{"id":644349,"date":"2026-08-18T22:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T22:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/644349\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T22:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T22:22:10","slug":"catherine-connolly-to-meet-ann-travers-after-encounter-with-her-sisters-ira-murderer-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/644349\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly to meet Ann Travers after encounter with her sister\u2019s IRA murderer \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Catherine Connolly<\/a> has confirmed that she will meet the sister of a woman who was murdered by the Provisional IRA<\/a> in 1984. <\/p>\n

On a visit to Belfast 10 days ago, Connolly met Mary McArdle, the director of the Falls Road Women\u2019s Centre. <\/p>\n

McArdle was the only person convicted of the murder of 23-year-old schoolteacher Mary Travers while she was walking home with her parents from Sunday Mass on April 8th, 1984. <\/p>\n

The original target was Mary\u2019s father, Tom, who was a resident magistrate. He was shot six times but survived. A gun was placed to the head of his wife, Joan, but it jammed. <\/p>\n

McArdle received a life sentence for murder, and an 18-year concurrent sentence for the attempted murder of Tom Travers, wounding with intent and a number of firearms offences.<\/p>\n

She was released under the terms of the Belfast Agreement after 14 years in 1998. <\/p>\n

Writing in Saturday\u2019s Irish Times<\/a>, Mary Travers\u2019 sister, Ann, said of the President\u2019s meeting with McArdle: \u201cTo see her standing alongside our President broke me.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0To see the woman convicted of my sister\u2019s murder pictured with President Connolly broke meOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cSome \u2013 including Sinn F\u00e9in \u2013 say that former prisoners are an important part of the peace process, but the Historical Enquires Team asked McArdle to help with the investigation into my sister\u2019s murder, and she declined. I have asked to meet with her. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe has ignored me. I believe she knows who shot my dad and murdered my sister. She could give us answers. I promised my dad as he was dying that I would get justice for Mary.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs one of the thousands of surviving family members of victims of the Troubles and a case worker with the South East Fermanagh Foundation, which helps other victims, I am constantly dismayed to see those who were responsible for such violence accepted and welcome into normal society.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ann Travers said she was pleased that the President has agreed to a private meeting in September. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it has some positive outcomes for myself, my family and other victims and survivors,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Catherine Connolly has confirmed that she will meet the sister of a woman who was murdered by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[663,23936,9,10,1921,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-644349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-belfast","tag-belfast-agreement","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","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\/117118851384879584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644349","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=644349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}