![\"ann-travers-advocate-with-the-seff-victims-group-whose-sister-was-murdered-by-the-ira-outside-the-high-court-in-dublin-where-former-sinn-fein-president-gerry-adams-is-bringing-a-legal-action-again\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787184676_689_.jpeg\")
\n File image of Ann Travers Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
ANN TRAVERS HAS said she \u201chopes\u201d President Catherine Connolly can use her \u201cinfluence\u201d to broker a meeting with the woman convicted in relation to her sister\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n
Travers\u2019s sister Mary was killed by the Provisional IRA in an attack in April 1984, in which her father Tom Travers was also shot six times.<\/p>\n
Mary McArdle was convicted for her role in the murder of 23-year-old teacher and is the only person to have been convicted in relation to the attack.<\/p>\n
McArdle served 14 years in prison before being released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n
President Connolly was recently photographed with McArdle while at a press event at a women\u2019s centre on the Falls Road in Belfast.<\/p>\n
Travers said it was \u201cdifficult\u201d to see Connolly \u201csmiling\u201d for a photograph with McArdle, and added that the backdrop of a woman\u2019s shelter was \u201cironic\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Today with Sharon Tobin, Travers added: \u201cThe fact it was outside a women\u2019s centre, which I\u2019m sure is there to help women through all sorts, and then I just think about the violence that happened to my own beautiful 23-year-old sister and my mother on that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Travers sent a letter to Connolly\u2019s office in relation to the photograph.<\/p>\n
She yesterday received an email to say Connolly \u201cwould be glad to meet with you privately when that is convenient\u201d.<\/p>\n
Travers said she hopes to have this private meeting next month.<\/p>\n
When asked on RT\u00c9\u2019s Today show what she hopes to say to Connolly during their meeting, Travers said: \u201cI just hope that by the end of it she understands the impact that victims and survivors live with daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really hope that she can maybe have some kind of influence on Mary McArdle to meet with me and give me the answers I so need.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve asked to meet Mary McArdle a few times and she\u2019s said no, so I\u2019m hoping that President Connolly will be able to have some kind of influence on her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n File image of Ann Travers Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Travers said it was \u201cso hurtful\u201d to see Connolly beside McArdle.<\/p>\n
\u201cMary McArdle is entitled to go on with her life, I don\u2019t give her a second thought any day of the week, but when I see her standing beside our president, I just thought, \u2018what on earth? What\u2019s going on?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Travers added that McArdle has \u201cshown absolutely no remorse ever since\u201d and that she is \u201cthe only person who can help us and tell us who exactly was involved in my sister\u2019s murder\u201d.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI think for President Connolly, it\u2019s very important that those who are in power and can do things\u2026 instead of standing beside killers, they need to start standing beside the victims and survivors of the Troubles.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it was put to Travers that the president \u201chas to meet everybody as part of diplomacy\u201d, Travers replied: \u201cAbsolutely, but I think there should be an awareness of photographs and putting them out publicly.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cIt brings home that victims and survivors have had to fight and push for absolutely everything. We\u2019re constantly being re-traumatised.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere seems to be this attitude that it\u2019s all over now, the Good Friday Agreement happened, let\u2019s just move on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love my country, I love Ireland, but I want there to be this understanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very important for our future, so it never happens ever again, to understand the impact of what terrorism does and the forever trauma it leaves on people.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u2018She was so innocent\u2019<\/p>\n
Speaking on the 1984 attack, Travers said her parents and sister had attended Mass in Belfast and were walking home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were about 200 yards from our house.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were very happy, Mary was in her first teaching job and was bringing her class for their first confession that day in preparation to make their First Holy Communion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Travers said they were talking about First Holy Communion preparation when \u201cthey heard a gunshot\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said that when her father turned around, \u201che saw a man waving his hand under a newspaper\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad said to him, \u2018What do you want?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the man replied, \u2018It\u2019s you that we want\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her mother then spotted a second gunman across the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith that, that gunman shot Mary once in the back, and she fell down into my mum\u2019s arms and knocked Mum onto the ground,\u201d said Travers.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad was shot six times by the other gunman and the gunman that shot Mary walked over to my mum and put the gun to my mum\u2019s head and pulled the trigger twice, but twice the gun jammed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey ran off and handed their guns over to Mary McArdle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Travers\u2019s father was a resident magistrate \u2013 this role has since been renamed as \u201cDistrict Judges\u201d.<\/p>\n
District Judges deal with both criminal and civil cases.<\/p>\n
While the IRA said the intended target was Tom Travers, Ann Travers told RT\u00c9 that the Historical Enquiries Team found that the IRA \u201cwanted to murder as many of the Travers family as possible on that day\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t bring two gunmen out to shoot one man,\u201d said Travers, \u201cand you don\u2019t have a gunman shoot a young 23-year-old, 5ft 4in, seven stone woman in the back.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I believe that they went out to try to murder all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said her father had a police radio for security, but that he \u201crefused to take a gun because he knew he could never use it on anybody\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said he also refused a police bodyguard \u201cbecause he couldn\u2019t live with himself if someone lost their husband or father because he was protecting my dad\u201d.<\/p>\n
Travers added that she missed her \u201cbeautiful sister Mary every single solitary day\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think about her every day, and she helps me every day, I pray to her every day. She just was so wonderful and so innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANN TRAVERS HAS said she \u201chopes\u201d President Catherine Connolly can use her \u201cinfluence\u201d to broker a meeting with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[272618,663,9,10,13,14,6,9619,11,12,15,16,238967,5,155789,177320,18479,273513,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-646342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-ann-travers","tag-belfast","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ira","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-mary-travers","tag-news","tag-president-catherine-connolly","tag-president-connolly","tag-the-troubles","tag-tom-travers","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117124942428709431","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646342","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=646342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}