In
November 1997 the 32 County Sovereignty Committee,
later to become known as The 32 County Sovereignty
Movement, was launched. Bernadette Sands-McKevitt
was one of the founding members of the organisation,
a political pressure group campaigning for the restoration
of Ireland’s sovereignty.
By
March 1998, the British Irish Agreement commonly
referred to as the Good Friday Agreement was nearing
fruition. In a leaked Northern Ireland Office document
titled Information Strategy on the proposed
Referendum that would legitimise British Rule in
Ireland, author T Kelly Director of Communications
laid out a strategy
to ensure the result was a positive one for the
government whilst appearing to be the peoples’
‘free’ choice. It was a strategy that
primarily sought to use elements within the media
to control and manipulate the general public.
Kelly
stated that it would be important “to ensure
that not all of the results of opinion polling,
etc., will be in the public domain. It would be
open to us to encourage some degree of public opinion
polling by for example newspapers and current affairs
programmes, where we believe the results are likely
to be supportive. Some of this can be encouraged
during meetings and briefings of senior media people.”
In
addition he proposed enlisting church leaders, heads
of community organisations and trade unions, and
other members of the G7 to champion the British
cause “ensuring that it is not only government
which is seen to be selling the process”. In
particular he intended to open dialogue with Dan
Mulhall of Irish Foreign Affairs and Joe Lennon
of the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s office to co-ordinate
the messages to better effect and avoid unhelpful
clashes between both governments.
In
April 1998, post the signing of the Good Friday
Agreement, Bernadette along with a fellow member
of the movement travelled to New York, to lodge
a submission at the head quarters of the United
Nations. The submission outlined Ireland’s
right to national sovereignty and argued that the
forth coming referendum was illegal as it denied
the Irish people the right to self determination.
Bernadette
spoke at a number of public meetings in New York,
and Philadelphia. She travelled to Washington and
spoke with Congressman Peter King who arranged for
her to address members of the Ad hoc committee on
Ireland. On returning to Ireland she gave numerous
interviews and appeared on television current affair
programmes pointing out the flaws in the Good Friday
Agreement and arguing for the right of Irish people
to self-determination without British interference.
In
April 1998, according to an article by the political
editor of the Sunday Business Post, Emily
O’Reilly, (published on 23.8.1998, about a
week after the Omagh bomb) the Irish Taoiseach (first
minister), Bertie Ahern, held a private briefing
for editors attached to the Independent Group of
newspapers. The purpose of the briefing was to give
the editors the government’s assessment of
the Good Friday peace agreement. However, the Taoiseach
himself introduced the topic of Michael McKevitt
– husband of Bernadette, whom he described
as “the head of a splinter IRA organisation”,
identified in the article as being the Real IRA.
It is obvious from the article that Mr Ahern’s
briefing was very detailed and circumstantial. Equally,
worth noting that it came shortly after the British
had relayed details of their Information Strategy
to their Irish counterparts.
Some
time in 1999 Ms Jane Winter Director of the British
Irish Rights Watch BIRW corresponded with Mr Ahern’s
office requesting details of the meeting at which
he identified Michael McKevitt as leader of the
IRA. Mr Ahern’s office replied and informed
Ms Winter that there were no minutes of that particular
meeting in April 1998.
The
referendum took place in June 1998; meanwhile Bernadette
continued to speak out against the agreement.
On
Saturday 15th August 1998 a bomb exploded in the
Northern Irish town of Omagh, killing 29 people
and causing hundreds of injuries. It shocked and
outraged the majority of Irish people. The bombing
was claimed by a dissident republican group calling
itself the Real IRA, which subsequently declared
a ceasefire. Media reports constantly linked the
32 County Sovereignty Committee to the Real IRA,
but the Committee denied any such link. On 16th
August, the Committee put out the following statement:
"We
are deeply saddened and devastated by the terrible
tragedy in Omagh Co[unty] Tyrone yesterday (15th
August '98).
We
share the grief and sorrow of everyone on the island
of Ireland and we offer our sincere sympathy to
the injured, the bereaved, their families and friends
at this moment in time. The killing of innocent
people cannot be justified in any circumstances.
We
are a political movement and are not a military
group. We reject categorically any suggestions that
has been publicly made, that our movement was responsible
in any way."
Despite
the 32 County Sovereignty Committee's unambiguous
condemnation of the bombing and denial of any involvement
in it, numerous newspapers named Michael McKevitt
as a perpetrator, an accusation that he strenuously
denies.
On
9th October 2000, BBC television transmitted a documentary
in their respected Panorama series, called
Who Bombed Omagh? Journalist John Ware named
four men suspected by the police of having been
responsible for the bombing. Considerable controversy
surrounded its transmission. Lawrence Rush, whose
wife died in the bombing, attempted unsuccessfully
to obtain an injunction to prevent the transmission,
on the ground that it might prejudice the right
of those named to a fair trial. He was supported
in his application by the Northern Ireland Human
Rights Commission. The programme did not name Michael
or Bernadette McKevitt.
In
August 2001, almost a year after the Panorama programme
was aired and shortly before the original trial
date, solicitors acting on behalf of seven families
who had lost relatives in the Omagh bomb served
civil writs on five men, four of whom had been named
in the Panorama programme, the fifth person was
Michael McKevitt. The only evidence offered in the
civil writ against Michael was that he hadn’t
rebutted the allegations made against him in the
newspapers. (Since Michael’s trial, solicitors
acting on behalf of the Omagh families have now
employed David Rupert as a witness to “give
evidence” against Michael).
The
police cast their net very widely in their attempts
to identify the bombers; they interviewed 6,500
people and took 2,700 statements. Michael or Bernadette
McKevitt has never been questioned or arrested by
the police in connection with this bombing (he was
arrested on 26th May 2000, long after the bombing,
and questioned about membership of an illegal organisation,
but was released without charge. However, the police
photograph taken whilst he was in custody appeared
in national and international newspapers in 2003).
Nevertheless, the media have run a relentless campaign
of vilification against both Bernadette and Michael
McKevitt, accusing them of involvement in the bombing
and putting their lives at risk in so doing. They
published their photographs, and photographs of
their children and their home, which further endangered
their lives. As a result of this campaign, Bernadette
McKevitt was excluded from her shop in the town
centre of Dundalk, and lost her livelihood. (Ibid)
They
later learned from a source close to the Fianna
Fail leadership that the owner of the Long Walk
shopping centre, Mr Martin Naughton allegedly ordered
the closure as a political favour. Mr Naughton,
a successful entrepreneur from Stackallen House,
Stackallen, Slane in Co. Meath, was a member of
the Council of State (1997-2004) and also a financial
contributor to the present Government partner Fianna
Fail. In 1998 he made a significant financial contribution
in support of the ‘Yes’ campaign for The
Good Friday Agreement. Post agreement Mr Naughton
was appointed as Chairman to InterTradeIreland,
one of the six cross-border bodies established under
the Good Friday Agreement.
The
McKevitts’ had no effective legal remedy against
the media campaign. Legal aid is not available for
libel actions in the Republic of Ireland, and the
costs involved in a libel case are prohibitive.
The media campaign was so vehement that it is highly
unlikely that the McKevitts’ could obtain a
fair hearing were they to bring such a case, whether
before a judge or a jury. Furthermore, the campaign
was so widespread that the McKevitts’ would
be involved in litigation for years to come were
they to prosecute every libel they have suffered.
There was no Press Complaints Council in Ireland
to which they could complain, and complaints to
individual newspapers were more likely to result
in further adverse coverage than in any retractions.
Similar considerations arose in relation to bringing
defamation proceedings in the Britain. Although
they do have a Press Complaints Council, Irish citizens
are not familiar with its workings and most of the
coverage that would have formed the basis for any
complaint was already outside their time limit.
Despite the enormous limitations they continued
to search for means to defend themselves. They contacted
several human rights bodies including the Irish
Council for Civil Liberties, Amnesty International,
and British Irish Rights Watch. In November 1999,
British Irish Rights Watch submitted a
report on behalf of the McKevitt family to the
UN Rapateur on Freedom of Expression.
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