Capt. Kelly's Rehanilitation -- Stormont Watch

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Date Posted: Tue, Mar 13 2007, 21:33:59 PDT
Author: Dublin-based:The Phoenix magazine
Subject: Capt. Kelly's Rehanilitation

Message to The Derry News

The below article shows that the �talks� with Gerry Hickey, which began last year, as far as Captain Kelly�s widow is concerned have not been as satisfactory as we all had hoped. I spoke to Mrs. K earlier to-day (13-2-07). She agrees with me that the time has come to take the campaign unto the floor of the D�il. Towards that end, an appeal to all who have endorsed the campaign�s International Petition will request that they make representations direct to An Taoiseach and at the very least to their local public representatives and media, on both sides of the border.

This marks a change in strategy, from a rather softly-softly approach, but with a lot of unreported activity behind the scenes. Last year two major organisations in the USA, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Irish-American Unity Conference publicly endorsed the campaign. Justin, a son of the late captain, addressed the AOH�s national convention which was attended by around 1,400 delegates from across the States. The Phoenix article below puts the campaign on a higher plane, as Mrs. Kelly, for the first time reveals just what she is asking of Bertie Ahern and the Irish Army.

As you may already be aware, the campaign, which some public figures shy away from claiming it is �too controversial�, was an initiative launched by the October 5th Assoc., a network of 1968 civil rights veterans and supporters. I have been its Hon. Sec. since its launch shortly after Capt. Kelly died in July 2003. I will be writing to hundreds of people who already understand the issues and have endorsed the campaign. Amongst these are several prominent Irish politicians as well as others in Britain. Up until now we had hoped that there would have been a positive outcome from face-to-face meetings at Govt. Buildings in Dublin. Our somewhat low-key approach included not informing genuinely interested sections of the media, who wished to photograph the Kelly family delegation, or to interview them subsequent to each meeting. In future we will more fully engage with the media in the hope of placing all the facts before the general public, so that such a higher profile may quicken the desired response, initially within the D�il.

Please note that I am forwarding a short-list of prominent people who have endorsed the petition and to whom I will be directing my correspondence in the very near future.

Please mention the website address which contains press reports, videos and other background material � www.captainkely.org - if you decide to cover these developments in your publication, or raise such within groups to which you may be affiliated. Go raibh maith agat! � Thank you!

Yours truly,

rights.civil@googlemail.com

Manager: Captain Kelly Justice Campaign

The Phoenix, a Dublin-based magazine, February 23, 2007

Captain Kelly�s Rehabilitation

SHEILA KELLY, widow of the late Captain James Kelly, has been in negotiations with Bertie Ahern�s programme manager and chief fixer, Gerry Hickey, to secure total exoneration of her husband as well as a small measure of compensation for the ruination of his career. These talks began last year but so far she has received little satisfaction.

While Captain Kelly was acquitted in the Arms Trial of 1970, many commentators in the years since then have felt free to malign the former Defence Forces Intelligence Officer before and after his death in 2003. Some of these, including Garret Fitzgerald and The Irish Times, had to cough up considerable damages and an apology.

Before his death, Kelly unearthed documents showing that certain prosecution evidence at the Arms Trial showing that he had been acting with the knowledge of his army superiors and the then Defence minister, Jim Gibbons, had been deleted. However, following investigations by the then Justice minister, John O�Donoghue and Attorney General Michael McDowell, the latter made a statement saying that �the claims of conspiracy to suppress vital evidence are unlikely to be true but cannot be ruled out entirely�.

However, it was the master of obfuscation himself, Bertie Ahern, who offered what appeared to be vindication of Kelly following his death in 2003 that has since spurred Sheila Kelly to approach the Government. Bertie said: �It is my belief that�Captain Kelly acted on what he believed were the proper orders of his superiors.� Initial gratification at this statement has since been replaced with resentment at Bertie�s qualifying comments, especially the remark, �Kelly believed he was acting on the proper orders of his superiors.�

Sheila Kelly has since compiled a dossier of archive material to show that her husband was at all times acting on orders. She has also unearthed little items of interest such as the communication and co-operation that existed between the late Jack Lynch, as serving Taoiseach, and the British Embassy in the matter of a book on the Arms Trial that Kelly was trying to have published in London in 1971.

According to documents that Mrs. Kelly has unearthed, Lynch mentioned to the then British Ambassador, John Peck, that the publication of this book would be most damaging to him in the run-up to the Fianna F�il Ard Fheis in 1971. Peck wrote to one of HMG�s chaps in the London Foreign Office about the Taoiseach�s apprehensions and the Dublin embassy received a reply from a diplomat, Adrian Thorpe, who said he had discussed the book with �a friend in Collins� [the book�s publishers] and that they were due to discuss the book further over lunch. Further correspondence passed between The British Embassy in Dublin and Whitehall before the latter wrote to say that the book had been cancelled. The reasons for cancellation are unclear from the correspondence.

Back in Dublin in 2007, Mrs. Kelly is seeking a D�il statement from Bertie to the effect that he husband should not have been tried in the first place and that he was acting legally at all times. Mrs. Kelly also wants her husband to receive posthumous promotion to the rank of colonel and a statement from the Army offering similar exoneration of Kelly. Mrs. Kelly also wants the statements of McDowell and O�Donoghue in the D�il Library to include the evidence that much documentation was denied to the 1970 trial.

ENDS

Footnote from the manager of the Capt. Kelly Justice Campaign To Whom It May Concern:

Please view The Jury, and other videos on our website to more fully appreciate the case for full exoneration- www.captainkelly.org Additional support for the International Petition on the site would be much appreciated by Mrs. Sheila Kelly and her family, and people at home and abroad who have already endorsed our campaign for Justice. Go raibh maith agat! Thank you!

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Replies:

Petition Supporters-A short list -- rights.civil@googlemail.com, Tue, Mar 13 2007, 21:39:36 PDT