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LiberalViews (talk | contribs) →Background and IRA activity: I checked and neither of the stated sources say this. WP is not a propaganda outlet. |
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{{Cquote|''Three loyalists were shot dead and fifteen wounded. There were three or four nationalists wounded. No one was killed. [After the shooting] every door in Ardoyne was opened. The IRA had proved beyond a shadow of a doubt what they said they were going to do, they had done. The date—27th of June 1970—is more significant for that than anything else. As a result, the whole broad spectrum of the nationalist people actually supported what the IRA was doing. Everybody, man, woman and child came out and supported us in any way possible. I never saw support like it in my life. It was unbelievable.''<ref name="pt2"/>}} |
{{Cquote|''Three loyalists were shot dead and fifteen wounded. There were three or four nationalists wounded. No one was killed. [After the shooting] every door in Ardoyne was opened. The IRA had proved beyond a shadow of a doubt what they said they were going to do, they had done. The date—27th of June 1970—is more significant for that than anything else. As a result, the whole broad spectrum of the nationalist people actually supported what the IRA was doing. Everybody, man, woman and child came out and supported us in any way possible. I never saw support like it in my life. It was unbelievable.''<ref name="pt2"/>}} |
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In the six weeks following the introduction of [[internment]] in August 1971, six soldiers from the [[Green Howards]] regiment were killed by the IRA in north Belfast.<ref name="echo"/> Meehan became one of the most wanted IRA members in the area, and |
In the six weeks following the introduction of [[internment]] in August 1971, six soldiers from the [[Green Howards]] regiment were killed by the IRA in north Belfast.<ref name="echo"/> Meehan became one of the most wanted IRA members in the area, and was arrested.<ref name="echo"/><ref name="int">{{cite web | title = Internment | author = John McGuffin | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5337712.stm | publisher = | date = 1973 | accessdate = 2007-10-18}}</ref> Meehan was imprisoned without charge under the [[Special Powers Act]] in [[Crumlin Road Jail]].<ref name="int"/> Meehan and two other IRA members escaped from prison on [[2 December]] [[1971]].<ref name="tpc">{{cite book | last = Coogan | first = Tim | authorlink = Tim Pat Coogan | title = The IRA | publisher = [[Harper Collins]] | date = 2000 | pages = p. 403 | doi = | isbn = 9780006531555}}</ref> The men covered themselves in butter in order to keep warm, then hid inside a [[manhole]] for six-and-a-half hours before scaling the prison walls using ropes made from knotted blankets and sheets.<ref name="tpc"/><ref name="bbc1">{{cite web | title = Courthouse hotel evokes ghosts of past | author = Nuala McCann | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5337712.stm | publisher = BBC | date = [[12 September]] [[2006]] | accessdate = 2007-10-18}}</ref> |
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Meehan escaped across the border to [[Dundalk]] in the [[Republic of Ireland]], and on [[27 January]] [[1972]] he was arrested by the [[Garda Síochána|Garda]] along with seven other IRA members following a four-hour cross-border gun battle between the IRA and soldiers from the [[Royal Scots Dragoon Guards]].<ref name="bc">{{cite book | last = Harnden | first = Toby | authorlink = Toby Harnden | title = Bandit Country | publisher = [[Hodder & Stoughton]] | date = 1999 | pages = p. 74 | month = | isbn = 034071736X}}</ref> Meehan told reporters "We pasted them. You could have heard them squealing for miles",<ref name="tpc"/> but despite over 4,500 rounds of ammunition being fired the only casualty was a farmer's prize winning pig.<ref name="bc"/> The IRA members were arrested in possession of an [[anti-tank gun]], a [[carbine]] and seven rifles, but were acquitted at their trial the following month due to lack of evidence.<ref name="bc"/> Meehan returned to Northern Ireland, where he was arrested on [[9 August]] [[1972]] and he became the first person to be convicted of membership of the Provisional IRA.<ref name="int"/><ref name="ic">{{cite web | title = Meehan: ‘I was in Kesh at time of that murder’ | author = Áine McEntee | url = http://www.nuzhound.com/archive/goto.php?id=154326 | publisher = IrelandClick.com | date = [[5 October]] [[2007]] | accessdate = 2007-10-18}}</ref> He was sentenced to three years imprisonment in [[Long Kesh]], and was released on [[4 October]] [[1974]].<ref name="ic"/><ref name="j1">{{cite web | title = Neutral Citation no. (2003) NICA 34 | author = | url = http://www.courtsni.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/50CD2D73-668B-42A1-A4E2-52A37086423B/0/j_j_carc4005.htm | publisher = [[Courts of Northern Ireland|Court of Appeal]] | date = [[26 September]] [[2003]] | accessdate = 2007-10-18}}</ref> Following his release he was again interned without trial, and on [[5 December]] [[1975]] he was the last internee to be released after internment had been abolished.<ref name="echo"/><ref name="ap"/> |
Meehan escaped across the border to [[Dundalk]] in the [[Republic of Ireland]], and on [[27 January]] [[1972]] he was arrested by the [[Garda Síochána|Garda]] along with seven other IRA members following a four-hour cross-border gun battle between the IRA and soldiers from the [[Royal Scots Dragoon Guards]].<ref name="bc">{{cite book | last = Harnden | first = Toby | authorlink = Toby Harnden | title = Bandit Country | publisher = [[Hodder & Stoughton]] | date = 1999 | pages = p. 74 | month = | isbn = 034071736X}}</ref> Meehan told reporters "We pasted them. You could have heard them squealing for miles",<ref name="tpc"/> but despite over 4,500 rounds of ammunition being fired the only casualty was a farmer's prize winning pig.<ref name="bc"/> The IRA members were arrested in possession of an [[anti-tank gun]], a [[carbine]] and seven rifles, but were acquitted at their trial the following month due to lack of evidence.<ref name="bc"/> Meehan returned to Northern Ireland, where he was arrested on [[9 August]] [[1972]] and he became the first person to be convicted of membership of the Provisional IRA.<ref name="int"/><ref name="ic">{{cite web | title = Meehan: ‘I was in Kesh at time of that murder’ | author = Áine McEntee | url = http://www.nuzhound.com/archive/goto.php?id=154326 | publisher = IrelandClick.com | date = [[5 October]] [[2007]] | accessdate = 2007-10-18}}</ref> He was sentenced to three years imprisonment in [[Long Kesh]], and was released on [[4 October]] [[1974]].<ref name="ic"/><ref name="j1">{{cite web | title = Neutral Citation no. (2003) NICA 34 | author = | url = http://www.courtsni.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/50CD2D73-668B-42A1-A4E2-52A37086423B/0/j_j_carc4005.htm | publisher = [[Courts of Northern Ireland|Court of Appeal]] | date = [[26 September]] [[2003]] | accessdate = 2007-10-18}}</ref> Following his release he was again interned without trial, and on [[5 December]] [[1975]] he was the last internee to be released after internment had been abolished.<ref name="echo"/><ref name="ap"/> |
Revision as of 11:21, 4 November 2007
- For the former U.S. politician and member of the House Of Representatives, see Marty Meehan.
Template:IrishRMartin Meehan (1945 – 3 November 2007) was a Sinn Féin politician and former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Meehan was the first person to be convicted of membership of the Provisional IRA, and he spent eighteen years in prison during the Troubles.
Background and IRA activity
Meehan was born in 1945 in the Ardoyne area of Belfast in Northern Ireland.[1][2] His father had been imprisoned for republican activities in the 1940s, and his grandfather was killed in the Battle of the Somme.[2][3] Meehan left school aged 15 and began working at Belfast's docks, and in 1966 he became a member of the Irish Republican Army.[2][4] He was sworn in by Billy McMillen, and described joining as "a big occasion, like joining the priesthood".[2][4] In 1968 he was arrested for the first time, after he assaulted a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) during a civil rights march in Derry.[2] During the August 1969 riots in Belfast he was one of a handful of IRA members who tried to defend Catholic areas from attack,[5] and resigned as a result of the organisation's failure to adequately protect Catholic areas.[6] Meehan was arrested on 22 August 1969 for riotous behaviour, and was badly beaten before being imprisoned.[2][6] The beating was so severe Meehan was given the last rites, the first of four occasions he received them.[2] He was released after spending two months in prison.[6] After his release Billy McKee convinced Meehan to rejoin the IRA.[7] Meehan sided with the Provisional IRA following the split in January 1970, and by mid-1970 was a senior IRA leader in the Ardoyne area.[8] On 27 June 1970 rioting broke out across Belfast following a parade by the Orange Order, and a gun battle started in the Ardoyne area.[8] Meehan stated:
Three loyalists were shot dead and fifteen wounded. There were three or four nationalists wounded. No one was killed. [After the shooting] every door in Ardoyne was opened. The IRA had proved beyond a shadow of a doubt what they said they were going to do, they had done. The date—27th of June 1970—is more significant for that than anything else. As a result, the whole broad spectrum of the nationalist people actually supported what the IRA was doing. Everybody, man, woman and child came out and supported us in any way possible. I never saw support like it in my life. It was unbelievable.[8]
In the six weeks following the introduction of internment in August 1971, six soldiers from the Green Howards regiment were killed by the IRA in north Belfast.[2] Meehan became one of the most wanted IRA members in the area, and was arrested.[2][9] Meehan was imprisoned without charge under the Special Powers Act in Crumlin Road Jail.[9] Meehan and two other IRA members escaped from prison on 2 December 1971.[10] The men covered themselves in butter in order to keep warm, then hid inside a manhole for six-and-a-half hours before scaling the prison walls using ropes made from knotted blankets and sheets.[10][11]
Meehan escaped across the border to Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland, and on 27 January 1972 he was arrested by the Garda along with seven other IRA members following a four-hour cross-border gun battle between the IRA and soldiers from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.[12] Meehan told reporters "We pasted them. You could have heard them squealing for miles",[10] but despite over 4,500 rounds of ammunition being fired the only casualty was a farmer's prize winning pig.[12] The IRA members were arrested in possession of an anti-tank gun, a carbine and seven rifles, but were acquitted at their trial the following month due to lack of evidence.[12] Meehan returned to Northern Ireland, where he was arrested on 9 August 1972 and he became the first person to be convicted of membership of the Provisional IRA.[9][13] He was sentenced to three years imprisonment in Long Kesh, and was released on 4 October 1974.[13][14] Following his release he was again interned without trial, and on 5 December 1975 he was the last internee to be released after internment had been abolished.[2][3]
On 11 July 1979 the IRA kidnapped a seventeen year old man suspected of being an informer from a club in the New Lodge area of Belfast.[15] Over a four day period he was moved between a number of safe houses where he was beaten and interrogated, and he confessed to working as an informer for the British Army.[15] The victim was rescued by an army patrol which raided the house where he was being held, and one kidnapper was arrested.[15] Meehan and four other men were arrested soon after, and in March 1980 Meehan was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment, after he was found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap and false imprisonment.[14][15] Meehan was convicted based largely on the uncorroborated evidence of the informer whose evidence was described by the judge as "poor quality".[15][16] Meehan protested his innocence, and began a hunger strike which lasted sixty-six days culminating in a "thirst strike" where he also refused water.[16] His protest ended following the intervention of Cardinal Ó Fiaich, who persuaded Meehan to end his strike.[16] In September 1985 Meehan was released from prison.[17]
In March 1988 Meehan was sentenced to a further fifteen years imprisonment after being convicted of the kidnapping and false imprisonment of a member of the Territorial Army.[17][18] The soldier had been kidnapped on 12 July 1986 and imprisoned in a house in the Ardoyne area, before being freed in a rescue operation by the British Army.[14] The court heard the soldier had suffered a broken jaw and had been bound and blindfolded in preparation for being shot dead, although Meehan claims he was arrested while attempting to arrange to hand the soldier over to a priest.[2][18] While in prison Meehan was assaulted by prison officers, for which he later received £14,000 in compensation.[19][20] He was released from prison on 20 January 1994.[14]
Political career
Following his release from prison Meehan became a leading member of Sinn Féin, serving on the party's national executive, or Ard Comhairle.[14] He was also chairman of Saoirse, an organisation which campaigned for the release of paramilitary prisoners.[21] Meehan stood in the 1998 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly in South Antrim, receiving 3,226 votes.[22] He also stood as a candidate for election to the British House of Commons in the South Antrim constituency in 2000 and 2001, being unsuccessful each time.[23] On 7 June 2001 he was elected a local councillor for Antrim Borough Council.[14] In the 2003 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly in South Antrim, Meehan lost by 181 votes to Alliance Party of Northern Ireland leader David Ford.[24]
Meehan died on 3 November 2007, reportedly after suffering a heart attack at his home.[25]
Elections contested
Date of election | Constituency | Party | Votes | % |
---|---|---|---|---|
Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998 | South Antrim | Sinn Féin | 3,226 | [22] |
South Antrim by-election, 2000 | South Antrim | Sinn Féin | 2,611 | 8.55[23] |
United Kingdom general election, 2001 | South Antrim | Sinn Féin | 4,160 | 9.42[23] |
Northern Ireland council election, 2001 | Antrim North West | Sinn Féin | 1,007 | [26] |
Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003 | South Antrim | Sinn Féin | 4,295 | 11.5[27] |
Northern Ireland council election, 2005 | Antrim Line | Sinn Féin | 670 | [28] |
References
- ^ "South Antrim by-election: The candidates". BBC. 18 September 2000. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Jack Holland (30 October 2002). "Once-feared republican journeys to the Somme". The Irish Echo. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
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(help) - ^ a b "Constituency round-ups". An Phoblacht. 11 June 1998. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
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(help) - ^ a b Taylor, Peter (1997). Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. p. 29. ISBN 0-7475-3818-2.
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:|pages=
has extra text (help) - ^ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin, p. 55.
- ^ a b c Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin, p. 62.
- ^ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin, p. 63.
- ^ a b c Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin, pp. 74–75.
- ^ a b c John McGuffin (1973). "Internment". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ a b c Coogan, Tim (2000). The IRA. Harper Collins. pp. p. 403. ISBN 9780006531555.
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has extra text (help) - ^ Nuala McCann (12 September 2006). "Courthouse hotel evokes ghosts of past". BBC. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
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(help) - ^ a b c Harnden, Toby (1999). Bandit Country. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. p. 74. ISBN 034071736X.
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has extra text (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|month=
(help) - ^ a b Áine McEntee (5 October 2007). "Meehan: 'I was in Kesh at time of that murder'". IrelandClick.com. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
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(help) - ^ a b c d e f "Neutral Citation no. (2003) NICA 34". Court of Appeal. 26 September 2003. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
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(help) - ^ a b c d e Dillon, Martin (1991). The Dirty War. Arrow Books. pp. pp. 388–389. ISBN 978-0099845201.
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has extra text (help) - ^ a b c Beresford, David (1987). Ten Men Dead. Atlantic Monthly Press. pp. pp. 22–23. ISBN 0-87113-702-X.
{{cite book}}
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has extra text (help) - ^ a b "Neutral Citation no. (2002) NIQB 45". High Court of Justice. 19 July 2002. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
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(help) - ^ a b Toby Harnden (9 August 1997). "Fight 'will continue if the Ulster talks fail'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
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(help) - ^ Karen McElrath. "'Extradition' from Unsafe Haven". CAIN. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ "No prosecution for Meehan assault". An Phoblacht. 1 November 2001. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
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(help) - ^ "Shooting at ex-prisoner's home". BBC. 24 January 2001. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
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(help) - ^ a b "Assembly Election (NI) Thursday 25 June 1998". CAIN. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- ^ a b c "Elections Ireland: Martin Meehan". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
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(help) - ^ "Paisley's party tops NI poll". BBC. 28 November 2003. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
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(help) - ^ "Veteran republican Meehan dies". BBC. 3 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-03.
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(help) - ^ "Antrim Borough Council Elections, 1993-2005". ARK. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ "South Antrim". ARK. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ "Newtownabbey Borough Council Elections 1993-2005". ARK. Retrieved 2007-10-18.