Belfast mayor snubs NIO Minister

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Monday August 18, 2003 18:24 by Shane OCurry - Pat Finucane Centre (PFC) pfc at iol dot ie 048/028 71 29 32 55

Martin Morgan boycotts John Spellar

The position of controversial NIO Minister John Spellar is looking increasingly precarious today following the decision of Belfast Lord Mayor Martin Morgan to boycott his office.

In two further developments this morning Spellar was handed a letter of protest about the Peter Mc Bride case by Derry SDLP mayor Shaun Gallagher while on a short unannounced visit to the city. Speaking afterwords on BBC Radio Foyle the mayor said that he was following the example set by his SDLP counterpart in Belfast.

While he was armed forces minister Mr Spellar sat on a British army board three years ago which agreed, citing “exceptional circumstances”, that Scots Guards Mark Wright and James Fisher should remain in the army.

The pair were convicted in 1995 of murdering Peter McBride (18) in north Belfast in September 1992.


Mr McBride’s mother Jean, backed by human rights groups, failed in her bid to have the decision overturned – despite the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal ruling in June that the army was wrong to allow the two killers to remain in service.

Last week armed forces minister Adam Ingram wrote to Mrs McBride informing her that the decision to retain Wright and Fisher would not be re-examined.

The letter also revealed that one of the soldiers has been promoted since being allowed to return to service in 1998.

Mr Spellar has repeatedly refused to publicly discuss

the case since his cabinet reshuffle appointment to replace former NIO minister Des Browne in June.

The inclusion of human rights and victims portfolios under Mr Spellar’s ministerial responsibility was also criticised by nationalist and republican politicians.

Mr Spellar also initially refused to meet Mr McBride’s family, but relented following political pressure from both Sinn Fein and the SDLP.

Mrs McBride stormed out of the Castle Buildings meeting last Monday, when it emerged that one of the minister’s aides had to telephone the MoD to find the latest position on the Wright and Fisher case.

Accusing Mr Spellar of being unfit to hold office, she branded the minister an “absolute disgrace” for not knowing the latest information on the soldiers case prior to the meeting.

It emerged later last week that the MoD letter to Mrs McBride was dated August 7 – four days before she met Mr Spellar.

Last night an NIO spokeswoman refused to comment on Mr Morgan’s statement.


Meanwhile members of an Irish legal delegation presently visiting the Iraqi capital Baghdad have been in telephone contact with the Pat Finucane Centre today to inform us of briefings given to NGOs, human rights groups and the media in Iraq regarding the Mc Bride controversy. Wright and Fisher, the two soldiers convicted of the 1992 murder, are presently based in Basra, south of Baghdad. Jean Mc Bride has expressed her anger that the two should be based there. “If North Belfast in 1992 was seen as so dangerous that a murder could be excused, that an 18 year old could be shot in the back, then God help the young people of Basra.”