Taoiseach: Parties have no connection with Adams arrest

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has today rejected Mary Lou McDonald's assertion that the timing of the arrest of Gerry Adams is "politically motivated".

Taoiseach: Parties have no connection with Adams arrest

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has today rejected Mary Lou McDonald's assertion that the timing of the arrest of Gerry Adams is "politically motivated".

The Sinn Féin president was Gerry detained overnight after voluntarily presenting himself for interview at a police station in Antrim for interview regarding the killing of Jean McConville. He can be held for two days without charge.

Mr Adams has vehemently rejected allegations made by former republican colleagues that he had a role in ordering the death of the mother-of-10.

Mr Adams wrote to the PSNI on March 23 to say he was available and willing to help with their inquiries into Ms McConville’s murder.

Sinn Féin Deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said detectives had waited more than a month to take him up on the offer because of a “politically motivated” attempt to undermine the party ahead of local and European elections on both sides of the Irish border.

She claimed that reactionary figures within the Democratic Unionist Party as well as the minority hard-line Traditional Unionist Voice and “old guard” elements within the PSNI created pressure to choreograph the timing of the arrest.

“My own view is that those two things have coalesced for the timing of this to fall right in the middle of an election campaign,” Ms McDonald added.

Today, the Taoiseach said Sinn Féin should focus on the investigation itself.

"I want to make it perfectly clear: parties in the South, and I speak for our own, have had absolutely no connection with this at all," he said today.

"What is the most important thing here? The most important fact is that Jean McConville was murdered. Widowed mother of 10 children, and her body was not found for a great many years.

"This is still a live murder case - this is still a live investigation.

"I hope the President of Sinn Féin, Deputy Adams, answers in the best way that he can, the fullest extent that he can, the questions being asked about a live murder investigation by the PSNI."

Fianna Fáil leader Michael Martin called for Mary Lou McDonald to withdraw her comments.

"I think she should withdraw her comments," he said.

"I think Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin should withdraw his comments. I think they are undermining the PSNI who are subject to the most appalling attacks from some militant dissidents, who have killed members of the PSNI.

"And the kind of language used by Mary Lou McDonald this morning about special forces within the PSNI and all of that undermines them in a way that's unacceptable."

Labour deputy leader Joan Burton, said the murder of Mrs McConville was a war crime for which all people involved should be brought to justice.

“If what happened to Jean McConville and her family had happened in any other country it would be treated properly as a war crime,” she said.

Ms Burton said Mrs McConville was executed and her body treated like a dog.

“Gerry Adams just will not disassociate himself from the organisation that did that,” she said.

She added that certain standards in relation to war crimes have to be acknowledged and addressed.

In the UK, when asked about claims that Mr Adams's arrest was politically motivated, British Prime minister David Cameron's official spokesman told a regular Westminster media briefing: "This is entirely - and rightly so - an independent police matter.

"The fact that there has been an ongoing investigation into this for a period of time is a well-known matter of public record."

The spokesman declined to say whether Downing Street had been given advance notice of the arrest by police.

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