Face of Nation : The episode includes details about the involvement of late victims’ campaigner Willie Frazer in supplying arms to loyalist paramilitaries. The Irish News carries the story on its front page along with a picture of former UDA commander Johnny Adair.
Speaking to the programme, due to be broadcast on Tuesday night, Johnny Adair said Mr Frazer had been his contact in the Ulster Resistance. The Ulster Resistance was a loyalist group set up in 1986 to oppose the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
It reports Mr Frazer became involved with “radical loyalists” after his father and four other relatives were killed by the IRA. Tuesday’s News Letter front page carries the story under the headline “Willie Frazer ferried supply of guns to UDA”.
Written by the paper’s political editor Sam McBride, it notes that despite being a victims’ campaigner, Mr Frazer is “shown to have himself been involved in terrorism on a major scale”. The Belfast Telegraph notes the claim Mr Frazer supplied the weapons is supported by “multiple sources” and the weapons were used in “more than 70 murders”.
The Belfast Telegraph examines the detail inside the paper under the headline “Thatcher knew what happened when Pat was killed by UFF, says his widow”. Geraldine Finucane said she believes “the prime minister of the day knew exactly what was going on”.
Details of a visit by MI5 in 2002 to the London office of a retired Canadian Judge Peter Cory – head of the inquiry into Mr Finucane’s death – are contained in the BBC Spotlight programme.
MI5 told his staff they were removing all the inquiry’s hard drives in the interests of national security. They were erased before being returned.
The Belfast Telegraph also carries a follow up to a story in Monday’s Irish News about the struggle of the PSNI’s GAA team to recruit new members. Former GAA president and current Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly is quoted as saying reports of declining participation levels were “extremely disappointing”.
“The very existence of this club is of significant political importance. Their contribution to peace, through sport, in Northern Ireland has been enormous,” he said.
It reports three-year-old Poppy-Leigh Gilmore was grabbed by the hand at a busy market in Nutts Corner, but screamed and struggled. “We’ve no idea what would have happened if she hadn’t got away from him,” mother Sarah-Jane told the paper.
