Tonight The Pensive Quill carries a statement from Gerry McGeough on his one year incarceration today in Maghaberry prison 18 February 2012
A year ago today an English Diplock Judge had me thrown in jail as a defacto political hostage. My imprisonment and continued incarceration make a mockery of the Good Friday Agreement and proves that political repression and the sectarian discrimination remains central to the existence of this statelet.
Sinn Fein leaders are deeply embarrassed by this whole scandal, as it calls into question their negotiating skills and exposes their utter lack of any real power and influence. Thus, they put more time and effort into trying to discredit and silence our campaign rather than stand up to the British on behalf of our people. Shame on them!
Over the past year, we have discovered who our true friends are and I assure you your loyalty, decency and kindness will not be forgotten. Meanwhile, my patriotic position today is the same as a year ago: “LONG LIVE OUR IRISH NATION AND PERDITION UPON ALL OUR ENEMIES”.
God bless you all and know we shall have victory in the end.
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Good luck Gerry,wish you well.
ReplyDeletekeep the spirit strong, Gerry, at this terrible time for you and your family.
ReplyDeleteGerry for my part I will write to all politicans and the so called Justice Department. Every opportunity I get. I will highlight the case of Interment but for now stay strong.
ReplyDeleteGood luck Gerry, and you are 100% correct about SF, they are just Puppets in the same old regime, "Stormont",if we all read between the lines correctly as to why the in denial "P.I.R.A. chief Gerry Adams", moved to Southern Part Of our Island to gain a seat, well to me that says it all.
ReplyDeleteBack to square one, Diplock Courts and Internment.
I see Martin Mc Guinness has cited ,that Marian Prices detention goes against natural justice.
ReplyDeleteHe also said she was entitled to due process! Funny, when it came to himself and his side kick being confronted by the same due process they both created a smokescreen of deceit and lies.
I hope something turns up for you soon Gerry.
This is one of those political cases where exemplary punishment is meted out to let eveyone know where the power lies and who has the ability to put manners on who. Best wishes to Gerry
ReplyDeleteAdh mór GearoÃd, Beannaigh
ReplyDeleteFrom Helen McClafferty:
ReplyDeleteI have just been informed by Gerry McGeough's attorney who was just notified by the Court Office that the judgment in the Judicial Review will not be delivered until Friday. He also checked with the Court of Appeal Office and they too have just confirmed that they will not be delivering judgment tomorrow. Gerry's attorney has asked for an explanation and he is waiting to hear from them. I will let you know as soon I hear anything.
From Helen McClafferty:
ReplyDeleteIt is a measure of the significance of tomorrow’s postponement of the decisions on my Appeal and Judicial Review that today already the Unionist and the British Secretary of State have been stating ‘there should be no troubles-related amnesties.’
One wonders, if that is the case, why they are not demanding the prosecution of British crown force personnel for the slaughter of innocent Irish Catholic civilians over a 25 year period by the British and their Unionist allies? This hypocrisy is no longer sustainable nor should it continue to be tolerated.
My family and I, along with all the hard working supporters of this campaign, have never stopped struggling against this injustice, since my arrest 5 years ago; and we will continue the struggle until I and all those who have been wrongly imprisoned on troubles-related charges dating back prior to the GFA are free.
Statement from Gerry McGeough, March 8, 2012:
ReplyDeleteExactly five years ago today, I was arrested outside the election center in Omagh. Despite having campaigned openly for 6 weeks in a high profile election, the PSNI claimed ‘they were not able to locate me’. I was subsequently charged and sentenced by a Diplock court for 20 years on 30 year old troubles related incidents that no one showed the slightest interest in prior to that.
Who said political policing is a thing of the past in the six counties?
Gerry,
ReplyDelete'Who said political policing is a thing of the past in the six counties?'
The charge of political policing rings somewhat hollow in your case given that you were the beneficiary of an act of political policing that was agreed at Weston Park. You are therefore, demonstrably, not an opponent of political policing in principle but only in the manner that it has been dispensed.
Robert,
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that works. The argument can be made that Gerry McGeough was a beneficiary of a corrective to political policing rather than political policing per se. Something like affirmative action designed for the purposes of correction.
There was no other way to correct defective policing other than by a political intervention. Just like stopping police torture. If a person then claims the right not to be tortured on the grounds that a political intervention precludes torture he can hardly be accused of benefitting from political policing.
Political policing was a part of the problem in the North and this was accepted in the outcome. That it might only have been accepted for pragmatic reasons is neither here nor there.
Robert is not all policing political a cara,?
ReplyDeleteMarty,
ReplyDeleteI think that is the point Robert might be making: if all policing is political then it is not really political policing that is being complained about but who is politically policed. I offered him a different way of looking at it which he might reject.
Anthony,
ReplyDelete'The argument can be made that Gerry McGeough was a beneficiary of a corrective to political policing rather than political policing per se.'
But the 'corrective' was not being applied as a remedial measure to defective policing but rather to the failure of Sinn Fein to secure the exemption of OTR's from the prosecutorial process during the original GFA negotiations. Gerry was not OTR due to an issue within policing that required reform.
Marty,
ReplyDelete'..is not all policing political a cara,?'
Yes and it can be beneficial and detrimental.
Robert,
ReplyDeleteI am not sure this addresses the point. Political policing existed and was addressed, albeit in a highly unsatisfactory manner. McGeough and others did not benefit from political policing but from the corrective to it. Now that corrective has been shown to be defective itself. But perhaps more importantly, the selective targeting of McGeough demonstrates the political rather than the legal dimension of the current policing arrangement.
Arguments about SF's failure (or intention) not to solve the OTR issue are not germane to the points made here about political policing.
Nice to see you still throwing your hand in by the way.
Good luck Gerry. Stay strong and know a lot of people are wishing you well.
ReplyDelete