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Hugh Aodh Doherty
Hugh Aodh Doherty
Born	1950 (age 74–75); Gorbals District, Glasgow, Scotland
Occupation	Artist
Known for	Balcombe Street Siege
Criminal status	Released under terms of the Good Friday Agreement
Parents	Dan Doherty (father); Madge Doherty (mother);
Relatives	Pat Doherty (brother)
Criminal charge	11 x Murder + 7 charges
Penalty	11 terms of life imprisonment (30 years judicial recommendation)
Details
Date	6 to 12 December 1975
Country	England, United Kingdom
State(s)	London
Location(s)	HM Prison Wandsworth; HM Prison Leicester; HM Prison Belmarsh; Portlaoise Prison;

Hugh Aodh Doherty is a Scottish-born Irish republican. A former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), he is known for his role in the Balcombe Street Siege in London in December 1975.^[1]

Criminal background

Doherty is known for his role in the Balcombe Street Siege of December 1975, at the resolution of which he was sentenced to eleven terms of life imprisonment for offences including murder, with a judicial recommendation he serve at least 30 years.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Doherty and fellow members of his active service unit had targeted tourist attractions, soldiers, police officers, politicians and other establishment figures as part of the IRA's armed campaign against Northern Ireland being a part of the United Kingdom.^[5]^[6]

The Balcombe Street gang, who were named after the London street on which they were arrested after a six-day siege that was broadcast live on television and watched by millions, were responsible for a 14-month campaign of bombings and shootings across the south-east of England.^[7]

Trial

At his trial at the Old Bailey in 1977, Doherty received eleven life sentences and seven other sentences ranging from eighteen to twenty-one years' imprisonment.^[8] In 1987, Jeremy Corbyn handed a petition to then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher which demanded better visiting conditions for Doherty and his fellow IRA prisoner Nat Vella, along with "the immediate transfer of Irish political prisoners to prisons near their homes".^[7] In May 1998, he was transferred from England to Portlaoise Prison in County Laois in Ireland.^[9]

Following his transfer, Doherty made an appearance at the 1998 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis at which the party accepted the Good Friday Agreement. Under these terms, Doherty was released from prison, on 9 April 1999.^[2]^[1]

Personal details

Doherty was born in the Gorbals Region in Glasgow, Scotland in 1950,^[10] He has been painting since 1982. He started with landscapes and seascapes and now works as a professional artist in Ireland.^[11] He is the brother of Sinn Féin MP and MLA Pat Doherty.^[12]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "HUGH DOHERTY: REPUBLICAN EX-PRISONER AND VETERAN OF THE BELCOMMBE STREET SIEGE".
^ ^a ^b "Balcombe Street gang's reign of terror". BBC News. 9 April 1999. Archived from the original on 20 March 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2007.
^ "1975: Balcombe Street siege ends". BBC News. 12 December 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
^ 2010: Hugh Launches New Website displaying his Art Archived 28 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine Click To Visit
^ Moysey, Stephen P. (2015). The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London. CreateSpace. p. 255. ISBN 978-1523284771.
^ "Files reveal 1970s IRA 'targets'". BBC. 28 October 2009. Archived from the original on 21 July 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Exclusive: MI5 opened file on Jeremy Corbyn amid concerns over his IRA links". The Telegraph. 19 May 2017. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
^ O'Donnell, Ruán (2012). Special Category: The IRA in English Prisons Vol.1: 1968-78. Irish Academic Press. pp. 458–459. ISBN 978-0-7165-3142-5.
^ "High-profile prisoners at ardfheis". Irish Times. 11 May 1998. Archived from the original on 18 December 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
^ Dooley, Brian (4 October 2004). "Your name could put you in jail". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 5 April 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
^ "Ruth Dudley Edwards". Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 29 December 2008.
^ "Balcombe Street gang to be freed". BBC News. 9 April 1999. Archived from the original on 8 August 2007. Retrieved 4 October 2007.