President Connolly to meet sister of Troubles victim who criticised photo with IRA gang member

Mary McArdle was the only person convicted of the murder of Mary Travers, who was shot dead by an IRA gunman in Belfast in April 1984.

CATHERINE CONNOLLY HAS agreed to meet with Ann Travers, whose sister Mary was killed by the IRA in 1984.

The president was recently photographed with Mary McArdle, the only person convicted of the murder, while at a press event at a women’s centre on the Falls Road in Belfast.

McArdle was given a life sentence, but was released after serving 14 years, as per the terms of the Belfast Agreement.

Travers expressed her “upset” at Connolly “standing smiling” for a photograph with McArdle, saying the backdrop of a woman’s shelter was “ironic”.

In an op-ed for the Irish Times, Travers wrote: “To see [McArdle] standing alongside our President broke me.”

Travers lamented that those responsible for the violence of The Troubles are now “accepted and welcome into normal society”.

Connolly’s office today emailed Travers to say the president “would be glad” to meet her to discuss her concerns.

Travers said she was “delighted”, and hopes for a positive outcome from the conversation, which she expects will take place in September.