Jean McConville -
Collected information and my thoughts, however uneducated and misinformed
My sources, limited as they may be, cover a number of bases. The books and people I used in my research on the topic are as follows:
Secret History of the IRA by Ed Moloney
Lost Lives by David McKittrick
Armed Struggle by Richard English
Disappeared - The Search for Jean McConville by Seamus McKendry
Liam Clarke of
The Times
I would also like to thank Dawn of
Ireland's Own for her research recommendations regarding this topic.
Here are the "facts" as I've collected them:
According to mass media sources, Jean McConville was killed because she aided a British soldier who was wounded during a gun battle around Divis Flats. When one searches deeper into this subject, you realize that this claim is complete rubbish. Whereas, this act may have angered the deeply nationalist Divis area, it would have not warranted her execution at the hands of the IRA.
Jean was a natural outsider in Divis. She was a Protestant from East Belfast who married a former British soldier. Her husband had died some time before and she was left alone with her 10 children. The fact that she was an "informer" seems to me to be complete trash also; what level of intelligence could she be passing on? There was nothing that she could know that an undercover British soldier couldn't figure out from spending a decent amount of time in Divis Flats.
According to Ed Moloney, the IRA in the area became wary of Mrs. McConville's questioning and probing and decided to search her home. They "found" a transmitter for contacting her handler. She was given a warning to cease all contact with British intelligence and allowed to go on her way. She again, PUTTING HER CHILDREN AT RISK, began spying again. I cannot believe this account purely for this reason. Why would a widowed mother of
10 put her entire family at risk for this?
Moloney also claims that McConville was given a court-martial without her present by the IRA leadership in Lower Falls the night before the incident. This would implicated Mr. Gerry Adams in this situation, as he was the apparent head of the Belfast Brigade at the time. Adams would have been well aware of this whole situation happening.
Lost Lives claims that Mrs. McConville was dragged from the bathtub in her home by 4 masked women on the night of December 7th, 1972. Helen McKendry, Jean's eldest daughter, claims that later in the week, people showed up at the McConville home and handed Helen Jean's rings and purse and walked away. The daughter also says that she was later told by an anonymous person that Jean had been killed with a plastic bag around her head. This claim turned out to be
false.
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My take on the issue is that Jean McConville may have been some kind of informer, but the level and quality of information that she would have been able to pass on would have been laughable. It would have been nothing British intelligence didn't already know or could have easily found out on their own. Perhaps British intelligence is just as much to blame for the situation as anyone else. They were the ones who chose to allow a
MOTHER OF 10 to do their dirty work.
Also, it is deplorable the amount of time that it has taken for IRA leadership to relinquish to location of Mrs. McConville's body. Rightfully, this act should have been a part of the "peace process" ten years ago. And let's not forget that there are still five admitted of the so-called "Disappeared" that have yet to be located. Four bodies have been located and rightfully buried.
More information on the Disappeared of the Provisional IRA can be found here:
Ireland's Own
