Tory Councillor quits over IRA link

[ziggysego]

A Croydon councillor has quit her cabinet post after admitting she had close ties with the Provisional IRA in the early 1970s.

A council spokesman said Conservative Maria Gatland confirmed that she is the author of To Take Arms: My Year with the Provisional IRA.

Mrs Gatland wrote the book under her maiden name, Maria McGuire.

When confronted with her past by a local schools activist, Mrs Gatland offered her resignation from cabinet.

The council spokesman said in addition to stepping down as cabinet member for children and young people, fellow councillors were urging Mrs Gatland to resign from the council.

The book details her relationship with the Provisional IRA leadership in 1971-72 before she parted ways with the group.

Mrs Gatland moved to England, later married, and entered local politics in 2002, representing Croham.

Sourced BBCi: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7761739.stm

[orangeman]

Oops !!!!!!

[Minder]

A politician with links to the IRA? What in the world of sports is going on?

[Orior]

Boys-a-dear. A certain irony in all that.

To think that the UUP want to hook up with the Tories who have such hidden secrets. But if she'd admitted it a few years ago, she'd be welcomed back now in this brave new world of Stormont.

[Main Street]

Been in the Provos?
Stained for life?
For Provo stains, try Brillo (the turbo pack).
Will have you shining bright in no time.

[ziggysego]

[Puckoon]

Very good zig.

[Pangurban]

From the Provos to the Tories, thats political inconsistency of an unimaginable scale, the women is obviously totally unprincipled and the Tories are well rid of her

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

From the Provos to the Tories, thats political inconsistency of an unimaginable scale, the women is obviously totally unprincipled and the Tories are well rid of her

A person could do a lot of changing in 30 years.

[Puckoon]

From the Provos to the Tories, thats political inconsistency of an unimaginable scale, the women is obviously totally unprincipled and the Tories are well rid of her

Maybe it highlights an emotive, impressionable woman capable of change with a desire to help the causes and people of her present times?

[Rav67]

She's probably changed no more than the Provos and the Tories have in the intervening years

[Evil Genius]

From the Provos to the Tories, thats political inconsistency of an unimaginable scale, the women is obviously totally unprincipled and the Tories are well rid of her

Ms Gatland's book - To Take Arms: My Year With The IRA Provisional - was described in a review in Time magazine in 1973 as a "kiss and tell story" about her relationships with the movement.

It was written after she became disillusioned with the provisionals, and fled to England.

The turning point apparently came when 20 bombs were detonated in Belfast on July 21, 1972, killing 11 people and injuring more than a hundred.

"Almost for the first time, I wondered about the crippled and the widowed and the lives that had been changed forever," she wrote.

She is believed to have been sentenced to death by the IRA as a result.

(From  http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20081202/tuk-tory-councillor-quits-over-ira-link-dba1618.html )

[Niall Quinn]

She is believed to have been sentenced to death by the IRA as a result.

Is there a collateral appeals procedure against this type of judgement?

[Zapatista]

She is believed to have been sentenced to death by the IRA as a result.

Why is this believed and by who?