The only “dark forces” at work, when it comes to events surrounding Jean McConville’s death and the subsequent investigation, are those “who abducted and murdered her, hid her body and then threatened her family”, according to NI Conservatives’ co-chair, Trevor Ringland. Trevor was responding to comments made by Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, who said “dark forces in the police” were responsible for the arrest of Gerry Adams, in relation to the murder.
“When will Sinn Fein stop blaming others, stop peddling conspiracy theories and start taking genuine responsibility for their movement’s murderous past?” Trevor asked. “The dark forces in this case are those who perpetrated this crime or were involved in its planning and the subsequent cover-up and intimidation. It is about time that the party’s priority became helping police bring to justice the people who played a role in one of the most brutal murders of the Troubles and accepting that, whoever that may be, they are likely to spend two years behind bars and then get released on licence. Nobody would disagree that that is a small punishment for such a grave offence.”
“Many victims and others have made sacrifices and shown tremendous grace to get Northern Ireland to where it is today. Across the board there are parties who are not playing a constructive role in moving our society beyond conflict or so-called peace processing and toward normality. We need parties that are absolutely committed to making Northern Ireland work in the best way possible, for all of our people. We need parties that give unequivocal backing to the rule of law and support their police force as much as possible, rather than looking to undermine the PSNI or subjecting its work to an ongoing sectarian audit. The biggest parties at Stormont are not offering that constructive attitude and I would urge voters to hold them to account for that failure.”