Topic: Martin Meehan

Martin Meehan (1945 – 3 November 2007) was a Sinn Féin politician and former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Meehan was the first person to be convicted of membership of the Provisional IRA, and he spent eighteen years in prison during the Troubles.

Meehan was born in 1945 in the Ardoyne area of Belfast in Northern Ireland. His father had been imprisoned for republican activities in the 1940s, and his grandfather was killed in the Battle of the Somme. Meehan left school aged 15 and began working at Belfast's docks, and in 1966 he became a member of the Irish Republican Army. He was sworn in by Billy McMillen, and described joining as "a big occasion, like joining the priesthood". In 1968 he was arrested for the first time, after he assaulted a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) during a civil rights march in Derry. During the August 1969 riots in Belfast he was one of a handful of IRA members who tried to defend Catholic areas from attack, and resigned as a result of the organisation's failure to adequately protect Catholic areas. Meehan was arrested on 22 August 1969 for riotous behaviour, and was badly beaten before being imprisoned. The beating was so severe Meehan was given the last rites, the first of four occasions he received them. He was released after spending two months in prison. After his release Billy McKee convinced Meehan to rejoin the IRA. Meehan sided with the Provisional IRA following the split in January 1970, and by mid-1970 was a senior IRA leader in the Ardoyne area. On 27 June 1970 rioting broke out across Belfast following a parade by the Orange Order, and a gun battle started in the Ardoyne area. Meehan stated:

In the six weeks following the introduction of internment in August 1971, six soldiers from the Green Howards regiment were killed by the IRA in north Belfast. Meehan became one of the most wanted IRA members in the area, and when arrested he was badly beaten by soldiers and needed 47 stitches to the back of his head. Meehan was imprisoned without charge under the Special Powers Act in Crumlin Road Jail. Meehan and two other IRA members escaped from prison on 2 December 1971. The men covered themselves in butter in order to keep warm, then hid inside a manhole for six-and-a-half hours before scaling the prison walls using ropes made from knotted blankets and sheets.