Brendan McFarlane

The “Top Secret” Press Release

Rusty Nail on November 8, 2010, 1:07 pm

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One has to admire the sheer chutzpah of Brendan McFarlane. He was in Saturday’s Irish News trying to pass off a 1981 press release as a secret comm reflecting the personal viewpoint of Richard O’Rawe. Mr McFarlane said yesterday he would break five years of silence by producing secret IRA comms written by Mr O’Rawe during the Hunger Strike in which he accused the British government of trying to prolong it. The first first two lines of the original comm read: …

“While the conduct of the applicant had contributed somewhat to the delay…”

Pete Baker on September 10, 2010, 1:24 pm

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The BBC reports the European Court of Human Rights ruling against the Irish government in the case taken by Maze escapee Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane following the collapse of his trial on charges relating to the kidnap of Don Tidey in 1983. The iol report notes part of the ruling The Court ruled in favour of the former IRA commander in the Maze and found the 10-and-a-half-year wait from his arrest in 1998 until he walked free was excessive. The ECHR ordered the …