By NiallO’Dowd

WHEN it comes to covering their tracks there is none more skilled than the British military establishment which may have pulled off one of their most audacious coups yet by getting a confession from a Loyalist hit man that he murdered Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane.

Finucane was killed in February 1989 while eating dinner at home with his family in Belfast. Two gunmen broke in and shot down the Nationalist lawyer who had gained a huge reputation of fearless defense of IRA suspects.

So effective was Finucane that in the weeks leading to his death a British minister had mentioned in the House of Commons that lawyers who were defending such IRA suspects might have to suffer some consequences. 

After his killing the suspicions rose that, while the Ulster Defense Association (UDA) had carried the murder out, they were acting at the behest of much higher ups in the British military and political establishment frustrated at Finucane’s advocacy.

Perhaps they thought they had dealt with the issue, but Pat Finucane’s was the murder that would not go away. His tireless widow and children have kept the case alive all through the years.

Various inquiries have tried to sidetrack the family’s efforts, most of them purely of a cosmetic nature. The more the Finucane family pushed the case the more nervous the British authorities appeared to be.

Why was that? Where did the trail of the Finucane murder actually lead to? Did it, as some have speculated, lead all the way up to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and could she have authorized the killing? Given that one of her ministers had effectively painted a bull’s eye on Finucane’s back, that might not be all that surprising.

That is such a profound question that it has the capability even today of tearing the British military and political establishment apart in a way never seen before. It is “an appalling vista,” to use Lord Denning’s words in a different context, that of the Birmingham Six actually being innocent.

Thus, there is little doubt that every effort imaginable has been made to try to tamp down the Finucane fires. Amazingly, despite these Herculean efforts the case has stayed alive, and the name Pat Finucane has become synonymous with the dirty war that was fought by powerful British forces in Northern Ireland for decades.

Now we have the latest saga in which a former UDA hit man has conveniently confessed to the crime. Will his confession mean that the calls for a truly independent inquiry into the Finucane slaying will finally be acted on, or is this the latest in a long line of efforts to stave off such an inquiry?

My strong bet is that it is the latter. Consider that the confessor, Ken Barrett, may well be out of jail within a few months under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. 

He no doubt will be spirited away out of Northern Ireland after that. He is wanted by Loyalists incensed at his role as informer over the past few years.

How convenient, and what a clever way to stymie the Finucane investigation by pointing to the fact that a man has been found guilty, tried and jailed and cannot speak because he has assumed a new identity, and therefore the matter is at an end.

For Barrett it is the perfect out. The cops had him on a number of racketeering and criminal charges which are now dropped, and he gets a new life. 

For the British they can now point out to the world that they have “solved” the crime, and for the establishment, no doubt a long sight of relief that they may finally have rid themselves of this turbulent issue.

Interesting, isn’t it, that two other key witnesses in this case were also “disappeared” when the time came. Brian Nelson was the UDA boss who was a British agent who allegedly ordered up the killing. He died in mysterious circumstances. 

Then there was William Stobie, a former UDA operative, who announced he knew the whole story and then suddenly died mysteriously. If I were Ken Barrett I would be rushing to get some life insurance. 

But the reality is that despite every setback to date, the Finucane case and the quest for justice has endured. I have no doubt it will not be sidetracked on this occasion either.