An Important Book
It is one of those unnerving reminders of the passage of time that most journalists talking about Maria McGuire, the day after she was outed as a Tory member of Croydon Council had not heard of her before. Her defection from the Provisional IRA in 1972 was a huge story at the time and her book – glibly dismissed as ‘kiss and tell’ – opened the door on meetings of the IRA leadership at the very height of their campaign like no other book has done.
McGuire admits to her naivete so can hardly be damned for it.
Her contribution to the writing of the history of the IRA is massive and something that journalists should be glad of; it is not something they should be sneering at.
As for Peter Latham, the man who outed her and thereby exposed her to the danger that an IRA death sentence against her will be revived; he has trifled in more serious matters than her knows for a local political advantage. The risk of Maria Gatland (as she is now known) being shot is low – about as low as the risk to Mark Gartland and Sean O’Callaghan. I don’t see them relaxing their security.
But there is another principle: that people should not suffer for what they did in youth, if they have themselves reassessed those things and moved on from them. There are many others who were in the IRA in the early seventies and went on to distinguish themselves in other ways. Why should they be harassed now?
We have Gregory Campbell in the papers demanding an apology from Maria Gatland. If he had read her book, he would know that he already has it.
Malachi O'Doherty 
Surely Ms Gatland should be commended as a recomendation that the Republican Movement was wrong and to turn to a Party such as the Torys an inditement of Democracy over armed Violence. The Tories could have used this as an example citing modern day Islamic terrorism and how one could be saved from it by a Democracy and constitutionalism. Ms Gatland embraced Constitutional Politics and her sacking after 36 years is just wrong, it was kneejerk to say the least. Can someone not be forgiven even when they have acknowledged thier mistakes?
Jim Quinn…..
Much of what you say is quite right….however, Ms Gatland was asked to resign from the Conservative Party because she didn’t not disclose her past in the application form to become a candidate for the Party. In fact, the Croydon Tory MP said she answered it incorrectly, hence the reason she is no longer a member of the party.
Malachi,
as ever, a great opinion piece – but to equate the ‘damage’ done by Maria McGuire and consequently the ‘sentence’ she might have received from the Provos with that of Sean O Callaghan and Martin McGartland is silly and wrong.
The latter two were high profile informers whose actions compromised the organisation they were embedded in and resulted in arrests and ongoing damage/infiltration.
She was a naive, idealistic young girl who gave away nothing of value, beyond embarrassment to horrific individuals like O Stiofan et al, that would be useful to intelligence agencies.
Agree with you on Latham – what an arrogant, misguided tosser!
ATB,
Pete