Former President Mary McAleese opens up about the trauma of her two friends being murdered on her wedding day



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Former Irish President Mary McAleese has opened up about the trauma of the murder of her two friends on her wedding day.

The 69-year-old talked about how two close family friends were brutally shot and burned by loyal paramilitaries on the same day she married her husband Martin in 1976.

Former Irish President Mary McAleese

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Former Irish President Mary McAleese
The 69-year-old man spoke about how two close friends of the family were brutally shot and burned by loyal paramilitaries.

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The 69-year-old man spoke about how two close friends of the family were brutally shot and burned by loyal paramilitaries.

The Belfast woman relived the heartbreaking story during an interview with Ryan Tubridy on RTE’s Late Late Show.

She said: “I’m the oldest of nine, a lot of responsibility in that.

“I always wanted an older brother, so a few doors down from where I lived, there was an O’Reilly family, a big family, 13 of them.

‘I LOVED THEM’

“He loved them, went in and out of his house and tormented them.

“But particularly Tony and Myles, two of the guys who were my kind of surrogate older brothers.”

She continued: “They bought a restaurant and a pub where, in fact, Martin and I intended to celebrate our wedding.

“I told Tony about the numbers because we’re from a really big clan, and he said ‘Your mom will never tolerate that.’

“Anyway, we ended up moving him to a hotel in Newry.

She added: “My father warned them not to buy the place they bought, by the way.

“He was worried about where he was. The loyalist paramilitaries came in that morning and shot them, set both of them on fire and killed them.”

TRAGIC NEWS

Ms. McAleese recalled noticing that the “fun” was gone from her wedding, revealing that the guests desperately tried to hide the tragic news from her so she could enjoy her day.

She only found out about the tragedy after going on a honeymoon with family and friends and they asked her not to call home while they were gone.

The former Irish president continued: “I couldn’t believe how quickly they wanted to get rid of us. We dressed up nicely and left.”

“But they told me emphatically that I was leaving, ‘don’t call home now, just have your honeymoon, don’t bother calling. Don’t read newspapers.’

She added: “After our first delicious meal in Dublin as a married couple, I thought about calling home just in case.

“The words ‘don’t ring home’ bothered me, and that’s when I found out that Tony and Miles were dead.”



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