The Sunday Times
John Mooney
A notorious member of the IRA’s elite south Armagh brigade has defected to a dissident republican organisation in what security services regard as a worrying development.
Bernard McGinn, 52, a master bomber and gunman from Co Monaghan, is among a group of IRA hardliners who now support Oglaigh na hEireann, a splinter group that has carried out several high-profile bomb attacks in Northern Ireland, according to gardai.
They believe McGinn commands respect among the IRA rank and file, and may be able to recruit other disgruntled IRA members into the ranks of the dissidents. The IRA in south Armagh recently split and a number of members resigned. They are believed to be disenchanted with Sinn Fein’s policies and what they regard as the party’s abandonment of traditional republican values.
A close ally of Thomas “Slab” Murphy, the former IRA chief of staff, said McGinn was one of the IRA’s most deadly terrorists. His unit mounted scores of attacks against the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army, murdering several soldiers with a sniper rifle.
It also organised bomb attacks, including the London bombings at Canary Wharf in 1996 and the Baltic Exchange in 1992. McGinn admitted responsibility for these while in custody, but retracted his admissions in court.
He was jailed in 1999 for a total of 490 years for three killings, conspiracy to murder, possession of firearms and his involvement in bombings. His convictions on the bombing and murder charges were quashed on a technicality in 2000, but the murder conspiracy and possession charges were upheld. The Special Criminal Court in Dublin had also sentenced him to 10 years for possession of explosives.
He was freed from the Maze prison in 2000, under the Good Friday agreement, and for a time remained faithful to the IRA leadership and Sinn Fein.
“From a propaganda point of view, when somebody with McGinn’s reputation aligns himself to a dissident group, it sends out a clear message that it’s a force to be reckoned with,” a security source said.
“Attracting somebody like McGinn is a coup for the dissidents.”
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