jmm@bonnie.UUCP (Joe Mcghee) (10/04/84)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I recently read a newspaper article about a woman named Ann Devaney who is seeking political asylum in the United States. Ann is not charged with any crimes, but she feels that if she were to return home she would be murdered. In 1969 when she was 18 years old, eight men entered Ann's house, they argued with her father and, in her presence, they beat her father to death. Ann knows at least some of the men involved because she used to see them coming to work each morning. At that time Ann worked as a hairdresser in a small shop next to the local station house of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Northern Ireland. You see, the eight men who murdered Ann's father were uniformed members of the RUC. His death was one of the first, if not the first, violent death in the current conflict in Northern Ireland (1969-present). The circumstances that led to his death were that on that night people were out in the street, in front of their house, throwing stones at the RUC. Ann states that none of her family were involved in this and no one entered their house while this was going on. After the people left the streets, the eight RUC men came into their home and said they had seen some of the stone-throwers enter the house. The father told them that no one was there. They insisted that the stone-throwers had escaped through the backyard. The father pointed out that his backyard faced the blank back wall of a factory and it was impossible to escape through his backyard. In rage and frustration they started beating the father and killed him. In explanation Ann states that none of her family had ever been involved in any political organizations and especially after her father's death, her mother insisted that no one would be allowed to take part in any activity of this kind since it would, she believed, be used by the government as justification, after the fact, for the murder of the father. Ann states that she has never even voted in an election since, under the restrictive laws of Northern Ireland, she has never been granted the right to vote. When the family asked the RUC to investigate the father's death, an RUC officer stated that an investigation would be impossible because he said there was "a conspiracy of silence within the RUC". Later, an investigator came from London's Scotland Yard to follow up the case but this man was later prosecuted in another case involving official corruption and bribery within Scotland Yard. And so there has never been an official investigation into the father's death in 15 years. Ann states that if she ever gets the chance she will identify and testify against the men who murdered her father. For the past 4 years she has lived in the U.S. and says that after living here she could never return to living in the pressure cooker environment of Northern Ireland, in spite of the fact that her mother, brothers and sisters still live there. She wants to remain here and she is sure that if she returns, her father's murderers will kill her also. On numerous occasions Ann's mother has sent her information relating to the case by mail, but none of these letters has ever reached Ann. And so, she believes that her mail has been intercepted. So far Ann has received the support of the Governor of New Jersey, and a number of congressmen in her petition to remain in the U.S. Ironically, the State Department opinion in the case is that although Ann's petition would ordinarily be facilitated by the fact that she has American relatives, her legal connection to them, they say, was severed by the death of her father. Meanwhile, a number of U.S. congressmen have called for a congressional investigation into the policies, procedures and activities of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). bonnie!jmm J. M. McGhee
wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (10/05/84)
So, from what I read, Joe, I suppose your solution to the lady's problem is to send some more money over to Ireland with instructions to the IRA to go out and kill 8 RUC members to exact revenge?
baba@flairvax.UUCP (Baba ROM DOS) (10/12/84)
I can't fault Joe for lack of energy, but I still think he's doing a terrible disservice to anyone else named Joe McGhee whose resume crosses my desk... Baba