November 16 1973
EIGHT of the Belfast IRA squad which bombed London were jailed for life yesterday.
They included Dolores (Dolours) Price, the 22-year-old girl said to have led the bombing operation, and her sister Marion (19). The eight, who pleaded not guilty, were given life for causing blasts at the Old Bailey and Great Scotland Yard in March, and 20 years for conspiracy to cause explosions.
Another man, William Patrick McLarnon, unemployed, Finlay Park, Newtownabbey, who pleaded guilty when the trial opened at Winchester Crown Court 45 days ago, was given 15 years on each of the three charges, the sentences to run concurrently. During yesterday’s hearing he sat near the two Price sisters but surrounded by prison officers.
During the day’s 1½-hour hearing the judge was continuously interrupted by shouts and barracking from the dock. At one point there was clapping and shouting from the public gallery, and the judge ordered that police should remove those responsible.
This happened during a speech from the dock by Gerald Kelly (19), unemployed of Britton’s Parade, Belfast. The judge had allowed Kelly to speak, but at one point stopped him and ordered that he should be taken down to the cells.
The eight who got life, after being convicted on Wednesday night, are (all from Belfast): Robert Walsh (24), tiler, Theodore Street; Gerald Kelly (19), unemployed, Britton’s Parade; Martin Brady (22), driver, Granville Street; William Armstrong (29), window cleaner, Moyard Crescent; Hugh Feeney (21), student, Black’s Road; Dolours Price (22), student and her sister Marion (19) student, both Slievegallion Drive; and Paul Holmes (19), tiler, Butler Street.
There were strict security checks before the hearing started, and everyone entering the public gallery was searched. There was hushed tension as Mr Justice Sebag Shaw walked in, accompanied by two plain clothes policemen. One sat near him, and the other sat behind the judge’s chair.
The judge was told that McLarnon had given police details of how the bomb attack and expedition had been planned and carried out. His confession was made on March 9, the day after the bomb attack which injured over 200 people.
Barracking from the dock began when Detective Chief Superintendent Rory Habershon, of Scotland Yard, was giving antecedents of all nine. During the hearing, the court doors were locked and no one was allowed in or out.
After their conviction and on being sent to Brixton Prison, the Price sisters immediately started a hunger strike until they were granted political prisoner status and returned to Northern Ireland to serve their sentences. They were soon joined in the hunger strike by Hugh Feeney and Gerry Kelly. They were eventually moved back to the north in 1975 to serve the remainder of their sentences.
