Ivor Bell | |
---|---|
Born | 1936/1937 (age 86–88) Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Allegiance | Provisional Irish Republican Army |
Years of service | 1956–1962 1970–1985 |
Rank | Volunteer Adjutant Chief of Staff |
Unit | Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade C-Company 2nd Battalion |
Conflict | The Troubles |
Ivor Malachy Bell (born 1936/1937) is an Irish republican, and a former volunteer in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who later became Chief of Staff on the Army Council. [1]
Bell was the IRA's representative to Libya in the late 1970s and early 1980s. An opponent of the turn towards electoral politics spearheaded by Gerry Adams, he was forced out of the organization in 1985.
In 2014 Bell was arrested in connection with the 1972 murder of Jean McConville. He was acquitted in 2019.
Bell was involved with the Irish Republican Army during the 1956–1962 campaign, but left over the decision to call a cease-fire. He rejoined the republican movement in 1970, and become the commander of the Kashmir Road-based C Company of the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade. During Gerry Adams' initial career in the republican movement he took much of his direction from Brendan Hughes and Bell. At this time Adams was Bell's adjutant in the Second Battalion of the Belfast Brigade. Hughes was the commander of the D Coy. Adams looked to Bell for political strategy and to Hughes for the opinion of the "rank and file" volunteers. [2]
In 1972, Bell, now Belfast Brigade adjutant, along with Dáithí Ó Conaill, Seamus Twomey, Martin McGuinness, and Gerry Adams were flown to London by the Royal Air Force for secret ceasefire talks with British government ministers. [2] [3] Adams and Bell were sceptical about the proposed cease-fire and did not trust the British government. The truce soon broke down, followed by twenty deaths over three days. [4] [5]
In February 1974, Bell was arrested on information provided by one of the "Disappeared" (informer) Eamon Molloy. He was placed in Cage 11 at Long Kesh along with Hughes and Adams. Fellow internees had nicknamed it the 'General's Cage' because of the number of senior republicans held there. [6]
On 15 April 1974, Bell escaped when he swapped places with a visitor and walked out of the prison. He was recaptured two weeks later at a flat in the affluent Malone Road area of south Belfast after Molloy had informed the security services of his whereabouts.
In 1982, Martin McGuinness quit as Chief of Staff and Bell took over his position. Bell was arrested, on evidence provided by another supergrass, Robert "Beedo" Lean, in 1983. In line with IRA rules, contained within the Green Book, Bell lost his position as chief of staff, which was then taken by Kevin McKenna from the Tyrone Brigade. [7]
Upon release Bell, and fellow prisoner Edward Carmichael, stated that they had both been offered immunity if they would incriminate Sinn Féin elected representatives Danny Morrison, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. Carmichael had been offered £300,000 and Bell stated that he was told he could "name my own figure". [8]
On release from prison in 1983, Bell was reappointed to the Army Council but did not regain his position as chief of staff. Much of his influence had been eroded.
Bell was the IRA's representative to Libya during the late 1970s and the early 1980s. Libya and the IRA had a common enemy, the British government. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was heavily criticised in Libya for allowing US planes to take off from British air bases for raids on Libya in which more than seventy people were killed. [9]
In late 1984 and early 1985 the Libyan Intelligence Service moved to put in place a supply of arms to the IRA in order that they could more effectively fight the British Army, and Bell and Joe Cahill were instrumental in putting in place the Libyan arms smuggling plan. [9]
In 1984, Bell openly opposed Adams' proposal to increase spending on election campaigns instead of the war against Britain. Bell was a hard-line militarist who opposed the use of funds by Sinn Féin and resented moves to end abstentionism. Bell emerged as the head of a group, which included senior figures like Danny McCann. In June 1985, Bell was dismissed from the IRA. [10] [11]
Bell was arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland on 18 March 2014 for questioning in relation to the abduction and murder of Jean McConville in 1972. [12] Bell, aged 77, has been charged with aiding and abetting murder and membership of the IRA. He appeared in court on 22 March 2014 and was initially refused bail, though it was granted on 26 March. [13] On 7 July 2016, it was announced that Bell would stand trial for McConville's murder. [14] His lawyers had argued for the charges to be dropped, claiming a lack of evidence to support a trial. [15]
The charges arise from the Boston College tapes that led the US Justice Department, acting on behalf of the UK Government, to issue a subpoena to Boston College for the tapes and transcripts of the Belfast Project. [15]
His trial has been postponed due to the claim by Bell's legal team that he suffers from dementia and would not be able to fully participate in the trial. [16]
In a ruling of the Belfast Crown Court in October 2019 Bell was cleared of involvement in the murder of Jean McConville. The Boston tapes were deemed unreliable and could not be presented as evidence in the trial. Adams was called as a defense witness. [17]
Gerard Adams is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he followed the policy of abstentionism as a Member of Parliament (MP) of the British Parliament for the Belfast West constituency.
Joe Cahill was a prominent figure in the Irish republican movement in Northern Ireland and former chief of staff of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). He joined a junior-republican movement, Na Fianna Eireann, in 1937 and the following year, joined the Irish Republican Army. In 1969, Cahill was a key figure in the founding of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. During his time in the Provisional IRA, Cahill helped import weapons and raise financial support. He served as the chief of staff in 1972, but was arrested the following year when a ship importing weapons was intercepted.
The IRA Army Council was the decision-making body of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group dedicated to bringing about independence to the whole island of Ireland and the end of the Union between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. The Council had seven members, said by the British and Irish governments to have included Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Féin. The Independent Monitoring Commission declared in 2008 that the council was "no longer operational or functional," but that it had not dissolved.
Jean McConville was a woman from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who was kidnapped and murdered by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and secretly buried in County Louth in the Republic of Ireland in 1972 after being accused by the IRA of passing information to British forces.
Edgar Samuel David Graham, MPA, BL was an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician and academic from Northern Ireland. He was regarded as a rising star of both legal studies and Unionism and a possible future leader of the UUP. Graham was shot dead on 7 December 1983 by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) close to the main library at Queen's University Belfast, where he lectured in law.
Denis Martin Donaldson was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a member of Sinn Féin who was killed following his exposure in December 2005 as an informer in the employ of MI5 and the Special Branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. It was initially believed that the Provisional IRA were responsible for his killing although the Real IRA claimed responsibility for his murder almost three years later. His friendship with French writer and journalist Sorj Chalandon inspired two novels: My Traitor and Return to Killybegs.
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Edmund "Ed" Moloney is an Irish journalist and author best known for his coverage of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the activities of the Provisional IRA, in particular.
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Billy McKee was an Irish republican and a founding member and leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
Kieran or Ciarán Fleming, was a volunteer in the 4th Battalion, Derry Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from the Waterside area of Derry, Northern Ireland. He died while attempting to escape after a confrontation with British troops in 1984.
Brendan Hughes, also known as "The Dark", and "Darkie" was a leading Irish republican and former Officer Commanding (OC) of the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was the leader of the 1980 Irish hunger strike.
The Belfast Brigade of the Provisional IRA was the largest of the organisation's brigades, based in the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Brian Keenan was a member of the Army Council of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who received an 18-year prison sentence in 1980 for conspiring to cause explosions, and played a key role in the Northern Ireland peace process.
Pat "Beag" McGeown was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
Proinsias Mac Airt was an Irish republican activist and long-serving member of the Irish Republican Army.
Anthony McIntyre is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer, writer and historian.
Kevin McKenna was an Irish republican and volunteer in the Tyrone Brigade and Chief of Staff of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). McKenna, a guarded, reclusive figure, was the longest-serving chief of staff of the IRA, serving from 1983 to 1997.
The Belfast Project was an oral history project on the Troubles based at Boston College in Massachusetts, U.S. The project began in 2000 and the last interviews were concluded in 2006. The interviews were intended to be released after the participants' deaths and serve as a resource for future historians.