No U-turn On Killer's Role: McGuinness

One of NI's most prominent republicans, the Stormont Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness has refused to reconsider the appointment of a convicted killer as a Stormont adviser to one of his Sinn Fein Executive colleagues.

Mr McGuinness (pictured) made the statement on the same day he also condemned an overnight dissident republican bomb attack in the Brandywell area of his home city of Londonderry - in which members of his own family were caught up.

The senior Sinn Fein man merely conceded that the 1984 murder of magistrate's daughter Mary Travers was "wrong" and also said that this "should never have happened".

This came after he had come under pressure to review the way that Mary McArdle was given a Government-funded post at Stormont - despite being convicted of the killing - with her new role angering the Travers family.

Responding today on the BBC, he said those who were part of conflict needed to be part of building a new society, despite McArdle being part of an IRA gang that had ambushed magistrate Tom Travers and his family as they left Mass - shooting his daughter Mary dead.

Mr McGuinness told BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme that his heart went out to Mary Travers' sister Anne and he fully understood why she would be angered by Ms McArdle's appointment.

The former prisoner was controversially appointed to a role as a special adviser at the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure last month.

He added: "The big question that people have to answer is: are people who have been part of the conflict, are they entitled to have a role in building a better future?"

This followed an article in the west Belfast Andersonstown News this week in which IRA killer McArdle said: "I want to state clearly that the killing of Mary Travers was a tragic mistake and I regret that it happened."

However, a clearly distressed Ann Travers, the victim's sister, speaking to BBC NI yesterday morning said: "A mistake? My sister was murdered."

Bomb Attack Blasted

On the overnight Derry bombing, Martin McGuinness said: "This is a bomb that could quite easily have killed a number of people, particularly children," he said. "My own niece was caught up in it.

"I think it absolutely diabolical that there are still idiots within our society who believe it is sensible to go to an area like the Brandywell and place a bomb and threaten people's lives."

The MP and MLA commented after a number of homes in the Lecky Road area of the city were damaged when the bomb - which was left at the front door of a house - went off, shortly before 11pm on Thursday.

While the police investigation is at an early stage, residents in the Brandywell are convinced last night's bomb attack was the work of dissident republicans.

See: Judge's Daughter Terror Killing 'Mistake'

(BMcC)