Comments on The Pensive Quill: Immediate Action required in the Gerry McGeough Vi...

Immediate Action required in the Gerry McGeough ...

2010-10-03T20:16:50.721+01:00

Immediate Action required in the Gerry McGeough

Helen & Gav,

if these matters were evidence led there would be quite a few more before the courts. The criterion for prosecution is political.

Nuala,

You will find that many on the left have a problem with the universalism of rights.

michaelhenry, the shinners will get the contract, ...

2010-10-01T23:43:14.257+01:00

michaelhenry, the shinners will get the contract, they look after all the other properties so why not look after the police.

bit of a grey area alfie, they could serve two yea...

2010-09-30T23:41:05.248+01:00

bit of a grey area alfie, they could serve two years if found guilty or they could get out the next day-lets hope that truth finds a way for these men to live in peace with there familys.

the chief constable of the p.s.n.i
matt baggot is to push ahead with plans for armed civilian guards to look after police property-you could not make this up, it will be the new dads and mums army.

Alfie, My understanding is that Gerry can be given...

2010-09-30T21:25:27.541+01:00

Alfie,
My understanding is that Gerry can be given a very lengthy sentence but can possibly get release after 2 years if convicted. However, I am told that the problem with this type of sentence is "a release on license or parole", which can be revoked at any time by the RUC/PSNI.

Martin Galvin, Esq. sums it up nicely here on TPQ "What It Means For Gerry McGeough If Pronounced Guilty".

Helen, I don't know the minutiae of the Good F...

2010-09-30T15:04:28.645+01:00

Helen, I don't know the minutiae of the Good Friday Agreement, but what would happen to Gerry if he was convicted? Would he be eligible for immediate release under the terms of the GFA? In any case, this whole prosecution stinks - it seems to be designed to stifle non-violent dissent from the Sinn Fein line.

Colm, Correction, Gerry McGeough left SF in 2001. ...

2010-09-30T14:52:57.067+01:00

Colm,
Correction, Gerry McGeough left SF in 2001. Secondly, Gerry has been a member of good standing in the AOH for decades and does not need to engage in any "entriest" policy (whatever that means?) to get involved.

It appears that McGeough’s problems started with an article by Scott Millar, "Ex-Provo" gives new life to clerical fascism", which appeared in the 2006 summer edition of Searchlight. I remember the article appeared shortly after the launch of McGeough's magazine, The Hibernian, and I thought it was an attempt to undermine it...something similar to what happened after McGeough's arrest/bail. It is believed by many who knew him at the time that Millar’s article, riddled with in accuracies, was a pay back to McGeough after one of Gerry’s political jabs at him at the time.

At no point did Millar ever attempt to interview McGeough for the article. Take for example that when McGeough was in prison in Louisiana, Millar stated that McGeough was in contact with American Aryan Nation prisoners? As I happen to personally know, the prison in Louisiana where McGeough was housed, was made up entirely of foreign prisoners (including other Irish Republicans) all awaiting deportation. There was no U.S. inmates’ there. A simple check by decent journalists would have established that.

I always felt that Millar's article was the start of McGeough's current problems. It began a vicious character assassination campaign against him which ran on the internet (mostly on Indymedia) for months and culminated in McGeough's arrest six months later. I know this as fact, because I was the one alerting McGeough to these internet "smear campaigns" for almost a year prior.

I believe the aim was to destroy the magazine and prevent a new Nationalist political force emerging across Ireland. The aim I feel still remains the same...thus McGeough's persecution.

I find it odd Colm that you should rehash this just as McGeough is starting to gather support again. I truly believe that McGeough's woes began not so much from the arrest but the fact McGeough was challenging PSF’s new political direction and the status quo.

Fionnuala, Thank you. Well stated. People like Co...

2010-09-30T14:06:49.185+01:00

Fionnuala,
Thank you. Well stated. People like Colm don't get it. Regardless of McGeough's personal religious convictions, that is not why he was arrested and is being persecuted by the Crown and shut out by PSF. He campaigned on an anti-PSNI platform. His magazine The Hibernian, although a great deal of emphasis was on religion, it also carried very republican/nationalist views and a lot of the political views in the magazine did not sit well with PSF or the Brits.

Colm, do you honestly believe that Gerry MC Geough...

2010-09-30T12:26:06.112+01:00

Colm, do you honestly believe that Gerry MC Geough deserves to be put through this on going injustice because you dislike his beliefs?

I disagree entirely with his views on abortion and homosexuality, however, he is not in the dock because of his views. He is there because he became an outspoken critic of Sinn Fein!

Who should give a shit, about him? "McGeough ...

2010-09-29T23:15:36.760+01:00

Who should give a shit, about him? "McGeough was on the governing body of Sinn Fein in 2001, and resigned from the party in 2003.
He cited the ‘socially liberal’ stances of Sinn Fein as the reason for his departure, saying:

“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.”

In the spring of 2004 McGeough went on a national speaking tour with one time Youth Defence stalwart and current friend of European neo-nazis Justin Barrett.
In May 2006 he launched ‘The Hibernian’ magazine and was reportedly involved in an entryist type strategy within the Ancient Order of Hibernians at the same time."