Critical response

Writing in The Canary, Peadar O'Cearnaigh said that the Troubles was "seen as a local dispute involving only the Irish. The British were just honest brokers and tried to make peace between these two tribes. That mythical description is put to bed in Unquiet Graves. The documentary sets about uncovering the dangerous and one-sided role played by the British state in the Irish conflict."^[12]

Political response

Charles Flanagan, a Fine Gael TD and former Republic of Ireland Minister for Justice and Equality, attacked the film, saying that he "did not believe the documentary was objective, fair minded and balanced and questioned if RTE bosses were aware of how it was funded."^[13] In response, Margaret Urwin, Coordinator at Justice for the Forgotten, said that Flanagan "claims the basis of the film was John Weir’s affidavit and claims that his motives were dubious. That is totally erroneous. […] The film is actually based on the book entitled Lethal Allies […] a very important witness in the film was Steve Morris who led a team within the Historical Enquiries Team at the PSNI and he was also a former police officer with the London Met. […] the late Justice Barron who carried out four investigations in the early 2000s on behalf of the [Republic of Ireland] Government found that John Weir’s testimony was credible – as did the Gardaí."^[14]

Writing for The News Letter, Mark Rainey noted that the film's creator Seán A. Murray, was the son of Sean Murray, a longtime republican activist alleged to be a senior figure in the Provisional IRA.^[15]

In reply, Murray instructed solicitors and prepared a libel case.^[16] Regarding Weir, he wrote that "The independent panel of academic experts and a judge-led Oireachtas inquiry into the 'Glenanne Series' of attacks found corroborating evidence for Weir's testimony in RUC files on no fewer than 11 murders."^[17]

Former IRA explosives expert and London bomber, Shane Paul O'Doherty, posted a blog examining whether Unquiet Graves might be regarded as either balanced film-making or IRA propaganda.^[18] In the blog post, O'Doherty highlighted that Murray had not warned viewers that one of his central researchers and commentators, Paul O'Connor, had hidden his IRA past for decades while posing as a Human Rights activist and Director of the Pat Finucane Centre.^[19] O'Doherty claimed that Paul O'Connor was a former IRA gunman and bomber who was involved in the murder of an IRA volunteer, Jim O'Hagan. O'Doherty pointed out several other factual errors in Unquiet Graves, rendering a final opinion that Unquiet Graves could justifiably be seen as IRA propaganda in light of the evidence contained in his blog post considered alongside Murray's extreme political views and his failure to record details of the IRA's 800 murders during the period covered by his documentary.

Within days of O'Doherty's post, O'Connor was forced to publicly admit his IRA past and the accuracy of many of O'Doherty's blog claims.^[20]