During a visit to the Falls Women\u2019s Centre, she appeared in a group photo alongside Mary McArdle, the only person convicted of the 1984 murder of school teacher Mary Travers. <\/p>\n
She was shot dead by two IRA gunmen in an attempt to murder her father Tom, a magistrate, as they were leaving Mass at a south Belfast church on April 8, 1984.<\/p>\n
Tom Travers was shot six times but survived. A gun was put in the face of his wife and the trigger pulled, but the gun jammed.<\/p>\n Ms McArdle, who was aged 19 at the time, was arrested shortly afterwards after she was found concealing two handguns.<\/p>\n Serving 14 years in prison, she was later released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n Responding to the picture, the victim\u2019s sister Ann Travers posted on social media: \u201cI\u2019m so upset this morning. <\/p>\n \u201cOur president, Catherine Connolly, standing grinning beside Mary McArdle who was the only person convicted for the murder of my 23-year-old sister Mary as she walked home from mass in 1984. <\/p>\n \u201cSome women\u2019s centre, who don\u2019t care about women.\u201d<\/p>\n Austin Stack, whose prison officer father Brian was killed by the IRA in the Republic in 1993, called it \u201cabsolutely shocking\u201d that the President would pose beside \u201can unrepentant convicted terrorist.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMary McArdle has refused to meet Ann and her family and this is just absolutely disgusting,\u201d he told the Irish News.<\/p>\n \u201cThe President\u2019s team should always vet who she\u2019s going to be standing beside in photographs.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think she should comment on this in some respect because it\u2019s absolutely shocking.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really traumatising for Ann, I know this as a victim myself and how it affects you.<\/p>\n \u201cTo have the President of your country standing smiling beside someone who was convicted for murdering your sister.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like this woman has tried to make amends with Ann\u2019s family, said sorry or even tried to meet with them.<\/p>\n \u201cShe has refused to divulge information about who else was involved in that murder and has been completely unrepentant about the whole thing.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the President to be standing smiling beside her is totally unbecoming, shocking and it\u2019s disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2011, the Irish News broke the story that Ms McArdle had been appointed as a special advisor to Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s culture minister Caral Ni Chuilin.<\/p>\n In the same year, she had stated in an interview that \u201cthe killing of Mary Travers was a tragic mistake and I regret that it happened.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I were to begin to describe the specific context of conflict I would be accused of trying to justify her death, and I have no wish to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Falls Women\u2019s Centre and the office of the Irish President have both been contacted for a response.<\/p>\n![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/EQMI7MVDWFPUDJAG3XTW7GFWZQ.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Last](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786117220_922_P6YLZVCKM5H6LLQEBARM3MBEKM.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Mary](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CJDOCYQMQJKKVI4CDC24ETZNSU.jpg\")
Mary Travers who was shot dead by the IRA as she walked home from Mass with her Father Thomas and her Mother Joan <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/L2Q5JVSP5ZD4RAQ7YBGY67WKG4.jpg\")
The Irish News front page in 2011 after Mary McArdle was appointed as a special adviser for Sinn F\u00e9in. <\/p>\n![\"Irish](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2URDKAWUKVKCHHOVIRDCOLEHD4.jpg\")
Irish President Catherine Connolly speaking in Belfast at the opening of Fleadh Cheoil na h\u00c9ireann 2026. (Oliver McVeigh\/PA) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Irish President has been criticised for posing for a photo beside a convicted IRA murderer. Catherine Connolly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[663,9,10,1921,13,14,144574,6,9619,85947,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-625580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-belfast","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-fleadh-cheoil-na-heireann-2026-belfast","tag-headlines","tag-ira","tag-irish-president","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117054986209217249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}