The family and friends of Colin Duffy held a public meeting in North Lurgan community centre on 26th March 2009. 

 

Veteran republican Laurence O'Neill looked around the packed community centre in Lurgan's Kilwilkie estate where 250 people had gathered at short notice to support Colin Duffy. 

 

 "Does this constitute a small minority or a micro-group?" he asked to a ripple of laughter.

The crowd's rage at the British authorities' treatment of Colin showed the support militant republicanism retains in working-class nationalist areas.

 

Graffiti which has recently appeared on walls in the Kilwilkie estate demands his release.

 

Colin's wife, Martine, and his young children, sat at the front of the hall, nervous and concerned.

 

 

 

The panel of speakers and the audience – many former members of the Provisional movement – reflected the slow but steady drift there's been from that movement.

As much anger was directed at Sinn Féin as at the RUC/PSNI and British government:

 

Colin Duffy was being held in "inhuman conditions" about to be "framed".

 

 

 

Inhumane conditions

"Colie Duffy is being kept in a concrete bunker without fresh air or daylight.  If I kept my dog in those conditions, the animal welfare people would have me in court," Laurence O'Neill claimed.  A founder Provisional IRA member and ex-prisoner, O'Neill was also a former Sinn Féin fund-raiser.

"Sinn Féin failed to negotiate a satisfactory settlement for republican Ireland. They think they've sidelined and intimidated all the foot-soldiers. They have not," he declared.

On the platform was Tony Catney from West Belfast, a former Sinn Féin ard comhairle member, senior electoral strategist, and long-serving IRA prisoner.  He had run Sinn Féin's Brussel's office and the POW department before resigning.

 

"Lots of people in this room could be in the same situation as Colie.  All he is 'guilty' of, is standing up for his community and declaring himself an Irish republican," Tony said.

He claimed that continuing emergency legislation showed Northern Ireland wasn't normal. It had the longest period of detention for suspects of any western state, including the US.

Solicitor Padraigin Drinan said:  "The conditions in which Colin Duffy is being held are disgraceful. He's in a small cell in solitary confinement with no fresh air or natural daylight. It's sensory deprivation to disorientate him."

 

Another woman said:  "Hugh Orde claims the cells in Antrim holding centre are fit for purpose.  Let him spend a few nights in them!"

 

 

Voting the wrongs ones in.

One woman in the audience said:  "We campaigned for one person, one vote.  Then, we voted the wrong ones in."

 

Somebody suggested picketing Stormont.  Such was the fury from the floor that Tony Catney intervened to say Sinn Féin was only one of several parties open to criticism.

 

There was silence as Colin's brother Paul said:  "Colin is an innocent man who had experienced constant police harassment and was being framed for something he didn't do." 

 

Paul went on to outline the history of the British state's persecution against Colin.  A history of harassment, attempted murder, state collusion with loyalist death squads and previous attempts to frame him. 

 

Paul revealed that his brother was still refusing food last night in protest at being held in custody and was likely to continue with his fast.  Colin had already lost over a stone in weight and concerns were expressed about his health:

 

“I can tell you he was 12st 2 when he was first arrested, now he is 11 stone. He is determined to see it through.  He said Colin’s only crime was his determination to stand up for his community and that had made him a target.  He described his brother as “an unashamed republican” who “has always stood up for the people in this community.”

 

 

 

 Ex-Sinn Féin Assembly member and human rights spokesman Pat McNamee said:

 

"For 40 years, even at the height of the conflict, the police weren't allowed to detain people for more than seven days.  I experienced that period myself. Now, they try to hold people 28 days.  How can they sell this six-county state as a normal democracy?  How can Colin Duffy, demonised in the media, have a fair trial?"

There were complaints that lawyers generally, human rights organisations, and the clergy remained silent about ongoing human rights abuses directed against republicans.

Mike Ritchie of the Committee on the Administration of Justice said 28-day detention was "wrong" and there were "some very troubling elements" to recent arrests.  Mike told the room that at the height of the conflict, the CAJ opposed the seven-day detentions.  He described the 28-day detention as “outrageous”.

 

 

 

 

Éirígí activist and Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition leader Breandan MacCionnaith thanked those present for coming to the meeting.  Breandan said:

"British policing in Ireland cannot be reformed." Forty years after civil rights marchers demanded an end to the Special Powers Act, even more repressive legislation existed."  He continued: