Why the IRA bomb expert is now the `true penitent'

READERS of the Catholic Herald will have noticed three recent letters about prisoners and their treatment signed 'Shane O'Doherty'. If they had been written by a life-long friend of prisoners they would not be as remarkable as in fact they are, coming as they do from a young Irishman serving a life sentence in Wormwood Scrubs for distributing letter bombs.
Shane O'Doherty is possibly unique in another way. He is the only prisoner known to me who has made systematic and determined efforts in face of much discouragement to apologise to his victims.
Other prisoners in my experience have had the same idea, though on a smaller scale, but have found the obstacles too great.
In Shane's case, the Home Office were eventually persuaded to allow the Catholic priest in Wormwood Scrubs to approach all those who had been damaged (two had lost their hands), or to whom he and others with him had sent letter bombs.
The priest was asked to enquire whether these victims, or potential victims, were ready to receive apologies from Shane O'Doherty.
Some have responded favourably: in the other cases it may well be that they had changed their addresses, so that the letters never reached them.
Some of us who have taken an initiative on behalf of the victims of crime have proclaimed the vision of a reconciliation between egress, s
and victims. We have made little progress so far. But here at least is a beginning. To borrow a phrase from Robert Louis Steven son's Ebb Tide: "Here is surely the true penitent".
Shane O'Doherty was brought up in a strong Catholic family in Derry and was himself an enthusiastic choirboy in the parish of the present Bishop of Derry, who, is keeping in close touch with him today.
When he was 15 he became entangled with the periphery of the IRA. By the age of 18, he was considered something of a bombing expert and was sending out a score of letter bombs. lie was arrested some time later.
Now 24, he is serving life imprisonment in Category 'A', that is conditions of maximum security. When he is brought over to see me in the visiting room, he has to be accompanied by two prison ofiiders and a dog, though he is of slight build and gentle disposition.
It should be remakrcd as a matter for serious criticism that all the prisoners with any connection with the IRA (including some much less seriously involved than Shane O'Doherty) are maintained in Category 'A' except in one case where a medical factor appears to operate. One is bound to regard this as a political decision; not in all cases of course, but in some.
The only correspondent who was explicitly reluctant to accept an apology, though he did more or less accept it, was one who said he would have been more impressed if O'Doherty had publicly repudiated his support for violence.
But in fact that is exactly what Shane O'Doherty has done. He wrote to a friend a letter widely published in the British and Irish papers: "In injuring human beings, I didn't cure injustices. I created new ones, And at the back of my mind 1 was so busy thinking about myself that I became selfish. I didn't realise then that my youthful militarist activities conflicted, not only with Christian morality, but also with the principles of democracy in democratic socialism.
"I ignored the human rights of the people I injured, but was very touchy about my own human rights. I was a hypocrite."
At what might be thought
some considerable risk he has testified in a manner that might have got him into considerable trouble,.to say the least, with his IRA colleagues in prison. In fact he seems to have won their respect. though not of course their agreement, by his courage and integrity.
He retained his Catholic beliefs even during his bombing phase, which would be true of some, though certainly not all,• of the IRA. But he persuaded himself that this was war and that the methods used by the Allies, for example. could on a smaller scale fairly be employed, according to the Catholic doctrine of a just war.
He has now not only repudiated, but denounced in the clearest possible terms, publicly and privately, the application of the conception of the just war in this connection.
I think that he could he described today as a complete pacifist. although I would not suppose that he has yet worked out his full philosophy in this or many other areas.
There is much that could he said about the sins of commission or omission of the Home Office in regard to long-term prisoners.
But it would be wrong not to pay tribute to the immense kindness shown to Shane O'Doherty by many members of the prison staff at Wormwood Scrubs and a number of visitors, some of them famous persons.
He has created an atmosphere of genuine idealism to which there has been an unmistakable response. He remains as dedicated as ever to the vision of a United. Ireland, but one to be achieved by nonviolent means.