Former IRA men facing funeral breach charges
On day after Storey fiasco, prosecutors home in on another republican commemoration
TWO senior republicans are to be charged in connection with the funeral of Ballinderry man Francie Mcnally last April.
They are former IRA commander Brian Arthurs and EXIRA prisoner Frankie Quinn, who have parted ways from Sinn Fein.
It comes a day after the Director of Public Prosecutions said none of the 24 members of Sinn Fein who had been reported for attendance at Bobby Storey’s funeral would be prosecuted.
However, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) also said two people would face prosecution for attendance at the funeral of former Sinn Fein councillor Mr Mcnally.
MLAS will gather at Stormont today for an emergency sitting to discuss a motion of censure against Sinn Fein for Michelle O’neill’s and Conor Murphy’s attendance at the Storey funeral despite Covid-19 rules.
The DUP also said it would challenge the Chief Constable about the “appalling manner in which the Storey funeral was policed” at today’s meeting of the Policing Board, which takes place behind closed doors.
TWO senior republicans who have parted ways from Sinn Fein are to be charged in connection with the funeral of Ballinderry man Francie Mcnally last April. On Tuesday, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Herron, announced that none of the 24 members of Sinn Fein who had been reported for attendance at Bobby Storey’s funeral would be prosecuted. In the same announcement, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said two people would be facing prosecution for attendance at the funeral of Mr Mcnally, a former Sinn Fein councillor. The Belfast Telegraph can reveal that the two men facing prosecution are the leading republicans Brian Arthurs and Frankie Quinn. A crowd of mourners estimated at around 200 attended the Mcnally funeral in April last year, with his coffin brought to the cemetery in a horse-drawn hearse. The cortege was led by a piper and flanked by a guard of honour of people wearing white shirts and black ties. Fr Peter Donnelly, the parish priest of St Patrick’s, Ballinderry, said at the time that Covid-19 protocols were observed within the church grounds. There was no funeral Mass and attendance at the burial was limited to 10 members of Mr Mcnally’s family. A former publican, he ran Mcnally’s Inn near Toomebridge for many years and was a Sinn Fein councillor between 1985 and 1989. Two of his brothers were killed during the Troubles. Phelim Mcnally (28) was shot in a gun attack by loyalists at Francie Mcnally’s home in 1988, while another brother, Lawrence (39), an IRA member, was shot dead in Coagh in an SAS ambush in 1991. Similar to the funeral of Bobby Storey last June, the family had been in prior contact with the police. District Commander Superintendent Mike Baird said at the time that the Mcnally family had assured the police that only family members would be in attendance and that local people could “pay their respects as the funeral cortege passed, by coming out into their gardens or the front of their homes”. Brian Arthurs, a former IRA commander, was sentenced to 25 years in jail in 1995 on explosives charges and released in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. His brother, Declan, died, along with seven other IRA men, in an SAS ambush at Loughgall, Co Armagh, in 1987. A civilian was killed and another wounded in the ambush. In 2012, he was convicted of a £250,000 mortgage fraud in a case that made legal history as the first case of its kind heard in a non-jury Diplock court. He had parted ways with Sinn Fein in opposition to support for policing. Frankie Quinn was named in the recent MI5 sting, arranged by New IRA double agent Dennis Mcfadden. Eight men and two women are currently in custody ac
cused of a total of 39 offences, including directing terrorism and trying to obtain Semtex explosives. They were arrested in August last year after MI5 bugged two alleged meetings of the New IRA executive in February and July. In the tapes, the republicans are allegedly heard talking about the Dungannon man, angry that the local community continued to be deferential to Quinn while ignoring their offers of assistance. At one point, two people, alleged to be the leadership of the New IRA, are heard discussing plans to kidnap him. The Dungannon-based republican is said to have laughed off the suggestion that he would be at risk from the New IRA, which he considered too amateur to pose any real threat. A former senior member of the IRA’S East Tyrone Brigade, in 1988 Mr Quinn was caught in possession of a 1,000lb bomb and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He also served jail time in the Republic. His brother, Patrick, was just 16 when he was killed by a mortar bomb that backfired and exploded during a planned attack on Pomeroy RUC station. His name appears on an IRA ‘roll of honour’. Mr Quinn was said to have played a central role as a liaison between Sinn Fein and the rank-and-file of the IRA during the peace negotiations and was seen as key to convincing hardline members of the Tyrone IRA to back the ceasefires. The 61-year-old parted ways with the mainstream republican movement, along with the majority of the IRA’S East Tyrone Brigade, in opposition to the acceptance of the PSNI by Sinn Fein. Lifelong friends of Francie Mcnally, both men were pictured at his funeral in April. Their funeral cortege was said to have been organised by the Tyrone National Graves Association. Both Arthurs and Quinn were informed that a file had been sent to the PPS, claiming they played an organisational role in the funeral. Both men are expected to challenge the decision to prosecute them based on information contained in the PPS announcement on Tuesday, stating the lack of clarity and coherence in the regulations and the prior engagement between the organisers and police “would pose an insurmountable difficulty if any of the reported individuals were prosecuted”.