Biography
Provisional IRA volunteer born January 20, 1955 in the New Lodge area of Belfast. Interned without charge at age 17 in 1972 under British internment. Arrested in 1980 with his IRA Active Service Unit after an ambush in which British Captain Herbert Westmacott was killed; escaped from Crumlin Road Jail during his 1981 trial. Came to the U.S. and was arrested by federal officials in New York on June 18, 1983 on immigration charges. Held at MCC New York for over five years while the U.S. fought to extradite him; in 1984 a federal judge ruled the IRA ambush was a political offense barring extradition. Spent over nine years in U.S. federal custody (mostly MCC and Otisville) before being deported back to Northern Ireland in February 1992. Released under the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
