'Decades of trauma' prompted Moate man to confront Martin McGuinness
Moate's David Kelly said "decades of trauma" after the killing of his father by the IRA motivated him to confront Martin McGuinness about it in Athlone in 2011.
Mr McGuinness, then a high-profile figure in Sinn Féin, was campaigning for the Presidency when Mr Kelly approached him in the Golden Island Shopping Centre while holding a framed photo of his father, Private Patrick Kelly, who was shot dead by the IRA in 1983.
"I believe that you know the names of the killers of my father, and I want you to tell me who they are," David Kelly told him in an incident which was captured on camera.
"I don't know their names," said Mr McGuinness.
"You were on the Army Council of the IRA," said Mr Kelly.
"That's not true," replied McGuinness.
The incident was recounted last weekend at a launch event in Ballinamore, Leitrim, of a new book called The Kidnapping, which has been written by Sunday Independent journalist Tommy Conlon and Irish Times journalist Ronan McGreevy.
The book tells the story of the kidnapping of supermarket boss Don Tidey in Derrada Wood, outside Ballinamore. Pte Kelly and Garda Gary Sheehan, from Monaghan, were shot dead during Mr Tidey's rescue on December 16, 1983.
The Ballinamore launch event for The Kidnapping included journalist Paul Williams interviewing David Kelly and the book's authors on stage.
When asked about his decision to confront Martin McGuinness, the Moate man said he had done it because of "decades of trauma" arising from the killing of his father and its effect on his mother and family.
"I had lost my school friends, my town, my country... I ended up in that situation in London. We felt powerless. I felt powerless and voiceless," he said.
After the event Ronan McGreevy, one of the book's co-authors, wrote that David Kelly "was truly outstanding talking about the devastating impact on his mother and his three siblings which followed the murder of his father by the Provisional IRA."
* The Kidnapping, published by Penguin Sandycove, will go on general release from this Thursday, October 26. We spoke to co-author Tommy Conlon about it here.