DUBLIN - The outlawed Irish Republican Army apologized yesterday for its 1973 killing of a 9-year-old Northern Ireland boy who stumbled across an IRA bomb while playing in his backyard.
The declaration was a major shift, since for decades the group had blamed the boy’s death on the British Army.
The IRA made its admission and apology for killing Gordon Gallagher after the dead boy’s parents called publicly for Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness, the former IRA commander in Londonderry, to tell them who planted a bomb in their children’s play area and why.
The IRA said the group accepted responsibility and was “truly remorseful and profoundly sorry.’’
The IRA has issued similar admissions and apologies over the past 15 years for killings that it long denied committing and sometimes falsely attributed to the British Army. Yesterday’s statement came on the eve of the 39th anniversary of Gordon’s death.
Gordon was running playing cowboys and Indians when he triggered a booby-trap bomb.
The victim’s father, Billy Gallagher, said the statement represented a major U-turn from the group’s 1973 position but wasn’t good enough.
“I am glad they take full responsibility and accept that they were to blame and no one else was,’’ he said. But he said McGuinness should provide more detailed information on who did it and why.
Sinn Fein said McGuinness was in prison in 1973 and so couldn’t help the family.
The IRA killed nearly 1,800 people during its unsuccessful 1970-1997 campaign to force Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom. It declared its cease-fire permanent in 2005, but small splinter groups continue to mount occasional attacks, particularly in Londonderry.
Associated Press