August 9th 2009
In 2009, Britain has reintroduced internment without trial to Ireland, in the form of twenty-eight day detention periods. Irish citizens can now be held by the occupation forces for up to four weeks without being charged or convicted. Earlier this year republicans were detained for the first time using this draconian legislation. Our family member Colin was one of those detained.
On the 9th August, there was a public meeting on Belfast’s Falls Road, focusing on the introduction of internment in August 1971 and the contemporary use of repressive legislation by the British government. Colin's eldest daughter Caitríona accepted an invitation to speak at the meeting. Other speakers included former Guantanamo Bay detainee Ruhal Ahmed, former Long Kesh internee and H-Block escaper Gerry McDonnell and human rights lawyer Pádraigín Drinan, who represented the hooded men. The meeting started at 3pm on Sunday, August 9 in the Conway Education Centre, Conway Mill, Falls Road, Belfast.
The following is Caitríona's speech at that meeting:
As you will be aware, my father was arrested on March 14th and held for a total of thirteen days before he was charged. During that time, the High Court ordered his release, ruling that his initial eleven day detention was unlawful. The PSNI then immediately re-arrested my dad before he had a chance to even leave Antrim Holding Centre. He was then charged forty-eight hours later – shortly before a High Court judge would have been re-examining that secondary arrest and detention.
We are extremely concerned that the British state’s actions in arresting and charging my dad follows a long pattern of persecution against him which amounts to a very personalised vendetta by members of Britain’s police force in the Six Counties and other British intelligence services.
As many of you may know, my father previously survived a murder bid which claimed the life of a close family friend, Sam Marshall, in March 1990.
Many questions still remain unanswered about that incident – not least of which are those relating to the role of state forces in and during that attack, particularly as an RUC Inspector later admitted in open court that a red Maestro, along with a number of other vehicles, which my dad and his two friends had seen following them and acting suspiciously on the night of the murder, belonged to the British intelligence forces.
In 1993, my dad was arrested, charged and sentenced to life imprisonment for something which he was completely innocent of. He spent three years in prison before it emerged that the RUC had colluded with the UVF in mid-Ulster to have him framed for murder. This was only publicly revealed when a senior loyalist, Lindsay Robb, was charged and later convicted on gun-running charges. Robb admitted that the RUC had paid him to give totally false and perjured testimony against my dad. The case against my dad was finally quashed in 1996 and he was completely exonerated of those charges.
In 1997, within a year of his release from prison on those falsified charges, my dad was once more arrested and charged yet again, even though twelve witnesses had made statements to the police force to the effect that my dad was over a mile away from the alleged incident with which he was charged. It later emerged that the RUC had pressurised a very vulnerable woman into making a false statement against dad even though her family had publicly stated that, due to the woman’s mental health problems, her word could not be trusted. It was another three months before dad was released and again cleared of those charges.
My family and I are firmly convinced that the present charges against my dad have also been falsely manufactured by the PSNI and that he will be eventually vindicated and cleared of all charges.
However, we are not prepared to see a repeat of our previous experiences which saw dad wrongly imprisoned for up to three years. We do not believe that he should have to face an unknown period in custody, which amounts to internment by remand, before he is able to return home to his family.
I can understand that you may ask why we believe that the PSNI have falsified these charges against dad. The answer to that lies in the events of March 1990 which clearly implicate state forces in the murder of Sam Marshall and the attempted murders of my dad and another friend.
The Historical Enquiries Team is about to re-investigate that murder and the Coroner’s Office is also due to decide on whether, after 19 years, it should hold an inquest into Sam Marshall’s murder.
In both these instances, my father’s testimony will form a very crucial part of those investigations. What better way for those who wish the truth of collusion to remain hidden, than to discredit one of the primary witnesses to a state-inspired murder by having him charged and held in prison on very spurious reasons.
Additionally, my father is a republican – he has never sought to hide his legitimate, political aspirations.
But to be a republican today with a belief in ending British rule in the six counties and restoring national sovereignty and re-unification is a crime in the eyes of Britain’s administration in the 6 Counties. To campaign politically in pursuit of these aims is so great a crime that, like my dad, you could find yourself effectively interned and spending a considerable number of years in prison as a result. One has only to examine various cases which have been thrown out of court after several years, or to look at the length of time, in a number of cases, over two years, which individuals are spending on remand with no sign of a trial to see the truth of that. And of course, that system of internment by remand is compounded by a judicial system which makes the conditions for securing bail extremely difficult.
As a young child, I experienced enforced separation from my dad on two occasions due to his wrongful imprisonment on spurious charges based on falsified evidence which also equated to internment by the back-door. I know only too well the anguish and pain which those separations caused for me.
Today, as his eldest daughter, I am witnessing my three younger brothers, aged 5, 6 and 9 and my two sisters, aged 11 and 15, going through the same emotional, psychological and personal traumas that I experienced as a child.
We merely ask you to support our campaign for my dad’s release, for an end to 28 day detention, and an end to internment by remand from the same viewpoint and spirit as our family wish it to be conducted – from a human rights, civil liberties and humanitarian perspective.
ENDS