Ivor Bell: The former IRA leader who split with Sinn Féin

Veteran republican Ivor Bell was cleared of soliciting Jean McConville's murder in a trial of the facts in October 2019

Ivor Bell was at the heart of the republican movement for decades.

A veteran of the IRA's 1950s campaign, he was "operations officer" for the Belfast Brigade during the 1970s.

"The fact is, I was on the brigade staff. There's collective responsibility and you cannot walk away from that," he is alleged to have said on the Boston tapes - secret recordings in which ex-paramilitaries talk about their role during the decades of violence in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles.

Ivor Bell denies being the man on the tapes, who also referred to a brief spell as IRA's "Officer Commanding".

• What are the Boston Tapes?

• Who were the Disappeared?

• Jean McConville - the Disappeared mother-of-10

"Anything that happened while I was OC, I will stand over, but I expect others to do the same," he said.

Perhaps a mark of his seniority, Bell was part of a republican delegation flown to London for secret ceasefire talks with the British government in June 1972.

Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and the late Martin McGuinness were also among the delegation that met NI Secretary of State William Whitelaw at a minister's home Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.

In Peter Taylor's Provos book, Brendan Hughes recalls how Bell had wanted to "dress as a combatant" for the meeting.

"He said history had taught him that British politicians would try to make the Irish feel ill at ease," said Hughes.

"He was going to wear this gear to put them ill at ease."

In the end, however, Ivor Bell left his combat fatigues at home.

Prison escape

Bell has spent time in custody.

Ivor Bell was operations officer for the Belfast Brigade during the 1970s

In the 1970s, he was held alongside other high-profile republicans interned at Long Kesh - later to become the Maze - prison in County Antrim.

He briefly managed to escape after swapping places with another prisoner who had been granted parole.

But Bell was caught after just two weeks and subsequently had his sentence increased.

He was also convicted in 1975 of trying to help Gerry Adams escape lawful custody.

Some details of his life on the run were provided to the court on Monday. His ex-wife, Marion Bell spoke of how he would be gone for long periods and would then appear at the back door.

Their marriage broke up after Bell, a father-of-three, met another woman while on the run, the court heard.

In the end, the hardliner also split with the republican leadership over a belief they were trying to run down the armed struggle in favour of pursuing a political strategy.

He said he gave his account to Boston College for "historical accuracy" and because he believed Gerry Adams had lied about being in the IRA.

Ivor Bell at the funeral of veteran IRA volunteer Tony Catney in 2014

The PSNI obtained the taped recordings given to Anthony McIntyre in 2001 after a trans-Atlantic court battle more than a decade later.

Bell had managed to keep a low profile until his arrest in connection with the murder of Jean McConville forced him out of the shadows.

Now aged 82 and divorced, the grandfather from Ramoan Gardens in west Belfast is in poor health.

He has been diagnosed with vascular dementia and was deemed unfit to stand trial on charges connected to the murder.

Criminal proceedings were halted in 2018 and the judge ordered that a special legal process - commonly known as a trial of the facts - should take place.

He was deemed unfit to stand trial and excused from attending the court hearings on health grounds, so the trial went ahead as a trial of the facts alone.

On 17 October 2019, Bell was cleared of soliciting Mrs McConville's murder after a judge ruled evidence from the so-called Boston tapes was inadmissible.

Ivor Bell's defence team had argued it could not be proven that he was the man on the tapes known as "Interviewee Z".

But the judge said there was "overwhelming" evidence it was Mr Bell speaking on the recording.