 21 last, as a “great patriot” and “a giant of Irish republicanism”.

McFarlane was the only person ever charged in connection with the kidnapping of supermarket boss Don Tidey, whose rescue from an IRA hideout near Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, resulted in a shootout which took the lives of Private Kelly and Garda Gary Sheehan in 1983. McFarlane’s trial in connection with the kidnapping collapsed in June 2008 in the Special Criminal Court. He was cleared of charges of possession of firearms, intent to endanger life and unlawful imprisonment.

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent, David Kelly said he had been emotionally affected by the wording chosen by Sinn Féin in relation to a man who he believes was part of the IRA kidnap gang which murdered his father and Garda Sheehan

“To me, the words were like bullets to the heart. There was nothing there that was conciliatory towards people like me. It was non-conciliatory in terms of its content or its tone. There was no mention of anyone who suffered as a result of the man's actions,” he said.

McFarlane was one of a number of IRA prisoners who had escaped from the Maze Prison in 1983, where he was serving five life sentences for his part in an attack on a bar in the Shankill Road, Belfast, in August 1975, in which five people were killed. He had also been head of the IRA in the prison during the Hunger Strikes.

David Kelly said that he regarded people like his father, the eleven Gardai who died during the Troubles, and prison officer Brian Stack, as the true patriots.

He said the tributes to McFarlane had served to make the healing process even more difficult. “In terms of healing, the words that were used in that tribute to McFarlane I mean that’s not aiding the healing at all for me and I think there's a lot of work to be done,”

He described its impact as “overwhelming” and “difficult to deal with”. “It almost feels like you're in the front line of a psychological war.”

The presence of prominent Sinn Féin politicians at McFarlane’s funeral was raised in the Dáil by Taoiseach Michéal Martin. He told a member of Sinn Féin: “You need to reflect – and whilst a funeral happened this week, and while I’ve great time for the victims and the wife and those who have lost a loved one – the truth is, though, that your party called someone a patriot who murdered five innocent people in a bar and injured 60 more and was involved in Derrada Woods and the murder of a trainee gardaí and a member of the Defence Forces.”

David was only a young child at the time of his father’s murder and said the intervening years had represented a steep learning curve. “I was only nine when it happened, I mean, I had no appreciation. All I know is my Dad went to work one day and he never came home,” he said.

Even at that young age though, David was conscious of the huge coverage of the incident. “I remember seeing his image on the 9pm news that night in his uniform,” he said. “My mother was left a widow at 30 with four kids, that was the harsh reality of it.”

After the Maze escape, McFarlane was arrested in 1986 in the Netherlands and extradited. He was returned to the Maze prison, before being released in 1997. The following year, he was arrested in connection with the Don Tidey investigation.

Tidey was a supermarket executive who was kidnapped in November 1983, by the IRA in a bid to raise ransom money. Some 23 days later, he and his kidnappers were tracked to Derrada Wood in Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim. During the operation to rescue Tidey, Private Kelly and Garda Sheehan were killed and the kidnappers escaped.

After a lengthy ten-year legal process, the trial of McFarlane opened in the Special Criminal Court in June 2008.

“Myself and my late mother attended there, we stood in the public gallery for two weeks, the reason being I was always trying to learn more about what happened back then,” he said.

Gardai had also lost a number of items which were said to have McFarlane’s fingerprints. However, the Supreme Court ruled that photographic evidence of the fingerprints could be used in the trial. The trial collapsed when alleged incriminatory statements made by McFarlane in custody were deemed inadmissible.

“I've learned over the years, he was a chief suspect (in the kidnapping gang),” David said. “Three items in the hideout in the woods had his fingerprints on them.”

“I've no doubt now that he was in the woods, no doubt whatsoever,” he said.

David said news of Bik McFarlane’s death in recent weeks had affected him.

“I knew he was a chief suspect in it. So when I found out about him dying, all the emotions come back up to the surface again, a mixture of emotions. It’s part of my life, and it affected my family so much.”

David explained that his position in relation to holding people to account for the death of his father has evolved

He said while he still wants justice, he now believes that in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 if someone was convicted in a court, they should be able to walk free and serve no time.

McFarlane was a supporter of the Good Friday Agreement and in her statement, Deputy McDonald described him as “an important influence on the development of the peace process”.

David Kelly said his campaign for public acknowledgement of what happened to his father had helped him find some peace.

“I was worried that people like him were being forgotten about with the passage of time and a new generation coming through … I've got some peace of mind by just doing right by my old man.”

However, David insists that the primary responsibility in the healing process lies squarely with the perpetrators, not just the foot soldiers, but those who called the shots, and also with the propagandists who justified the violence.

Last week, David Kelly was among a group invited to Aras an Uachtaran, including members of the South East Fermanagh Group, an organisation representing all victims, and a number of family members of those killed during the Troubles.

Those in attendance included family members of a number of Gardaí killed during the decades of violence, including local Garda Frank Hand, as well as family members of RUC Constable Robert Keys and Chief Prison Officer Brian Stack.

Also in attendance were family members of those killed in a number of other atrocities including, amongst others, the Omagh bombing and the Dublin/Monaghan bombings as well as a number of individual murders.

At the event, the President viewed a memorial quilt containing patches representing many of the victims of the conflict, including new patches recently sewn to represent those victims who worked as members of the policing and security services.

“It was a special day for all of us. I suppose we are all just part of this story after those terrible years of the Troubles, trying to deal with that troublesome legacy," said David.