Hugh Feeney (born 1951) was a volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who, together with Dolours Price and Marian Price, organised the car bombings of the Old Bailey and Scotland Yard on March 8, 1973. He and ten members of his 11-man active service unit (ASU) were apprehended attempting to board a flight to Ireland shortly after the bombs were discovered.
Arrest, conviction, and imprisonment[]
Feeney was convicted on November 14, 1973[1] and sentenced to life imprisonment for each of the four bombing charges against him which were to run concurrently. The other members of his group were sentenced to life imprisonment as well as an additional twenty years. Feeney and other members of the group were incarcerated in Brixton Prison, and participated in a 205 day hunger strike[2] with the goal of being transferred closer to their homes in Northern Ireland.[3] Feeney and the other hunger strikers were force-fed by British authorities for 167 days[4] of their strike.[5] In May 1974, Feeney was one of a group of four prisoners whose transfer out of Brixton was demanded anonymously in exchange for the return of $19.2 million in stolen art.[6] On 4 June 1974, the IRA kidnapped John Hely-Hutchinson, 7th Earl of Donoughmore and his wife in an unsuccessful attempt to exchange them for the release of Feeney, the Prices, and Gerry Kelly.[4] The prisoners ended their hunger strike on 7 June 1974.[3]
Feeney was transferred to Long Kesh prison soon after the hunger strike ended.[7] During this period he, along with Brendan Hughes, wrote IRA communiqués and articles for the Republican News under the pen name "Brownie." Most material published under this pseudonym was, however, written by Gerry Adams.[8] After Adams's release, Feeney began writing under the pseudonym "Salon."[7]
Release and later deportation[]
Feeney was released from custody in 1990.[9] On 20 May 1991, Feeney was arrested in New York City and deported the next day for having illegally entered the United States. Feeney was arrested in the offices of The Irish People, a republican newspaper published in New York. The arrest was controversial because it involved an FBI agent posing as a journalism student in order to gain access to the paper's editorial offices,[10] which was a violation of FBI policy at the time.[11]
References[]
- ↑ "IRA gang convicted of London bombings". On This Day. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). 14 November 1973. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/14/newsid_4724000/4724181.stm. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ↑ O'Malley, Michael (5 March 1995). "Sinn Fein Builds Image as Force for Peace".
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Irish Call Off Fast in British Jails". 8 June 1974. p. 7.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Joyce, Joe (10 June 2010). "Hostages teach IRA kidnappers all about racing".
- ↑ Moriarty, Gerry (16 May 2011). "Old Bailey bomber charged over dissident threats to police".
- ↑ "Irish Prisoners' Transfer Demanded for Stolen Art". 4 May 1974. p. 1.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Moloney, Ed (1 June 2010). Voices from the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland. PublicAffairs. p. 199ff. ISBN 978-1-58648-932-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=HTWepzmb8H4C&pg=PA199. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
- ↑ Moloney, Ed (November 2003). A Secret History of the IRA. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-393-32502-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=5PNAtCeYpgYC&pg=PA170. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
- ↑ Tendler, Stuart (2 August 1991). "Three in IRA bomb raids lose jail plea - 1973 car bombing campaign".
- ↑ Wolper, Allan (31 August 1991). "Pseudo journalist". http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA11258924&v=2.1&u=whit75390&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w.
- ↑ Wolper, Allan (21 September 1991). "FBI criticized for posing as journalism student: Catholic college, archdiocese are upset". http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA11350245&v=2.1&u=whit75390&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w.
Further reading[]
- Clutterbuck, Richard. Kidnap and Ransom. Boston: Faber & Faber, 1978.
The original article can be found at Hugh Feeney and the edit history here.