Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like to use this opportunity to remember Maria McShane, who passed away last month. Last year I had the honour of meeting Maria in her home in County Armagh. Although she was in her sick bed at the time, she was in good spirits and it was easy to see why Maria had earned the love of all those who knew her. The best way to describe Maria McShane is that she was a typical rural Irish mammy. She was witty, endearing and committed to her family. Hers was not to be life of a typical Irish mammy, however, because by an accident of birth she happened to live in County Armagh rather than County Monaghan or County Louth, for example.

Despite growing up and living in the Northern State which denied her her basic rights as a citizen, Maria stayed away from politics. She just got on with her life. She worked hard and found love when she met Matt McShane. They got married and planned for a normal, quiet, happy life. On 16 August 1976, Maria was in the Step Inn pub in Keady, County Armagh when a bomb exploded. Ostensibly the bomb was planted by the UVF but we now know it was part of the campaign of terror waged by the Glenanne gang, a group infiltrated and controlled by members of British State forces. Two people were killed in that explosion. Up to 20 others were injured and Maria McShane was one of them. She lost an eye in the bombing. Her greatest concern at that time was for her unborn child. Miraculously, that child survived and Gavin McShane became his mother's pride and joy.

Gavin grew into his teenage years and by all accounts he was just a lovely young fellow. He was good craic, he was mad into his hurling and simply enjoyed life. In the cruellest imaginable twist of fate, Gavin was killed by the same forces that had attempted to kill his mother while he was still in her womb. On 18 May 1994, Gavin McShane was with his friend Shane McArdle in a taxi depot in Armagh playing a computer game, when an unmasked gunman, a suspected British State agent, entered the depot, opened fire and killed both boys. The lives of their loved ones changed forever. For Maria, alongside dealing with the unbearable lifelong grief that comes to every parent who has lost a child in such circumstances, it also marked the beginning of a decades long campaign that continued up until the moment she exhaled her last breath.

Like so many other families that were victims of British collusion in Ireland, the McShanes encountered blockages and barriers every step of the road. Those blockages and barriers are still in place. Just as Maria's ability to simply grieve her son was hindered by her need to campaign for truth and justice, so too have her children been unable to simply grieve for their mother in the weeks after her death. Last week, Maria's son Caoinn was in Hillsborough to protest at the arrival of British Prime Minster Boris Johnson. Yesterday her daughter Alana was in London on a Relatives for Justice delegation to Downing Street to protest at the British Government's despicable attempts to make official what has been always their unofficial policy, that their forces and agents should be permitted to murder Irish citizens with impunity. Maria sadly is no longer with us but her persistent determination in the pursuit of truth and justice clearly has been passed on to another generation.

The Taoiseach last July agreed that he would meet with the family of Gavin McShane to discuss how the Irish Government can assist their campaign. That meeting unfortunately has yet to occur. I appeal to the Minister of State that he encourage the Taoiseach's office to facilitate that meeting as a matter of urgency. I want to use this opportunity to convey my sincere sympathies to Maria's husband, Matt, to Caoinn and Alana and their families on the loss of a great Irish mammy. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dílis.

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