Gerry McGeough

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Gerry McGeough (b. 1958, near Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland) is a prominent Irish Republican and former PIRA Volunteer convicted of gun-running.

McGeough joined the PIRA in 1975, aged 17. After a long career in Northern Ireland and Europe, he was arrested (along with another PIRA volunteer, Gerry Hanratty) in August 1988 while crossing the Netherlands-German border with two AK47 rifles in his car. He was charged with attacks on the British Army of the Rhine and held for four years in a specially built German detention centre. His trial in Germany was interrupted by extradition to the US, where he was charged with attempting to buy surface-to-air-missiles in 1983. He served 3 years of his sentence in American prisons until before his release in 1996 whereupon he was deported from the USA to Ireland[1]. He was also a Sinn Fein ard-comhairle member for Trinity College Dublin before becoming disgusted with what he perceives as the socially "liberal" views of "nouveau Sinn Féin" (as he described it).[2]

McGeough is known for his hard-line Catholic views: 'You would never get a leader of Sinn Fein condemning abortion, homosexual "marriage" or anything of that nature. I, as an Irish nationalist and Catholic, never want to see the day when there are abortion clinics in every market town in Ireland. But looking around there is no political grouping willing to take a stance against that.'[3]

He led Sinn Féin's opposition to the referendum on the Nice Treaty in Ireland.[4]

In May 2006, McGeough, as editor, and Charles Byrne, a 28-year-old from Drogheda, launched a monthly magazine called The Hibernian, dedicated to “Faith, Family and Country”. McGeough is associated with the Ancient Order of Hibernians.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Behind the Mask: The Ira and Sinn Fein, Transcript, Air date: October 21, 1997, PBS
  2. ^ Isn't it time that the double-speak stopped?, Henry McDonald, The Observer, Sunday December 28, 2003
  3. ^ IRA bomber attacks Sinn Fein on abortion Henry McDonald, The Observer, Sunday December 28, 2003
  4. ^ 'NICE TO BE BACK ON THE WINNING SIDE', A. Shaw, Red Action Bulletin, Volume 4, Issue 12, July/Aug 2001
  5. ^ Ex-Provo gives new life to Irish clerical fascism, Scott Millar, Searchlight Magazine, August 2006
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