McCabe killers apology welcome but late, says Taoiseach
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said today that although it was good to hear an apology for the death of Jerry McCabe, the issue was off the table and the killers would have to serve their full sentence.
“I suppose it’s always good to hear people showing remorse. I think that years on it’s helpful," he said.
“We’ve all, including myself, put the McCabe family through some difficult times over the last few years and I myself regret that.
“I’m sure they would like to have heard a lot of these remarks a long time ago, but they didn’t,” Mr Ahern said.
But Mr Ahern said that if they had got a comprehensive agreement on the occasions they tried, they would have released the prisoners.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan, in Dublin for a meeting with the Taoiseach, said the apology was belated and not believable.
“There was talk about them not wanting to be used as pawns or hostages, but the fact is it wasn’t the Government who put this issue on the table, it was Sinn Féin,” he said.
“Sinn Fein should never have brought this case into wider political negotiations and the Government should have accepted it as part of wider political negotiations.”
Mr Durkan said that people were disgusted at the attempt to bring the case into wider negotiations, and that the apology was an attempt to put the best face possible on the fact that the killers’ release had been ruled out.
