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exclusive Former IRA men Arthurs and Quinn facing prosecution over Francie McNally funeral

Funeral of ex-Sinn Fein councillor Francie McNally in Ballinderry

Allison Morris Twitter Email

March 31 2021 04:42 PM

Two senior republicans, who have parted ways from Sinn Fein, are to be charged in connection with the funeral of Ballinderry man Francie McNally last April.

On Tuesday the Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Herron, announced that none of the 24 members of Sinn Fein who had been reported for attendance at Bobby Storey’s funeral were to be prosecuted.

In the same announcement the PPS said two people would be facing prosecution for attendance at the funeral of Mr McNally, a former Sinn Fein councillor.

The Belfast Telegraph can reveal that the two men facing prosecution are leading republicans Brian Arthurs and Frankie Quinn.

A crowd of mourners estimated at around 200 attended the McNally funeral in April last year with his coffin brought to the cemetery in a horse-drawn hearse.

The cortege was led by a piper and flanked by a guard of honour of people wearing white shirts and black ties.

Brian Arthurs and Frankie Quinn

Fr Peter Donnelly, the parish priest of St Patrick’s, Ballinderry said at the time that the proper Covid-19 protocols were observed within the church grounds. There was no funeral Mass and attendance at the burial was limited to 10 immediate members of Mr McNally’s family.

A former publican, he ran McNally’s Inn near Toomebridge for many years and was a Sinn Fein councillor between 1985 and 1989.

Two of his brothers were killed during the Troubles. Phelim McNally (28) was killed in a gun attack by loyalists at Francie McNally’s home in 1988, while another brother Lawrence (39), an IRA member, was shot dead in Coagh in an SAS ambush in 1991.

Similar to the funeral of Bobby Storey last June, the family had been in prior contact with police.

District Commander Superintendent Mike Baird said at the time that the McNally family had assured police that only family members would be in attendance and that local people could “pay their respects as the funeral cortege passed, by coming out into their gardens or the front of their homes”.

Brian Arthurs, a former IRA commander, was sentenced to 25 years in jail in 1995 on explosives charges and released in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

His brother Declan died, along with seven other IRA men, in an SAS ambush at Loughgall, Co Armagh, in 1987.

A civilian was killed and another wounded in the ambush.

In 2012 he was convicted of a £250,000 mortgage fraud, in a case that made legal history as the first case of its kind heard in a Diplock non-jury court.

He had parted ways with Sinn Fein in opposition to support for policing.

Frankie Quinn was named in the recent MI5 sting, arranged by New IRA double agent Dennis McFadden.

Eight men and two women are currently in custody accused of a total of 39 offences, including directing terrorism and trying to obtain Semtex explosives.

They were arrested in August last year after MI5 bugged two alleged meetings of the New IRA executive in February and July 2020.

In the tapes the republicans are allegedly heard talking about the Dungannon man, angry that the local community continued to be deferential to Quinn while ignoring their offers of assistance.

At one point two people, alleged to be the leadership of the New IRA, are heard discussing plans to kidnap Mr Quinn.

The Dungannon-based republican is said to have laughed off the suggestion that he would be at risk from the New IRA, who he considered too amateur to be any real threat.

A former senior member of the IRA’s East Tyrone brigade, in 1988 Mr Quinn was caught in possession of a 1,000lb bomb and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He also served prison time in the Republic.

His brother Patrick was just 16 when he was killed by a mortar bomb that backfired and exploded during a planned attack on Pomeroy RUC station. His name appears on an IRA ‘roll of honour’.

Mr Quinn was said to have played a central role as a liaison between Sinn Fein and the rank and file of the IRA during the peace negotiations and was seen as key to convincing hard-line members of the Tyrone IRA to back the ceasefires.

The 61-year-old parted ways with the mainstream republican movement along with the majority of the East Tyrone brigade in opposition to the acceptance of the PSNI by Sinn Fein.

Lifelong friends of Francie McNally, both men were pictured at his funeral in April.

I fear it will be a 'free-for-all' at funerals now, says undertaker following Bobby Storey funeral decision

Their funeral cortege was said to be organised by the Tyrone National Graves Association.

Both Arthurs and Quinn were informed that a file had been sent to the Public Prosecution Service, claiming they played an organisational role in the funeral.

Both men are expected to challenge the decision to prosecute them based on information contained in the PPS announcement on Tuesday, stating the lack of clarity and coherence in the regulations and the prior engagement between the organisers and police “would pose an insurmountable difficulty if any of the reported individuals were prosecuted”.

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