Biography
Irish national from Dundalk along the militarized border separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the country. He had been in the United States only a few months at the time of his arrest. Convicted on August 20, 1990 in U.S. District Court in Boston alongside Richard Johnson and Christina Reid of conspiracy to develop a missile guidance system to shoot down British helicopters in the North. Judge A. David Mazzone refused to allow him to remain free pending appeal, calling him 'a danger to the community,' and doubled his sentence from four to eight years. The FBI watched Quigley for 16 hours a day for ten weeks (30 agents) and photographed him with his girlfriend sunbathing on a beach. Held at Connecticut federal facility.
Martin P. Quigley was one of the defendants in a high-profile Boston federal case involving Irish republican-linked weapons technology. Prosecutors alleged that the effort was aimed at providing the IRA with the means to counter British Army helicopters, focusing on specialized components and technical know-how rather than conventional gun-running alone.
Quigley was arrested in the late 1980s and convicted in federal court in Boston on charges tied to the conspiracy and unlawful export-related conduct. He served a federal prison term in the United States and, after completing his sentence, was released and deported to Ireland in the mid-1990s.
