drews backs O'Neill inquiry
In a reply in the Dáil on Tuesday, 2 November, to Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Foreign Affairs Minister David Andrews said that a judicial inquiry into the killing by Metropolitan Police of IRA member Diarmuid O'Neill in London in September 1996 would be ``a positive and helpful development''. The Sinn Féin TD asked the Minister to raise with the British government the need for a judicial inquiry in view of the fact that the coroner in the case has written to Home Office Minister Paul Boateng requesting him to consider holding such an inquiry. Minister Andrews noted that Hammersmith Coroner, Dr John Burton, had made the request and that ``concern about the circumstances of his death has not been allayed''.
However, following the coroner's request for a judicial inquiry, the O'Neill family and those campaigning on their behalf have received a curt, two-paragraph response from the Home Office dismissing both their own and Dr Burton's appeal for an inquiry.
The letter to the Justice for Diarmuid O'Neill Campaign, written by one Jacquie Russell, private secretary to junior minister Charles Clarke, says that ``Mr Clarke has considered the correspondence we have received on this matter from Dr Burton. He is not persuaded that the circumstances justify a judicial inquiry and has advised Dr Burton accordingly.''
The letter does not offer any justification or argument as to why Mr Clarke ``is not persuaded'', nor does it explain why the government minister to whom Dr Burton originally wrote, Paul Boateng, is declining to answer correspondence in respect of this case.
The Justice for Diarmuid O'Neill Campaign, however, are unfazed by this rather predictable rebuff and plan to continue lobbying the Home Office. They are also asking groups and individuals to write to Paul Boateng to add weight to the campaign for an inquiry.
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