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Former prominent IRA commander Leo McMahon died in palliative care this week after a long battle with cancer. He was seventy years old. McMahon was suspected of carrying out a string of political murders with long time collaborator Joe Pierce in the seventies.

Little is known about McMahon’s later life or to what extent he remained involved with Republican dissidents, but his influence over the shady underworld of Northern Ireland in the 70s remains evident even today. Few members of the IRA have been so prolific throughout the violence during the troubles, and those that were often made their way onto murals or memorials. Leo, however, lived a long life in the shadows, unlike his partner-in-crime Pierce.

Several members of the Unionist communities have come out to talk publicly of the atrocities committed at McMahon and Pierce’s hands. The Republican ministers have yet to release any sort of official statement on the topic