Ireland/USA: Liam Quinn's long road
EUG...@zodiac.rutgers.edu
by Jack Holland
from The Irish People
Dec. 21-27, 1994
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"If I was running, I'd be at the Rockies by now," Liam Quinn
once told his brother Jim on a visit. The San Francisco-born LIam
sits in a cell in an English prison in Cambridgeshire, north of
London, serving a life sentence for the shooting of a policeman.
He's been in jail in England since 1986. Every day he runs three
or four miles in order to stay fit that works out at about 1,000
miles a year. Multiplied by the number of years he had been
incarcerated at the time he made the calculation, and that just
about brought him home. But that was a few years ago now. Quinn
has kept running. At the rate he is going, he is somewhere out in
the Pacific, heading towards Hawaii.
Liam Quinn's name was on the list of republican prisoners
that Gerry Adams recently handed over on his last visit to
Washington. Adams is hoping that the cases of those under U.S.
jurisdiction will be reviewed with an eye on early release or
charges being dropped. But the case of Quinn, the only American
ever convicted of IRA membership, is unique. And it has imposed
unusual hardships on his family.
His mother, Katherine Juanita Quinn Gonzales, is 74 years
old. Since 1986, she has been making a yearly pilgrimage from
California to visit her son in far-off England. First comes the
three-hour drive from her home in the foothills of the Sierras to
the airport at San Francisco. Then follows a 10 hour flight to
London. After this, she faces the final lap of the journey to
prison. For many years this meant a three hour haul from London
tothe Isle of Wright. But recently, Quinn has been incarcerated
in a Cambridgeshire prison, which in nearer to London. The trip
costs over $1,000 per person. Usually, Mrs. Gonzales is
accompanied by Liam's brother Jim.
"Though I long to see him I don't look forward to the trip
at all," she said. "it's very trying." The family is allowed two
hours each afternoon to visit, and they usually stay for a week
or 10 days. Asked about how she finds her son, who is now 46, she
replies: "He's always in an upbeat mood. But he is realistic
about the peace process and cautious." However, she says they
don't talk politics much. "He wants to talk about home and the
old neighborhood, and about the new kids in the family."
Quinn was the first and only person extradited from the U.S.
top Britain for IRA-linked offenses. He was arrested as he went
to work in his uncle's stationary shop in San Francisco on Sept.
30, 1981. The complex extradition battle lasted five years.
During the entire period Quinn was held in an 8 x 10 foot cell.
He was kept locked up 22 hours a day and allowed only two hours
of recreation.
"our jail was not built for long-term prisoners," said Mike
Hennessey, who as the San Francisco sheriff was QUinn's jailer
for five years. "He was a high-security prisoner, held under very
restrictive conditions. When he moved he wore leg irons,
handcuffs and a waist-chain," The waist chain, Hennessey
explained, allowed the prisoner to be handcuffed with his hands
at his sides. "it's less comfortable than being handcuffed with
your hands behind your back," he said.
"He didn't express bitterness," said Hennessey, who has been
elected sheriff four times. "He was ironic about his situation.
He was a tough individual--a person who accepted his
circumstances." The two became friendly. "I talked to him a lot
of times," the sheriff said. "He was a charming guy. I helped to
get a few people in to see him. And he was very bright. During
the time he was there, a recreation area was being built. He said
her hoped he wouldn't be there by the time it was done. He
wasn't."
Asked what he'd say to Quinn if he saw him again, Hennessey
replied without pause, "I'd say, 'Let's go have a beer.' I'd be
glad to take him and show him the recreation center he never got
to use."
Their police allege that Quinn was part of an IRA unit based
in London in late 1974 and early 1975. He was convicted of
shooting dead a constable during a chase. The constable, Stephen
Tibble, was in plainclothes at the time. The charges against
Quinn were based on a disputed identification by an English
Special Branch officer. The ID was done when Quinn was between
two uniformed police officers. The judge said that normally such
evidence would not be allowed, but without it there would have
been no case against the American.
"I thought it was a farce," said his brother Jim. who
attended the trial with his mother. Mrs. Gonzales agrees.
"Everything was prejudiced against him," she said. But she has
hopes that the cease-fire might lead to his early release.
"I think about him all the time," she said. "My Christmas
wish has always been to have him home."