Martin Meehan

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Martin Meehan (* 1945 in Belfast ; † November 3, 2007 ibid) was a Northern Irish politician of the Sinn Féin party and volunteer in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional IRA .

biography

Martin Meehan joined the IRA in 1966 and switched to the split-off Provisional IRA in 1969. In the Catholic working class district of Ardoyne in the north of Belfast, he rose to a well-known commander within the Belfast Brigade under Billy McKee . As the protector of Catholics from violent Protestants, the IRA in Ardoyne gained a lot of sympathy and popularity during the riots in June 1970. By this time he is said to have been in custody once or twice.

Ardoyne subsequently became one of the most dangerous neighborhoods for British security forces. Several police officers and soldiers were killed by snipers during patrols there between February and October 1971. The British Army's Green Howards regiment alone sustained five dead and around 40 wounded in two months. Meehan and his men are also said to have lured and shot three off duty soldiers of the Royal Regiment of Scotland near Ligoniel north of Ardoyne in March 1971 . The incident raised the minimum age for soldiers in Northern Ireland and resulted in the resignation of Northern Irish Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark . Martin Meehan was now considered one of the UK's most wanted IRA members.

On November 9, 1971, he was arrested in a club in Belfast and, according to his own statements, tortured, but escaped with two other IRA men from Belfast's Crumlin Road prison on December 2, 1971 and fled to Ireland . On January 27, 1972, he led from County Louth, Ireland, from an attack on a unit of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards in County Armagh on the Northern Irish side, but no one was injured or killed. Following the incident, Irish security forces arrested Meehan and six other IRA men for gun crimes, but released him in February.

He later returned to Northern Ireland, where he was arrested on August 9, 1972 on Jamaica Street in Ardoyne following a lead. The security authorities had mobilized over 100 soldiers from the British Army and Royal Marines to arrest him . He was subsequently the first person convicted of membership in the Provisional IRA. On December 5, 1975, he was released from Long Kesh Prison as one of the last internment policy inmates .

In July 1979, Meehan and five other IRA men were arrested for kidnapping, ill-treatment, and deprivation of liberty of a security agent. Meehan was subsequently imprisoned until 1985. Archbishop Tomás Séamus Ó Fiaich contributed to his release . In 1986 he was alleged to have been involved in the kidnapping and deprivation of liberty of a soldier in Ardoyne and was convicted again in 1988. This time he spent until 1994 in prison.

After his release, he became a senior member of the Sinn Féin party and chairman of an organization that campaigned for the release of paramilitary prisoners. He supported Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in the Northern Irish peace process and announced the end of the fighting as one of the first IRA commanders. In 1998 he stood for the district of South Antrim for election to the Northern Ireland Assembly and received 3,226 votes. For South Antrim he also failed in the election to the British House of Commons in 2000 and in the 2001 general election .

On June 7, 2001, he became a councilor in Antrim . In the election for the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2003 in South Antrim, he received 4,295 votes, but was defeated by 181 votes against David Ford of the Alliance Party . In the election for the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2007 he did not run, his place was taken by Mitchel McLaughlin.

Martin Meehan died of a heart attack on November 3, 2007 and was buried in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast.

literature

  • Show Me The Man - The Martin Meehan Official Biography by Joe Graham
  • The Provos: The IRA and Sinn Fein by Peter Taylor

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Meehan, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Northern Irish politician of the Sinn Féin party and volunteer of the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional IRA
DATE OF BIRTH 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Belfast
DATE OF DEATH November 3, 2007
Place of death Belfast