The release of Nicky Kelly lease Nicky Kelly Campaign was telling the truth: The "release is a vindication of (Kelly's) determined stand and a victory for all those who have campaigned on his behalf."
Kelly has no doubts about this. "it was a victory for the struggle. It was an unusual victory in the context of modern power, particularly within the state."
Why did Noonan suddenly release people politically affiliated to the anti-imperialist movement, sentencec felly to a twelve year term. The Dublin government's Minister for Justice, Michael Noonan, stated that Kelly had been prematurely released for 'humanitarian' reasons.
In fact the Release Nicky Kelly Campaign has been a thorn in the side of successive governments for the past few years. organizations in Ireland, and international civil rights watchdogs like Amnesty International, have questioned the credibility of Kelly's conviction. It is generally accepted that Kelly was an innocent victim of a frame-up. He is still demanding that the state should clear his name. He has consistently claimed that the police tortured him, in this way forcing him to sign a 'voluntary confession' admitting participation in the robbery of about £200,000 from the Cork-Dublin mail train at Sallins, Co. Kildare, in March 1976. The case has major political implications. Kelly's release was widely seen as a victory for the anti-imperialist movement, the left and civil rights campaigners.
In this article there is a brief description of the background to Nicky Kelly's release. It is followed by excerpts from an interview given by Kelly shortly after his release. Robert ALLEN and John MEEHAN
A huge number of
Kelly? Was the Irish Minister for Justice afraid that the man from Wicklow would go on hunger strike again? A move which would have forced the government into a corner to face the glaring, attentive, questioning eyes of the world. It has been suggested that Noonan wanted to divert these eyes and so took the easiest way out.
"I think it was a combination of things," says Kelly. He thinks that in particular the campaign itself was starting to come good. A lot of things were starting to come together where a lot of good work had been put in. I knew I would never lose, whether I would get out or not was another thing."
Perhaps surprisingly, Kelly has unusual, in the circumstances, generosity towards
To Nicky Kelly, on his release from prison.
On March 31, 1976, the Cork-Dublin
The United Secretariat Bureau of the Fourth International sends you its warmmail train was robbed of mail bags with an estimated value of $200,000. A week
Your release by the Southern Irish government is a victory for the democratic later the Gardai (Southern police) roundrights and anti-imperialist movements in Ireland and elsewhere who have worked ed up 39 people, most of them members
We hope that a similar victory will be won in of the Irish Republican Socialist Party forcing the government and police to drop their false charges against you and ex-
IRSP), including Nicky Kelly. Between posing these as a frame up against those who fight for Irish freedom and socialism.
the period of arrests, and the trial of
Our comrades in Ireland and elsewhere will continue to work to explain and win
In the meantime, we wish you a full return to good health
Osgur Breatnach, Brian MacNally, Michael
Plunkett and Nicky Kelly (the IRSP 4), i became evident that the state had frame-up.
onchestrated an elaborate
MacNally, Breatnach and
Kelly were sentenced to jail by the Special Criminal
Court despite a report published by
Amnesty International which substantiated allegations of garda brutality during 1976 and 1977. Kelly jumped bail on the weekend before the verdict was due, and eventually departed to the USA.
In May 1980, Breatnach and MacNally were acquitted.
The following month
Kelly returned and was immediately arrested by the Special Branch. Numerous appeals were turned down in the
Nicky Kelly went on a 38-day courts.
hunger strike in 1983 and support for his cause mushroomed. He was finally released without any warning last July in a manner which summed up the hypocrisy and pro-imperialist corruption of the
Southern state.
At 4:40 p.m. on July 17 the screws told Nicky Kelly to pack his belongings and hustled him out of Portlaoise prison in a hectic rush. There was no time allowed for good-byes to friends, some person-
International Viewpoint 1 October 1984 est greetings on this occasion.
consistently to win your release.
support for your case.
after your imprisonment. al property had to be left behind. The screws told Kelly he was being transferred to Shelton Abbey, an 'open prison' or pre-release centre near Arklow Co. Wicklow, Nicky's home town. The news of his release from the jail was broadcast to the world just after 5:00 p.m. But during the journey in a garda car Nicky was handcuffed to a cop. At 6:00 p.m. he was astonished to hear the news in the Irish language from the car radio repeating the news of his release. Immediately Nicky Kelly demanded that the cops stop the car and take off the handcuffs. The minders insisted they were proceeding to Shelton Abbey where the formal release would oceur. When Kelly finally made it home to Arklow he was surrounded by supporters and journalists, liged to hold an on-the-spot press conference. News of the release was a major sensation, and received considerable cov-
Bureau of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International Paris, September 14, 1984 the successive governments and their ministers for Justice: Paddy Cooney, Sean Doherty, Jim Mitchell and Michael Noonan.
"Considering they were covering up I can understand their behaviour. I suppose they all had vested interests, protecting the police. They were all, in their own time, using the same methods and the same tactics. I'd say if anything, this case has established that anyway. People didn't even know what the connotations of the heavy gang' (1) meant. There is • 1. *Heavy Gang' is a nickname for a group of thug interrogators within the Gardai. It was founded around the time of the Sallins train robbery and its members have since been promoted. This set an important precedent: today stories of police corruption and thug gery are ten a penny. They have recently been exposed for bugging the house of a leading bourgeois politician: Seamus Mallon, deputy leader of the bourgeois nationalist SDLP in the North and an ally of the main opposition party in the South, Fianna Fail.
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RELAND.
also the possibility, as has been suggested in the past, that the Gardai will revolt themselves against any interference enquiry into their activities.
"I would say certain politicians in the government were pushing this situation. You might say they were finding a very eager police force."
Kelly still intends to fight the cops in the courts. He sees his own case as a link in the chain of repressive laws in the South of Ireland. vehicles of the state, like the Special Criminal Court, which plays the role of a conveyor belt system," must be looked
"There is a drive for more repressive way ahead of a lot of people and particularly of me, as regards political clarity. He was honest, politically honest, and principled and unique in many ways. He was capable of organizing people in a sound political way.
At the time of the Sallins train robbery Nicky Kelly was 26. Eight years later he has the appearance of a man of 45; and last year's hunger strike has had
Since his teens Kelly asserted his individual right to political years of his life, he is still committed.