Mary McArdle

Mary McArdle, Irish republican and former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member.
Ms McArdle was the Ministerial Special Adviser to Sinn Féin Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín and previously an IRA member, convicted of murder in 1984. Her appointment to the position was controversial because of her conviction for the murder of Mary Travers.

Two male members of the IRA approached Resident Magistrate Tom Travers, his wife, and daughter, Mary, as they left Mass. Travers was shot six times and his daughter shot once through the back. One gunman brought his gun to point-blank range at Mrs. Travers face and fired twice, but the gun jammed. According to the Belfast Telegraph

"After the attack the IRA claimed the judge had been a legitimate target because of his role in the British judicial system. They also tried to claim that the bullet which killed the young schoolteacher had passed through her father's body first but a post mortem found she was shot directly in the spine."

McArdle, then aged nineteen, was arrested shortly after the attack and charged "after two hand guns, a grey wig and a black sock concealed in bandages were found strapped to her thighs." Two months later, thirty-three-year-old father of five and IRA member, Joseph Patrick Haughey, was arrested and charged in connection with the attack. At the trial two years later, McArdle was found guilty and received "a life sentence for her role in the murder of Mary Travers and an 18-year concurrent sentence for the attempted murder of Mr Travers." Haughey was acquitted due to lack of forensic evidence and doubts over his identity, though Tom Travers positively identified him in a line-up.

McArdle served 14 years in prison before being released early under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.

Following outrage at her appointment in 2011, Ms. McArdle expressed remorse for the murder of Travers, calling it "a tragic mistake".

McArdle's statement was rebutted by Mary Travers' sister, Anne, who stated:

"Mistake? Mistake? My sister was murdered. There were two gunmen, one standing over my dad shooting him and one who shot my sister in the back and attempted to murder my mother but the bullets jammed in the gun. The fact that she [McArdle] calls my sister's murder a mistake, well, that day two gunmen went with two guns, so if they were just planning to kill my dad, why did they go out with two guns. They knew my dad wasn't armed. After 27 years I'd have thought I'd be able to speak about my sister's murder factually and without grief but when I heard of Mary McArdle's appointment last Thursday it did something to me which I just have not been able to contain the grief it brought back. Rather than Mary McArdle and Sinn Fein saying her death was a mistake, what they should be saying is Mary Travers' murder is an embarrassment which has come back to haunt them."

Her brother, Paul Travers, who now lives in Australia, said to the Belfast Telegraph in July 2011:

"In 2011 we are told to put the past behind us and move on," he said. "I go home every year to visit my family and notice the murals to the hunger strikers are lovingly maintained. My sister Mary did not starve herself to death. She was murdered by those who now claim to be the 'peacemakers'. Mary has no mural. However, her memory is as alive to me now as it was 27 years ago when I travelled with her bloodied body in the ambulance to the Ulster Hospital. It is the same for the other victims of the Troubles."

Travers made an open appeal to Sinn Féin to work with the Historical Enquiries Team and determine who killed his sister:

"You compare yourselves to Nelson Mandela. Well then, do as he did, if you are brave enough. Embrace the need for genuine truth and reconciliation and support the very institutions, such as the Historical Enquiries Team, that have been established to find it. Don't ignore them. Tell us who committed these foul atrocities. It seems to me that you selectively support those aspects of the 1998 peace agreement that suit you and not the ones that don't. You did the same thing during the Troubles. It is not acceptable now. You are the ones who will not move on. You are the ones who perpetuate hurt and promote your brand of hatred. You are the ones who fear the truth. What are you scared of, now you no longer have your guns?"

In March 2012, Sinn Féin stated that Ms McArdle had been moved from the post of special adviser to the Culture Minister to another post in the Party. She was replaced by Jarlath Kearney, a former journalist, who had previously worked as a Sinn Féin policy adviser. A Sinn Féin spokesperson said it was part of normal party policy to rotate staff.