Half of voters believe Adams was involved in McConville murder

NEARLY half of voters believe Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was involved in the murder of mother-of-ten Jean McConville, an Irish Independent/Millward Brown opinion poll reveals.

In a damning finding for Mr Adams, the poll shows that less than a quarter of voters believe him when he says that he had no role in the IRA's abduction and murder of Mrs McConville, a widow from Belfast.

The survey also reveals that one in five people would be more likely to vote for Sinn Fein if Mr Adams stepped down as the party's president.

Mr Adams was arrested and held in custody by the PSNI for four days earlier this month as part of the investigation into the murder of Ms McConville, who was kidnapped and shot dead by the Provisional IRA, then secretly buried in Co Louth.

Although Sinn Fein is on course to win seats in all three European election constituencies, 45pc of voters say they believe Mr Adams was involved in the heinous murder in 1972.

But the party's deputy leader, Mary Lou McDonald, continues to back Mr Adams to the hilt, going so far as to describe him as "the outstanding political leader of his generation".

When asked if they believed Mr Adams was in any way involved in the murder of Mrs McConville, 45pc of people polled said he was and 32pc didn't know.

Just 23pc believed that he wasn't involved.

Sinn Fein supporters are most likely to believe Mr Adams' claims of innocence, with 45pc of them saying they didn't think he was involved.

The poll shows that Sinn Fein would benefit from the removal of Mr Adams as leader.

Asked about the likelihood of voting for SF if he stepped down, 22pc of voters said they would be more likely to vote for the party, 16pc said they

would be less likely and 58pc say it would make no difference.

Surprisingly, one in three Sinn Fein supporters would like Mr Adams to resign. Among young voters in the 18-24 category, 29pc would be more likely to support the party if Mr Adams stood down, while in Dublin the figure is 26pc.

Millward Brown interviewed 1,500 people face-to-face at more than 130 sampling points on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Irish Independent