STOP THE POLITICAL DEPORTATION OF POL BRENNAN

The Republican Network for Unity wishes to add its voice to the broad spectrum of support for justice for Pol Brennan as he fights to remain in his adopted country, the United States with his American wife and children. Ronan Moyne commented as follows:

“The facts and political implications of Pol Brennan’s are well known. Born in Belfast Pol Brennan joined the Irish Republican Army at age 19, was interned without charge for a year and then in 1976 was sentenced to sixteen years by a Diplock Court. He refused to wear a criminal uniform and was sent to the H-Blocks where one of his cell mates was Bobby Sands.

“Two years after the hunger strike, in 1983 Pol Brennan was one of those IRA Volunteers who dramatically escaped from Long Kesh. Brennan made his way to San Francisco, where he found refuge, employment, and eventually a wife and family.

“A decade later Pol Brennan would be captured and held this time by American authorities on a British extradition warrant demanding his return. His case became one of a number of celebrated legal battles in which former Republican prisoners challenged British extradition warrants or American deportation proceedings by putting British rule in Ireland on trial in American courtrooms. They contended they had been jailed by the crown for actions which were political and part of a legitimate struggle against British rule and not crimes for which they could not be deported or extradited.”

“Eventually the impact of these legal cases alongside growing Irish-American political pressure culminated in a political deal to defer all of these cases, allowing former Republican prisoners to remain free in the United States but without any permanent resolution.

“In January of last year Brennan was stopped by American officials as he drove his wife to visit her ailing mother in Texas. His deferred status was deemed invalid by the Bush regime and Pol was denied bail. Under new laws which wiped out the political offence doctrine, he was ordered deported, with only the possibility of last minute reprieve by the Obama administration’s Attorney General standing between him and a forced return to Ireland.”

“Clearly Pol Brennan is not a criminal but one of thousands of Irish Republican patriots who would never have been jailed except for the struggle against British rule. Clearly this man and his family are victims of some misguided crown strategy to overturn those bitter setbacks to its vaunted criminalization policy which Republicans , Pol Brennan among them , inflicted in the H-blocks and then again in American courtrooms. Clearly Pol Brennan should be allowed as a matter of simple justice to live freely with his wife and family in America.”

Statement ends.