Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív has defended his decision to attend a homecoming party for former IRA man Gerry McGeough, who was released from prison last week.
Mr McGeough (54) was sentenced to 20 years in 2011 for the attempted murder of part-time UDR soldier Sammy Brush 30 years previously, but under the terms of the Belfast Agreement he was released after two years.
He was the first republican jailed for an historical crime since the 1998 peace accord.
Along with a number of other TDs, Senators and MLAs, Mr Ó Cuív campaigned for Mr McGeough’s release on the basis that his incarceration contravened the Weston Park agreement between the British and Irish governments.
Speaking from his home in Galway yesterday, Mr Ó Cuív said that under article 20 of the Weston Park accord so-called “on the runs” were to be given immunity from prosecution. “When two governments sign an agreement, they should honour it. It has been honoured in other cases . . . Nobody has ever been able to explain to me why an exception was made in this case. It was a flagrant contravention,” he said.
Stints in prison
Mr McGeough, a lifelong republican, was previously imprisoned for stints in Germany and the US for IRA-related crimes and he sought political asylum, unsuccessfully, in Sweden. When he returned to Ireland he lived in the Republic, studying at Trinity College Dublin. He later returned to his native Co Tyrone and stood for election as an independent republican in the 2007 Assembly elections.
On the night of the election count he was arrested by the PSNI for the attempted murder of Mr Brush in 1981.
Mr Ó Cuív attended Friday night’s party in Quinn’s Corner pub near Dungannon for “around an hour”.