Joe Doherty (born 20 January 1955) is an Irish former
volunteer
Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...
in the
Belfast Brigade of the
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...
(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
A cause célèbre (,''Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'', 12th Edition, 2014. S.v. "cause célèbre". Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre ,''Random House Kernerman Webs ...
'' while fighting an ultimately unsuccessful nine-year legal battle against
extradition
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...
and
deportation
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while 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
The New Lodge ( gle, Lóiste Nua) is an urban, working class Catholic community in Belfast, Northern Ireland, immediately to the north of the city centre. The landscape is dominated by several large tower blocks. The area has a number of mural ...
.
He was born into an
Irish republican family, his grandfather was a member of the
Irish Citizen Army
The Irish Citizen Army (), or ICA, was a small paramilitary group of trained trade union volunteers from the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) established in Dublin for the defence of workers' demonstrations from the Dublin M ...
which fought against
British rule
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was hims ...
in the 1916
Easter Rising. 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
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
on the prison ship
HMS ''Maidstone'' and
Long Kesh Detention Centre
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
, and while interned heard of the events of
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday may refer to:
Historical events Canada
* Bloody Sunday (1923), a day of police violence during a steelworkers' strike for union recognition in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
* Bloody Sunday (1938), police violence aga ...
in Derry, where 14 civil rights protesters were shot dead by the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
. 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.
After his release, Doherty became part of a four-man
active service unit
An active service unit (ASU; ) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) cell of four to ten members, tasked with carrying out armed attacks. In 2002, the IRA had about 1,000 active members of which about 300 were in active service units.
T ...
nicknamed the "M60 gang" due to their use of an
M60 heavy machine gun, along with
Angelo Fusco
Angelo Fusco (born 2 September 1956) is a former volunteer in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who escaped during his 1981 trial for killing a Special Air Service (SAS) officer in 1980.
Background and IRA acti ...
and
Paul Magee
Paul "Dingus" Magee (born 30 January 1948) 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. After servin ...
.
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
The Antrim Road is a major arterial route and area of housing and commerce that runs from inner city north Belfast to Dunadry, passing through Newtownabbey and Templepatrick. It forms part of the A6 road, a traffic route which links Belfast to D ...
, 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.
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.
The remaining SAS members at the front, armed with
Colt Commando
The Colt Automatic Rifle-15 or CAR-15 is a family of M16 rifle–based firearms marketed by Colt in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, the term "CAR-15" is most commonly associated with the Colt Commando (AKA: XM177); these select-fire carbi ...
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. 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.
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
HMP Belfast, also known as Crumlin Road Gaol, is a former prison situated on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. Since 1996 it is the only remaining Victorian era former prison in Northern Ireland. It is colloquially known as ' ...
. 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
The Crumlin Road is a main road in north-west Belfast, Northern Ireland. The road runs from north of Belfast City Centre for about four miles to the outskirts of the city. It also forms part of the longer A52 road which leads out of Belfast to t ...
.
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
is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent".
may also refer to:
* Award in absentia
* Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body
* Election in ab ...
'' and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum recommended term of 30 years.
Extradition and deportation battle
Doherty escaped across the border into the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...
, and then travelled to the United States on a false passport.
He lived with an American girlfriend in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
and
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, working on construction sites and as a bartender at Clancy's Bar in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, where he was arrested by the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
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.
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 federal judge
John E. Sprizzo ruled Doherty could not be extradited as the killing was a "
political offense".
Doherty's legal battle continued as the
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
then attempted to deport him for entering the country illegally.
Doherty remained in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center and attempted to claim
political asylum
The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another ent ...
, and on 15 June 1988 the
Attorney General Edwin Meese
Edwin Meese III (born December 2, 1931) is an American attorney, law professor, author and member of the Republican Party who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan's gubernatorial administration (1967–1974), the Reagan pre ...
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. By this time Doherty's case was a ''cause célèbre'' with his sympathisers including over 130
Congressmen
A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...
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.
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
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal judiciary. The courts of appeals are divided into 11 numbered circuits that cover geographic areas of the United States and hear appeals fr ...
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
David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. He was the first African American to hold the office.
Before enteri ...
, and the
Cardinal Archbishop of New York,
John Joseph O'Connor.
Doherty was returned to Crumlin Road prison before being transferred to
HM Prison Maze
Her Majesty's Prison Maze (previously Long Kesh Detention Centre, and known colloquially as The Maze or H-Blocks) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house alleged paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from August 1971 to Sept ...
, and was released from prison on 6 November 1998 under the terms of the
Good Friday Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...
.
After his release Doherty became a community worker specialising in helping disadvantaged young people. In 2006, he appeared in the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
.