Taking part in riots landed IRA chip shop bomber back in jail
JIM CUSACK
SEAN 'Scarface' Kelly, the IRA mass killer whose parole from prison was revoked last weekend, was prominently involved in sectarian rioting in north Belfast. As the surviving bomber in the IRA's killing of nine Protestant civilians, including two children, at Frizzell's fish shop in October 1993, Kelly's appearance at the riots in north Belfast has incensed the populations of the Shankill and surrounding Protestant areas.
The decision by the Northern Secretary of State, Peter Hain, to revoke Kelly's release and return him to prison was questioned in the Dail last week by the Taoiseach and senators Martin Mansergh and Maurice Hayes.
It was not mentioned in the Dail that the decision to return Kelly to prison followed the publications of photographs in newspapers showing him at the head of rioters in the Ardoyne area at the end of April when sectarian fighting broke out after the Rangers-Celtic Scottish Cup final.
Kelly was again prominent at more sectarian rioting last weekend following an Orange parade. On Saturday morning he was arrested while on his way to the wedding of Eddie Copeland who was named in the British parliament as the IRA commander in North Belfast by David Trimble. In a gesture that shocked local people, wedding guests gathered after the church ceremony at Magennis's Bar in the Markets area where Robert McCartney was stabbed to death by the IRA in January.
Kelly, whose girlfriend is heavily pregnant, still bears the scars of injuries he received when the bomb carried by his IRA associate Thomas Begley exploded killing him and nine Protestant civilians in Frizzell's, hence his nickname 'Scarface'.
The bomb provoked one of the worst outbreaks of sectarian killings in the Troubles with some 20 Catholics shot dead in retaliation by loyalists, culminating in the machinegunning of seven people in the Rising Sun Bar in Greysteel outside Derry.
Yet, speaking in the Dail on Tuesday the Taoiseach said he would be seeking clarification from the British government over the re-imprisonment of Sean Kelly. He said: "Either it is a mistake, or there must have been substantial evidence that he was not kosher," he said.
Senator Hayes said: "A lot of people think the grounds for the revocation (of the licence) are decidedly iffy." Senator Mansergh has called for the decisions to be "open to scrutiny".
Yet unionists pointed out that there had been no such response from Dail members when two prominent loyalists, the UDA's Johnny Adair and Ken Barrett, had their licences revoked.
Jeffrey Donaldson of the DUP said: "The reality is that over the last few years it's been mainly loyalist paramilitaries returned to prison, often through pressure from nationalist politicians.
"Clearly the Secretary of State did not take his decision lightly, and based it on solid information. We also havethe very public evidencethat he has been photographed on several occasions at riot situations."
Ian Paisley Jnr said comments "by the self-acclaimed great and good from Belfast, Dublin, London, and Washington expressing their concern for Sean Kelly are nothing short of scandalous". He noted, too, that the same people were supporters of the Belfast Agreement "which was sold on the basis that if released prisoners go back to violence, they go back to jail".
In the Seanad on Tuesday Senator Brian Hayes pointed to the fact that under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, released IRA prisoners in the Republic - several of whom were serving lengthy sentences - cannot be returned to prison ifthey breach the terms of their parole.
Senator Hayes had been seeking confirmation from Government about this anomaly for several years and had it finally confirmed on Tuesday by Senator Mary O'Rourke on behalf of the Government. Senator Hayes said: "The prisoner release programme happened in both jurisdictions. As I understand it we do not have the same facility in this jurisdiction to put back into prison those who may be outside the terms of their release whereas in Northern Ireland the Secretary of State holds that power. The Government needs to look at this issue."
Meanwhile, security sources in the North say Kelly's re-arrest arose amid growing concerns about orchestrated rioting in sectarian flashpoints in north and east Belfast. During last weekend's rioting in north Belfast Catholic rioters had bags of golf balls which they fired at Orangemen with powerful catapults. The intensity of the rioting at such an early stage in the marching season has led to concerns about more serious violence to come. Ironically one of the flashpoints is on the Springfield Road where a riot by Catholics from the Falls Road area in June 1969 sparked the sectarian battles that heralded the start of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. During that summer some of the worst violence occurred between the Shankill and Ardoyne where the first deaths from nightly gun battles occurred.
