Pearse McAuley Sentenced 12 years
Sinn Fein TDs gave Pearse McAuley hero status and must take
some responsibility for the events that have led to McAuley being sentenced to
another 12 years in prison for stabbing his estranged wife.
Aengus Ó Snodaigh,
Seán Crowe, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and Martin Ferris all visited Pearse McCauley
in prison when he was serving 14 years for his part in the cold blooded murder
of Garda Jerry McCabe and created hero status for McAuley when they had
pictures of their visit published in An Phoblacht. It was this hero status that
lead McAuley to believe that he was above the law. Sinn Fein has used and
abused people like McAuley for decades, taking photo opportunities when
politically expedient to do so, and then denying and rejecting terrorist acts
when expedient to do so.
Pearse McAuley Violence
While now beginning a long prison term for an act of extreme
domestic violence his estranged wife was lucky to survive, Pearse McAuley (50)
became notorious for his terrorist activities.
While never convicted of murder, the Sinn Fein/Provisional
IRA man was a member of the gang that killed Det Garda Jerry McCabe in a
botched armed raid in 1996.
Det McCabe was shot dead and his partner Det Garda Ben
O’Sullivan left wounded and critically ill when an IRA gang opened fire on
their car as they were providing an armed escort for a van delivering money to
a post office in Adare, Co Limerick, on June 7th, 1996.
The killing, in which AK 47s were used, occurred just four
months after the breakdown of the first IRA ceasefire.
McAuley, originally from Strabane, was convicted before the
Special Criminal Court in 1999 of Det McCabe’s manslaughter along with Limerick
men Jeremiah Sheehy, Michael O’Neill and Kevin Walsh.
McAuley was on the run from both the British and Irish
authorities at the time of the attack in Adare and when sentenced he and Sheehy
were jailed for 14 years for Det McCabe’s killing.
The two men were released in 1999 after serving their full
sentences. Sheehy and O’Neill were released before them, having been jailed for
12 and 11 years respectively.
Early release
Sinn Féin made repeated efforts to secure the men’s early
release under the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. Though they served their
full terms, the conditions they were kept in while in jail were regarded as
contentious.
They were held in an area on the Castlerea Prison campus
called The Grove, where prisoners lived in houses rather than cells. They were
also free on occasion to order food from takeaways in the locality, a privilege
that drew constant criticism.
In 2003, McAuley and the three other convicted men were
pictured in the jail with four Sinn Féin TDs visiting them; Aengus Ó Snodaigh,
Seán Crowe, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and Martin Ferris.
The publication of the photograph in republican weekly
newspaper An Phoblacht drew criticism from across the political system.
Earlier in 2003, McAuley was granted temporary release to
marry Pauline Tully, a school teacher from Cavan and Sinn Fein member of Cavan
County Council.
They began their relationship while McAuley was in jail. Ms
Tully was part of a Sinn Féin delegation that visited the men and married
McAuley within months of first meeting him on the visits.
After his full release the couple settled in the house in
Kilnaleck, Co Cavan, where McAuley would stab the mother of two 13 times on
Christmas Eve last year.
McAuley first sprang to real public prominence when he
pulled off a daring prison escape in England in 1991 while awaiting trial on
terrorism charges.
On July 7th, 1991, he had escaped from Brixton Prison along
with cellmate Nessan Quinlivan. He was being held on charges of conspiring to
cause explosives and in connection with a plan to murder a British brewery
company chairman.
The two men had been arrested in October 1990, at Stonehenge
in connection with the murder plot.
And when 70lbs of Semtex explosives was
found in northwest London the following month, they were linked to it and also
charged in connection with it.
‘Hit list’
During the trial of other men in London in 1992, the Old
Bailey heard the IRA active service unit McAuley and Quinlivan were members of
had drawn up a “hit list” of prominent British figures.
They had also gathered intelligence on them, including their
photographs.
The list included former Northern Ireland secretaries James
Prior and Roy Mason, who both became Lords, as well as Conservative MP Sir
Geoffrey Mason. Thirteen members of the British armed forces were also on the
list, including General Sir Richard Trant, the former commander of land forces
in the North.
While being held in Brixton Prison, McAuley and Quinlivan
managed to escape after McAuley produced a firearm from his shoe as he and
Quinlivan were being taken back to their secure unit having attended Mass.
A number of shots were fired during the escape and one man
was injured.
McAuley fled to the Republic, where he was later arrested on
foot of an extradition attempt by the British authorities. However, he fought
the extradition and was granted bail, which he skipped just four months before
the attack in Adare, after which he was immediately arrested and held in prison
until his trial three years later.
Pearse McAuley sentenced, Sinn Fein, Pauline Tully, Aengus Ó
Snodaigh, Seán Crowe, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and Martin Ferris
