Gerry McGeough Update: November 2011

By AM Thursday, November 3, 2011

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Tonight The Pensive Quill features guest writer Helen McClafferty providing the latest information pertaining to the political imprisonment of republican activist Gerry McGeough.

British Agent within Sinn Fein Targeted McGeough

28 October 2011

Following the recent revelations of a British agent working as an aide in Sinn Fein against Gerry McGeough in the 2000 election now explains the subsequent years of character assignation to denigrate him politically.  His arrest during the 2007 election and his 20 year sentence handed down by the Diplock court was a deliberate political act to censor him.  Gerry’s arrest and incarceration on 37 year old charges has not only censored him, but it has also rendered him helpless with regard to ever being able to go back to teaching.  

The selective persecution of a man who supports peace, husband and father of 4, graduate of Trinity College, President of the Tyrone County Board of the AOH and a cardiac patient runs counter to the Good Friday Agreement.  The British government doesn't give a damn about Irish human life.  The English treat their dogs better than they do Irishmen, woman and children.  It’s up to you and me and all those who want to see justice done to get involved in the ‘Release McGeough Campaign’. 

Gerry’s now proven political arrest and incarceration is a disgrace and YOU should all be outraged about it and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!    ACTION IS REQUIRED and you have all been advised what you can do to help Gerry and his family. You have been given the information/details on numerous occasions so now it’s time to follow through on your support and promises.   PLEASE DO IT NOW!   Your ACTIVE participation is required and greatly appreciated by the family of Gerry McGeough.


McGeough Judicial Hearing Postponed by NIO until February 1st, 2012????????

02 November 2011

Gerry McGeough’s ‘Judicial Review’ has now been postponed by the NIO until February 1, 2012.  He won his right to a judicial review in September, yet they refused to schedule his review until December 12, 2011.  Now they have added insult to injury by deliberately postponing his right to a review until February 1st, 2012 which would be approximately 5 months from the actual date he won the right to a review of his case.   Tell me this isn’t a deliberate and vindictive move on the part of the NIO to make sure that Gerry is not given a timely hearing?   What the NIO office is hoping for is that Gerry McGeough will die in prison before they are obligated, under the Stormont Agreement (I can no longer call it the Good Friday Agreement) to release him on humanitarian grounds not to mention his illegal interment.

At present, Roe House is being tested for Hepatitis and other serious diseases which seriously endangers Gerry’s health even further.  It also needs to be noted that Gerry’s wife and 4 children were kept waiting one hour and a half last week for their weekly visit to see Gerry and were only given 10 minutes to visit and it was the day of his daughter’s 11th birthday.  Tell me this isn’t additional and deliberate harassment by the prison authorities to ensure that McGeough and his family be ‘kept in their Irish place’!
So, tell me…what are you going to do about it over there?   Sit back and take it?   Sit back and let a fellow Irish republican die in prison at the hands of the English?   Sinn Fein said they were ‘on top of the McGeough case and demanded his immediate release’…does it look like that to you now?   I have tried to be fair in my reporting of those in power who are supporting the McGeough family, but now that push comes to shove….what is Sinn Fein, the most powerful political party in the north, actually doing for McGeough?   If the ‘powers that be’ were really on top of this issue…why the further delay in Gerry’s case hearing?  

Let’s get real here.   My intentions are not to ‘offend’ any political party, but the McGeough family is being sold a ‘bill of goods’ by those in power and this further delay in Gerry’s judicial review hearing is proof of the pudding.   As I’ve always said…ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS!   Anyone can make a ‘press statement’ supporting whatever they want and make it sound good, but where is the follow-through?    What have any of the political parties delivered to date?   As an Irish-American, who has been politically active since 1969 in supporting civil and human rights in the north of Ireland and a re-united Ireland; and actually lived illegally in the north for 2 and ½ years during the hunger strikes, I am shocked at the lack of cohesive and consistent support of the McGeough family.

Since the signing of the Stormont Agreement, the war may be over but in my opinion this ‘Agreement’ only helped to further silence Irish republicans.   It appears since that ‘Agreement’, everyone is afraid of their own shadow to the point the majority won’t even speak out about this injustice.  The McGeough family deserves more than what they have been dealt and it’s up to you to do the right thing to help them regardless of your political affiliations.   It took the Diplock court 3 and ½ years to bring Gerry to trial and the NIO is now trying to ensure he never gets his legally won ‘judicial review’ hearing.   ONLY YOU CAN MAKE THAT DIFFERENCE!