Convicted IRA bomber Gerry Kelly today told the BBC Talk Back program that an individual being sentenced to prison was no longer a member of the IRA.
In this context the Sinn Fein MLA stated he left the IRA when he went into prison.
Despite this Mr Kelly’s own account of the Maze escape claims that he advised a prison guard- whom he later shot in the head- that the escape was an “IRA operation”.
It is not clear what Mr Kelly was doing taking part in an IRA operation given that in his account on BBC Talk Back he claimed that he left the IRA when he went into jail.
There is further confusion around Mr Kelly’s assertion that he left the IRA due to the fact that he held senior positions within the IRA Army Council after his release from prison.
In this regard it may be prudent to ask Mr Kelly whether he re-joined the IRA prior to taking part in the Maze escape “operation”.
It seems highly improbable that Gerry Kelly left the IRA when he went into prison and then was somehow asked to take part in a high level IRA ‘operation’ as some kind of guest.
So either Mr Kelly re-joined the IRA whilst inside prison or else he lied on BBC Talk Back and in this regard the question around when he left the terror group remains unanswered.