Tonight The Pensive Quill features guest writer Helen McClafferty writing on the plight of Gerry McGeough
The Northern Ireland Office has reneged the Good Friday Agreement & Gerry McGeough's 2 Year Release.
Gerry McGeough's attorney asked the NIO to allow Gerry a few hours leave on May 7th to attend his son Cormac's Holy Communion services. Both the Cardinal and the Bishop wrote letters of support on behalf of Gerry, but to no avail. The request was denied and a letter was sent to Gerry from the NIO which read: "Your habitual criminal behaviour does not instil confidence that you would refrain from further criminal activity if granted compassionate release at this time. The safety of the public is most important".
CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR? What criminal behavior? McGeough's charges were over 30 years old and were related strictly to the Troubles and prior to the GFA. The same as every other ex-Provo and Loyalist! The letter further stated that his release date would be 1/29/2021! How is that possible? Under the Good Friday Agreement he is entitled to be released after serving 2 years?
Could there be ANY doubt left in anyone's mind at this point, that the tentacles of the British government, the DUP and Sinn Fein have become so tightly entwined in the selective 'criminalization' of McGeough? Not only is the NIO now trying to label Gerry as a 'common criminal,' but they appear to also be reneging on the Good Friday Agreement with regard to Gerry's political prisoner status and his release in two years?
Regardless of your Irish political affiliations, the McGeough case is a blight on the Good Friday Agreement and those sworn to uphold it. Reputable over-seas newspapers have confirmed that a deal was made between the British government and Sinn Fein for ex-Provos 'on the run' to receive 'Royal Pardons' in '98 and McGeough was one of those 50. Shame on Sinn Fein for allowing this to happen. They have absolutely no excuse for allowing the British government and DUP to get away with this extreme, blatant discrimination and persecution of one man and his family because he ran on an anti RUC/PSNI platform in the 2007 elections.
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If PSF accept this then they might as well accept that Bobby Sands and his nine comrades were after all criminals and what therefore did they die for?
ReplyDeleteOr is the image of Bobby which looks down on us from giant SF election propaganda posters saying that Republicans opposed to Sinn Fein are criminals?
I doubt Bobby or any of the nine other brave men would have died on Hunger Strike if they had for one moment envisaged that the so called leadership would one day become the most powerful propaganda weapon in the hands of the Brits and could so brazenly use the criminalising wordage of Thatcher...
To Quote Bobby:
"They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal."
They have done all of the above to what remains of the Provos.
Dixie
ReplyDeleteabbsolutely perfectly put. SF are constitutional unionists in a green coat. No need for a fuss. Only SF deny it, everyone else knows it.
But of course for some reason, God only knows what that reason is, they cannot let go of the green rag and rhetoric.
You hit the nail on the head, Dixie.
ReplyDeleteThat some civil servant can still write in such an insulting and dismissive manner to a republican prisoner is aggravating. The almost casual usage of that dreaded word 'criminal' would give any self respecting blanket man nightmares.
What were the years 1976-81 all about?
Did ten of our bravest and finest die on hunger strike so that some jumped up bureaucrat at the NIO could refer to the past activities of a 'provisional' IRA volunteer as "habitual criminal behaviour", thirty years later.?
This is another example of a systemic disregard for all things republican despite what Gerry and Martin claim to have achieved to the contrary.
Expect little in the way of protest from that quater of the park.
I'm probably not the brightest spark in the world but even I understood this....
ReplyDelete“This is to certify that Her Majesty The Queen has been pleased to extend Her Grace and Mercy unto (name removed) and to pardon and remit to him the unserved portion of all the fixed term sentences of imprisonment imposed on him at Belfast on 12 June 1981.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/queen-pardoned-ira-fugitive-14753412.html#ixzz1KrNd1Gy6
Maybe the truth lies behind cloesd door's....
"There was a secret deal between the British and Sinn Féin. A meeting was held in a Dundalk hotel. I'm disgusted that hand-picked 'on the runs' have received preferential treatment – and can come home and lead normal lives with their families – while others can't or if they do return are living in fear, always looking over their shoulders."
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/mar/07/former-ira-men-given-immunity-in-secret-deal/#c10933
It's wrong....
frankie,
ReplyDelete'I'm disgusted that hand-picked 'on the runs' have received preferential treatment – and can come home and lead normal lives with their families – while others can't or if they do return are living in fear, always looking over their shoulders."
I totally agree with you. The GFA should have included EVERYONE not just a 'few.'
Helen,
ReplyDeleteI think the date on the release letter was a typing error. Probably deliberate (more than likey a silly mind game)...
If Gerry McGeough has to spend two yrs in prision then why isn't it applied everyone?
Martin McGuiness was the OC (or involved at a high level) with the PIRA in Derry at the time of Joanne Mathers death...So why isn't he charged with with holding information, complicity in murder....Or at the very least why wont he tell everything he know that went on in his watch and become an informer himself and lead from the front....?
http://smokey.homelinux.net:8080/irl/news.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1300712497&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&
Both events happened in the same time period (during the '81 hunger strikes) and for the same reasons. To end British occupation in ireland.
Same could be asked to Gerry Adams concerning the death off Jean McConville. Brendan Huhes has already stated his version of events..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brVN1A6pG_Q
JMO.. It wasn't too long ago when volunteers were set up as in Loughgall once they started upsetting the apple cart..But today 'they' can't have blood on their hands. So instead of setting them up (people who upset the apple cart)...'they' shut them up instead.
Orwell was close to the truth...."All men are born equal....."
I guess Gerry isn't equal enough in some peoples eyes....
we had a very similar report for bl,any one in jail now and being kept under political licence really have a fight on their hands as iv witnessed with BL,and i have to assume that psf have indeed accepted these men as criminals as they are not active in getting them released. I had sinnfein at my door yesterday and again challenged them about BL and the answer i got as they walked away from my door is BL ISNT ONE OF OUR PRISONERS. SAYS IT ALL REALLY. And all i could do was point got that he may not be one of your prisoners BUT HES ONE OF YOUR CASUALTY'S OF THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT AS IS GERRY MCGOUGH
ReplyDeleteRoisin,
ReplyDelete‘And all i could do was point got that he may not be one of your prisoners BUT HES ONE OF YOUR CASUALTY'S
OF THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT AS IS GERRY MCGOUGH’.
A very apt way of putting it.
Frankie,
Good point to raise. Yet it is well suppressed in public discussion