1 May 1997 Edition
POWs' information missing
PERSONAL INFORMATION BELONGING TO Republican POWs has gone missing. One man, Gerry McDonnell, told An Phoblacht that after he was moved from H7 following the discovery of the tunnel his personal belongings were taken away to be searched. When they were returned two filofaxes and an address book were missing.
``The prison authorities have told me that all my belongings were returned, but the filofaxes and the address books weren't. The information in them is private and sensitive. I am now worried that the names and addresses of people in Ireland, England and America are in the hands of loyalists. The POA is 95% unionist and this would not be the first time that this sort of information has found its way into the hands of loyalist paramilitaries''.
McDonnell, who was one of 38 men to escape from H7 in 1983, said he thinks he was picked on because of the previous escape and that Joe Doherty and Jim Smyth, also escapees, who were extradited from the United States, were both badly beaten in the aftermath of the tunnel being found.
``The prison authorities have told me that all my belongings were returned, but the filofaxes and the address books weren't. The information in them is private and sensitive. I am now worried that the names and addresses of people in Ireland, England and America are in the hands of loyalists. The POA is 95% unionist and this would not be the first time that this sort of information has found its way into the hands of loyalist paramilitaries''.
McDonnell, who was one of 38 men to escape from H7 in 1983, said he thinks he was picked on because of the previous escape and that Joe Doherty and Jim Smyth, also escapees, who were extradited from the United States, were both badly beaten in the aftermath of the tunnel being found.