Joe Doherty

Joe Doherty (b. 20 January 1955 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a former volunteer in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who escaped during his 1981 trial for killing a member of the Special Air Service (SAS) in 1980. He was arrested in the United States in 1983, and became a "cause célèbre" while fighting an ultimately unsuccessful nine-year legal battle against extradition and deportation, with a street corner in New York City being named after him.

Background and IRA activity

The son of a docker, Doherty was born on 20 January 1955 in New Lodge, Belfast.cite web | title = GUNMAN OF THE I.R.A.: A 5-YEAR WAIT | author = Mark A. Uhlig | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEEDE1230F937A35754C0A96E948260 | publisher = "The New York Times" | date = 4 July 1988 | accessdate = 2007-09-30] cite web | title = Searc's Web Guide to 20th Century Ireland - Joe Doherty (born 1955) | author = | url = http://searcs-web.com/doherty2.html | publisher = Searc's | date = | accessdate = 2007-09-30] Doherty left school aged 14 and began work on the docks and as an apprentice plumber, before being arrested in 1972 on his seventeenth birthday under the Special Powers Act. Doherty was interned on the prison ship HMS "Maidstone" and Long Kesh Detention Centre, and while interned heard of the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry, where 14 civil rights protesters were shot dead by the British Army. This led to him joining the IRA after he was released in June 1972. In the mid-1970s Doherty was convicted of possession of explosives and sentenced to six years imprisonment in Long Kesh. He was released in December 1979.cite web | title = The long journey finding Big Hugh | author = | url = http://republican-news.org/archive/1998/December17/17hugh.html | publisher = "An Phoblacht" | date = 17 December 1998 | accessdate = 2007-09-30]

After his release Doherty became part of a four-man active service unit nicknamed the "M60 gang" due to their use of an M60 heavy machine gun, along with Angelo Fusco and Paul Magee.cite web | title = Portlaoise prisoners to be moved to bungalows | author = | url = http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/1999/12/03/ipage_16.htm | publisher = "Irish Examiner" | date = 3 December, 1999 | accessdate = 2007-09-30] cite book | last = Bowyer Bell | first = J. | authorlink = J. Bowyer Bell | title = The Secret Army: The IRA | publisher = Transaction Publishers | date = 1997 | pages = pp. 487-488 | doi = | isbn = 1560009012] On 9 April 1980 the unit lured the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) into an ambush on Stewartstown Road, killing one constable and wounding two others. On 2 May the unit were planning another attack and had taken over a house on Antrim Road, when an eight-man patrol from the SAS arrived in plain clothes, after being alerted by the RUC. A car carrying three SAS members went to the rear of the house, and another car carrying five SAS members arrived at the front of the house.cite book | last = Murray | first = Raymond | authorlink = | title = The SAS in Ireland | publisher = Mercier Press | date = 2004 | pages = p. 256 | doi = | isbn = 1-85635-437-7] As the SAS members at the front of the house exited the car the IRA unit opened fire with the M60 machine gun from an upstairs window, hitting Captain Herbert Westmacott in the head and shoulder. Westmacott, who was killed instantly, was the highest ranking member of the SAS killed in Northern Ireland.cite web | title = High Court blocks Fusco handover | author = | url = http://www.rte.ie/news/2000/0104/fusco.html | publisher = RTÉ | date = 4 January, 2000 | accessdate = 2007-09-27] The remaining SAS members, armed with Colt Commando automatic rifles, submachine guns and Browning pistols, returned fire but were forced to withdraw. Magee was apprehended by the SAS members at the rear of the house while attempting to prepare the IRA unit's escape in a transit van, while the other three IRA members remained inside the house. [cite book | last = Dillon | first = Martin | authorlink = Martin Dillon | title = Killer in Clowntown: Joe Doherty, the IRA and the Special Relationship | publisher = Hutchinson | date = 1992 | pages = p. 94 | doi = | isbn = 0091753066] More members of the security forces were deployed to the scene, and after a brief siege the remaining members of the IRA unit surrendered.

Trial and escape

The trial of Doherty and the other members of the M60 gang began in early May 1981, on charges including three counts of murder.cite book | last = De Baróid | first = Ciarán | authorlink = | title = Ballymurphy And The Irish War | publisher = Pluto Press | date = 2000 | pages = pp. 242-244 | doi = | isbn = 0-7453-1509-7] cite book | last = Beresford | first = David | authorlink = | title = Ten Men Dead | publisher = Atlantic Monthly Press | date = 1987 | pages = pp. 191-193 | isbn = 0-87113-702-X] On 10 June Doherty and seven other prisoners, including Angelo Fusco and the other members of the IRA unit, took a prison officer hostage at gunpoint in Crumlin Road Jail. After locking the officer in a cell, the eight took other officers and visiting solicitors hostage, also locking them in cells after taking their clothing. Two of the eight wore officers' uniforms while a third wore clothing taken from a solicitor, and the group moved towards the first of three gates separating them from the outside world. They took the officer on duty at the gate hostage at gunpoint, and forced him to open the inner gate. An officer at the second gate recognised one of the prisoners and ran into an office and pressed an alarm button, and the prisoners ran through the second gate towards the outer gate. An officer at the outer gate tried to prevent the escape but was attacked by the prisoners, who escaped onto Crumlin Road. As the prisoners were moving towards the car park where two cars were waiting, an unmarked RUC car pulled up across the street outside Crumlin Road Courthouse. The RUC officers opened fire, and the prisoners returned fire before escaping in the waiting cars. Two days after the escape, Doherty was convicted "in absentia" and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum recommended term of thirty years.cite web | title = I.R.A. Guerrilla Is Back in a Familiar Belfast Jail | author = Craig R. Whitney | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5D91138F932A15751C0A964958260& | publisher = "The New York Times" | date = 21 February 1992 | accessdate = 2007-09-30]

Extradition and deportation battle

Doherty escaped across the border into the Republic of Ireland, and then travelled to the United States on a false passport. He lived with an American girlfriend in Brooklyn and New Jersey, working on construction sites and as a bartender at Clancy's Bar in Manhattan, where he was arrested by the FBI on 28 June 1983. Doherty was imprisoned in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, and a legal battle ensued with the British government seeking to extradite him back to Northern Ireland.cite web | title = Meese Orders I.R.A. Fugitive In New York to Go to Britain | author = Philp Shenon | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEED61E3EF936A25755C0A96E948260& | publisher = "The New York Times" | date = 15 June 1988 | accessdate = 2007-09-30] Doherty claimed he was immune from extradition as the killing of Westmacott was a political act, saying "It was an operation that was typical of all operations where we set up an ambush of a British military convoy... It is a war, and this was a military action", and in 1985 a federal judge ruled Doherty could not be extradited as the killing was a "political offense".cite web | title = I.R.A. Fugitive Sent to Belfast From U.S. Jail | author = James Barron | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEEDA113CF933A15751C0A964958260& | publisher = "The New York Times" | date = 20 February 1992 | accessdate = 2007-09-30] Doherty's legal battle continued as the United States Department of Justice then attempted to deport him for entering the country illegally. [cite web | title = I.R.A. Supporters Fight Over One Man's Opinion | author = James Bennet | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE0D61F39F930A25751C1A967958260& | publisher = "The New York Times" | date = 13 December 1991 | accessdate = 2007-09-30]

Doherty remained in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center and attempted to claim political asylum, and on 15 June 1988 the Attorney General Edwin Meese overturned an earlier ruling by the Federal Board of Immigration Appeals that Doherty could be deported to the Republic of Ireland, and ordered his deportation to Northern Ireland. In February 1989 new Attorney General Dick Thornburgh chose not to support the decision made by his predecessor, and asked lawyers for Doherty and the Immigration and Naturalization Service to submit arguments for a review of the decision and Doherty's claim for asylum. [cite web | title = Thornburgh to Review Deportation of I.R.A. Man | author = Clifford D. May | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE6DC1F3DF935A15751C0A96F948260& | publisher = "The New York Times" | date = 26 February 1989 | accessdate = 2007-09-30] By this time Doherty's case was a "cause célèbre" with his sympathisers including over 130 Congressmen and a son of then President of the United States George H. W. Bush, and in 1990 a street corner near the Metropolitan Correctional Center was named after him.cite web | title = Supreme Court Ruling Clears Way For Deportation of an I.R.A. Man | author = Linda Greenhouse | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7DD123DF935A25752C0A964958260& | publisher = "The New York Times" | date = 16 January 1992 | accessdate = 2007-09-30] [cite web | title = Killer in Clowntown: Joe Doherty, the IRA and the Special Relationship. - book reviews | author = Esmond Wright | url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2242/is_n1526_v262/ai_13810555 | publisher = "Contemporary Review" | date = March 1993 | accessdate = 2007-09-30]

In August 1991 Doherty was transferred to a federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and on 16 January 1992 the Supreme Court of the United States overturned a 1990 Federal Appeals Court ruling by a 5-to-3 decision, paving the way for his deportation. On 19 February 1992 Doherty was deported to Northern Ireland, despite pleas to delay the deportation from members of Congress, Mayor of New York City David Dinkins, and the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, John Cardinal O'Connor. [cite web | title = Dinkins Meets With Former I.R.A. Member | author = | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEFD61038F933A25751C0A964958260& | publisher = "The New York Times" | date = 10 February 1992 | accessdate = 2007-09-30] [cite web | title = I.R.A. Fugitive Sent to Belfast From U.S. Jail | author = James Barron | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEEDA113CF933A15751C0A964958260& | publisher = "The New York Times" | date = 20 February 1992 | accessdate = 2007-09-30] Doherty was returned to Crumlin Road Jail before being transferred to HM Prison Maze, and was released from prison on 6 November 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. [cite web | title = 204 terrorists released - and not a single gun surrendered | author = Jenny McCartney and Alan Murray | url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1998/11/15/npris115.html | publisher = "The Daily Telegraph" | date = 15 November 1998 | accessdate = 2007-09-30] After his release Doherty became a community worker specialising in helping disadvantaged young people. [cite web | title = Bring Joe back | author = Jack Holland | url = http://www.irishecho.com/search/searchstory.cfm?id=11709&issueid=269 | publisher = "The Irish Echo" | date = 25 September 2002 | accessdate = 2007-09-30] In 2006 he appeared in the BBC television show "Facing the Truth" opposite the relatives of a soldier killed in the Warrenpoint ambush. [cite web | title = Facing the Truth | author = | url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/02_february/14/truth.shtml | publisher = BBC | date = 14 February 2006 | accessdate = 2007-10-28]

References