Michael Dickson (Irish republican)

Michael Dickson, as known as Dixie Dickson, (born 29 October 1964), is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer from Greenock, Scotland who was convicted by German authorities of carrying out a June 1996 mortar attack on a British Army base at Osnabrück, Germany.

Background

Dickson was born and grew up in Greenock, Scotland.^[1] Both he and his father were British soldiers. He spent six years serving as an HGV driver with the 44 Field Support Squadron, 35th Regiment Royal Engineers. He was stationed at Osnabrück prior to the attack in the 1980s, but he never served in Northern Ireland. Dickson later claimed at his trial that he had no experience in handling explosives during his career in the British Army.^[2] He left the British Army in 1988 and joined the IRA the following year (1989).^[3] After leaving the British Army he returned to Scotland to work as a delivery driver in the Port Glasgow and Paisley areas. In 1992, he became an Irish citizen after he married a Dundalk-born woman.

Osnabrück mortar attack

Main article: Osnabrück barracks attack

Dickson was involved in an attack on the British Army barracks in Osnabrück in 1996.^[4] On 28 June 1996, Dickson and four other members of an IRA European ASU shelled the Quebec British Army barracks in northwest Germany. Three home-made mortar shells were fired from the back of a Ford Transit van parked near the gates of the largest British Army barracks outside Britain. Two shells fell short of its target, but the third exploded near a fuel pump. Buildings and vehicles including cars and armoured trucks were hit during the blast, but there were no casualties in the attack. German police believed that Dickson along with another two men and two women including Roisin McAliskey and a Belfast actor named Jimmy Corry were part of the team that attacked the barracks; however, they were unable to apprehend any of the ASU members.^[2][4]

On the run

Dickson escaped and for some time evaded capture and was reported to be one of Scotland's "Most wanted men". As he had become an Irish citizen through marriage, he could not be sent from the Republic of Ireland to Germany to face trial because there was no extradition treaty between the two countries.^[5] Dickson was arrested in December 2002 on an international arrest warrant relating to the 1996 mortar attack whilst he was driving a lorry-load of contraband cigarettes and tobacco at Ruzyne Airport in the Czech Republic.^[3] He was held at Pankrac prison in Prague, and on 13 February 2003, a Czech court ordered that he should be extradited to stand trial in Germany. Dickson insisted that he was innocent and was never in the IRA.^[6][7]

He was convicted under German law to six and a half years for attempted murder and setting off an explosion. He served his sentence in Celle maximum security prison in Germany, and was released after serving 27 months of his sentence.

Other paramilitary activity

• Dickson is suspected of involvement in the 1996 car bombing of the British Army's Northern Ireland HQ at Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn in which Warrant Officer James Bradwell was killed and 34 other soldiers and civilian staff injured.^[3]

• Northumbria Police sought to link Dickson to the attempted assassination of Martin McGartland, an IRA informer, in Tyneside, England, in 1999, after McGartland's identity was carelessly revealed by the British police.^[3] Northumbria Police released a 10-second tape recording of a man whom they claimed had been involved in an armed attack on McGartland, who was badly wounded when he was shot a number of times by three men in June 1999, but he survived.^[4] The Scottish-accented man was later identified as Scott Gary Monaghan.^[8]

Work for Sinn Féin

As of 2007, Dickson was General Manager of An Phoblacht, Sinn Féin's weekly newspaper. In July 2009 Dickson was arrested and held by Scottish Police while delivering a photo-exhibition to a Sinn Féin event in Coatbridge in Scotland. His laptop was seized under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and he was questioned for three hours in relation to his role within Sinn Féin and An Phoblacht as well as his views on the Peace Process and dissident groups. He was then released without charge. ^[9]

References

1. ^ IRA BOMB SCOT IS NICKED
2. ^ ^{a b} "Ex-soldier jailed for IRA attack on German base", The Sunday Times, 24 December 2003
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Scot IRA Bomber back on the streets
4. ^ ^{a b c} Former soldier wanted over base attack
5. ^ Anger as Ireland frees IRA suspect^{[dead link]}
6. ^ Man jailed over IRA attack
7. ^ Suspected IRA bomber loses fight
8. ^ American Chronicle, 8 May 2007
9. ^ http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/38543 An Phoblacht manager arrested under PTA in Scotland

Persondata
Name	Dickson, Michael
Alternative names
Short description	British soldier; PIRA member
Date of birth	29 October 1964
Place of birth	Greenock, Scotland, UK
Date of death
Place of death