He astonished the world with his strength and calmness after being kidnapped for 36 days. Today 90-year-old Dr Tiede Herrema uses that mental agility and physical fitness to keep old age at bay, writes ISABEL CONWAYin Arnhem
THE CYCLIST weaves through a busy Dutch street astride an old bicycle, ramrod straight he turns the corner, expertly steering clear of wandering pedestrians, an approaching bus and other traffic thundering past. Nobody gives him a second glance.
Yet his face, even with the passing of many years, would be instantly recognisable to those of a certain age in Ireland, his name would be remembered by those who were children when he was making the headlines, who prayed in schools throughout the land for his life to be spared.
Dr Tiede Herrema, hero of the epic “siege of Monasterevin” celebrated his 90th birthday earlier this year.
The 36th anniversary of the 36-day-long kidnap drama yesterday was symbolic, marking a year for every day that passed from the moment his ordeal began and the Dutchman – managing director of the Co Limerick Ferenka factory – was stopped by a bogus Garda on his way to work and bundled into the back of a car on October 3rd, 1975.
Demanding the release of Dr Rose Dugdale, two other jailed prominent Republicans and later a ransom and escape deal, it ended after the kidnappers, former provisional IRA members Eddie Gallagher and Marion Coyle, caved in, releasing their captive unharmed after a dramatic and dangerous 19-day siege.
One of Herrema’s passions is repairing and rebuilding old clocks. Meeting him in the town of Arnhem, where his long career with multinational giant AKZO was to bring him to Ireland all those years ago, you are struck by how he appears to have turned back the clock on his own advancing years.
Now a great-grandfather, he is sprightly, carrying himself well and looking a lot younger than his years, having come this far with nothing worse than a knee replacement while maintaining the same weight for six decades.
Heaping a couple of spoons of sugar into his coffee, he says he has a sweet tooth and is not adverse to the odd glass of wine – but drinks only the sweet German wines, staying active and keeping an eye on his diet.
Physical fitness and mental strength were probably what prepared him for that kidnap ordeal and stand to him today, he modestly concedes.
“None of the young people in Ireland will have a clue about the Monasterevin siege or who I am,” he says with obvious relief.
“It is history, Ireland has changed so much, a former IRA leader is standing as a candidate now for the Presidency, I want to forget what happened except that anniversaries come around, so it is inevitable that I am made to remember again.”
Never tempted to “profit from the kidnapping – I would not want to make money from what happened” by writing his memoirs – Herrema marked this significant anniversary yesterday with a round of golf at his local club.
He runs three times weekly – always a 6km route – and has a daunting list of hobbies ranging from chess and genealogy to painting.
Every January, he starts again on the list of more than 80 individual Christmas cards sent to family, friends and contacts annually. (For the past 16 years he has never missed sending this writer a delicately painted water colour of a typical Dutch landscape country scene with Christmas wishes.)
Back in the the mid-1970s in Ireland, Herrema, a tough but fair businessman whose task was to troubleshoot endemic industrial action and return the Ferenka factory to profitability, was to become as memorable as the Beirut hostages.
His coolness and composure at the end of his 36-day ordeal was astonishing. It was said that he might have been returning from a visit to placate difficult neighbours as he exited the box bedroom of number 1410 St Evins Park, Monasterevin, into the glare of the world’s media and a war zone of armoured cars, uniformed snipers, barricades of bulletproof glass and sandbags.
To the astonishment of the assembled world media, he neither looked nor behaved like somebody held at gunpoint for five weeks, bound and blindfolded, deprived of food, liquids, sleep washing and toilet facilities. To this day, he believes his training as a psychologist helped.
“I always tried to be one step ahead of them [his kidnappers Eddie Gallagher and Marian Coyle]. From the first hours of my kidnapping I decided to plan and I never stopped planning, in a way I saw it as a kind of sport, anyway a challenge, but a very dangerous one that could have gone so wrong.
“I made myself sleep only at night and tried to do other things at regular hours of the day. I washed every day, in my own mind. There was no water available in fact, but in my thoughts there was. I tried to live, at least in my mind, as normal a life as possible.
“I said to myself, ‘All right, I’m lying here in this bedroom, but as long as I am not shot let me be happy in my own mind’,” he told Colm Connolly, author of the definitive account Siege in Monasterevin.
It amounted to an incredible strength of mental will. Not knowing the time nor day nor whether he would live or die he continued to plan, compose word puzzles, work out complicated mathematical problems in his head and sing (rather tunelessly) Dutch songs to keep his spirits up.
The keep-fit fanatic Dutchman was better prepared than most men of his age for the mental and physical hardship and that steeliness and determination has seen him through since.
Even after official retirement 26 years ago, he was still working as a consultant called in to “troubleshoot” in various industries.
He is also a former director of the Dutch Red Cross and the Herremas return to Ireland religiously a couple of times a year to visit friends and play golf at Milltown club.
Recently Herrema (“I have a handicap of 23 and I play it”) and his 86-year-old wife Elisabeth were third in a closely contested four-ball golf tournament, although they were by far the oldest competitors.
The shelves at the couple’s apartment are lined with golf, handball and other prizes for sports achievements.
“I can’t stop . . . I guess I am obsessive . . . I started with sports activities when I was young and with age I still never stopped – it’s a sickness, I can’t stop.
“Age doesn’t come into it. When you get older you do have to cross certain obstacles, but the main thing is to keep going . . . keep on moving . . . stay in motion physically and mentally and try never to give up.”
As usual this morning, Herrema will put on his running gear and set out for his 6km run.
“I never want to go and I tell Elisabeth that. The first kilometre is always terrible, but then I start to enjoy myself. I make myself do it, it’s a challenge in a way. I am always glad I did it and I am glad when it is over.”
