Paul Magee
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Paul "Dingus" Magee (born 30 January 1948) is a former volunteer in the Belfast Brigade of the
Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...
(IRA) who escaped during his 1981 trial for killing a member of the
Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terr ...
(SAS) in 1980. After serving a prison sentence in the
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...
, Magee fled to England where he was imprisoned after killing a policeman in 1992. He was repatriated to the Republic of Ireland as part of the
Northern Ireland peace process The Northern Ireland peace process includes the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and subsequent political develop ...
before being released from prison in 1999, and subsequently avoided
extradition In an extradition, one Jurisdiction (area), jurisdiction delivers a person Suspect, accused or Conviction, convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforc ...
back to Northern Ireland to serve his sentence for killing the member of the SAS.


Background and early IRA activity

Magee was born in the Ballymurphy area of
Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
on 30 January 1948. He joined the Belfast Brigade of the IRA, and received a five-year sentence in 1971 for possession of firearms. He was imprisoned in Long Kesh, where he held the position of camp
adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an Officer (armed forces), officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of “human resources” in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed ...
. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he was part of a four-man
active service unit An active service unit (ASU; ) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) Clandestine cell system, cell of four to ten members, tasked with carrying out armed attacks. In 2002, the IRA had about 1,000 active members of which about 300 were i ...
, along with Joe Doherty and Angelo Fusco, nicknamed the "M60 gang" due to their use of an M60
general purpose machine gun A general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) is an air-cooled, usually belt-fed machine gun that can be adapted flexibly to various tactical roles for light and medium machine guns. A GPMG typically features a quick-change barrel design calibered for ...
. On 9 April 1980 the unit lured the
Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the ...
(RUC) into an ambush on Stewartstown Road, killing Constable Stephen Magill and wounding two others. On 2 May the unit were planning another attack and had taken over a house on
Antrim Road The Antrim Road is a major arterial route and area of housing and commerce that runs from inner city north Belfast to Dunadry, passing through Newtownabbey and Templepatrick. It forms part of the A6 road (Northern Ireland), A6 road, a traffic rou ...
, when an eight-man patrol from the
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
's
Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terr ...
arrived in plain clothes, after being alerted by the RUC. A car carrying three SAS members went to the rear of the house, and another car carrying five SAS members arrived at the front of the house. As the SAS members at the front of the house exited the car the IRA unit opened fire with the M60 machine gun from an upstairs window, hitting Captain Herbert Westmacott in the head and shoulder. Westmacott was killed instantly, and is the highest-ranking member of the SAS killed in Northern Ireland. The remaining SAS members at the front of the house, armed with Colt Commando automatic rifles,
submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...
s and Browning pistols, returned fire but were forced to withdraw. Magee was apprehended by the SAS members at the rear of the house while attempting to prepare the IRA unit's escape in a transit van, while the other three IRA members remained inside the house. More members of the security forces were deployed to the scene, and after a brief siege the remaining members of the IRA unit surrendered.


1981 trial and escape

The trial of Magee and the other members of the M60 gang began in early May 1981, with them facing charges including three counts of murder. On 10 June Magee and seven other prisoners, including Joe Doherty, Angelo Fusco and the other member of the IRA unit, took a prison officer hostage at gunpoint in Crumlin Road Jail. After locking the officer in a cell, the eight took other officers and visiting solicitors hostage, also locking them in cells after taking their clothing. Two of the eight wore officer's uniforms while a third wore clothing taken from a solicitor, and the group moved towards the first of three gates separating them from the outside world. They took the officer on duty at the gate hostage at gunpoint, and forced him to open the inner gate. An officer at the second gate recognised one of the prisoners and ran into an office and pressed an alarm button, and the prisoners ran through the second gate towards the outer gate. An officer at the outer gate tried to prevent the escape but was attacked by the prisoners, who escaped onto Crumlin Road. As the prisoners were moving towards the car park where two cars were waiting, an unmarked RUC car pulled up across the street outside Crumlin Road Courthouse. The RUC officers opened fire, and the prisoners returned fire before escaping in the waiting cars. Two days after the escape, Magee was convicted ''
in absentia ''In Absentia'' is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the f ...
'' and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum recommended term of thirty years.


Imprisonment in the Republic of Ireland

Magee escaped across the border into the Republic of Ireland. Eleven days after the escape he appeared in public at the
Wolfe Tone Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone (; 20 June 176319 November 1798), was a revolutionary exponent of Irish independence and is an iconic figure in Irish republicanism. Convinced that, so long as his fellow Protestantism in ...
commemoration in Bodenstown,
County Kildare County Kildare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the Local gove ...
, where troops from the
Irish Army The Irish Army () is the land component of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Defence Forces of Republic of Ireland, Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. ...
and the Garda's
Special Branch Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence in Policing in the United Kingdom, British, Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, ...
attempted to arrest him, but failed after the crowd threw missiles and lay down in the road blocking access. He was arrested in January 1982 along with Angelo Fusco, and sentenced to ten years imprisonment for the escape under extra-jurisdictional legislation. Shortly before his release from prison in 1989 Magee was served with an extradition warrant, and he started a legal battle to avoid being returned to Northern Ireland. In October 1991 the
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
in Dublin ordered his return to Northern Ireland to serve his sentence for the murder of Captain Westmacott, but Magee had jumped bail and a warrant was issued for his arrest.


IRA activity in England

Magee fled to England, where he was part of an IRA active service unit. On 7 June 1992 Magee and another IRA member, Michael O'Brien, were travelling in a car on the A64 road between
York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
and
Tadcaster Tadcaster is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, north-east of Leeds and south-west of York. Its historical importance from Roman times onward was largely as the lowest road crossing-point o ...
, when they were stopped by the police. Magee and O'Brien were questioned by the unarmed police officers, who became suspicious and called for back-up. Magee shot Special Constable Glenn Goodman - who died later in hospital - and then shot the other officer, PC Kelly, four times. PC Kelly escaped death when a fifth bullet ricocheted off the radio he was holding to his ear, and the IRA members drove away. Another police car began to follow the pair, and came under fire near
Burton Salmon Burton Salmon is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England, close to the border with West Yorkshire, and approximately north from Knottingley, on the A162 road. According to the 2001 Census the parish had a populatio ...
. The lives of the officers in the car were in danger, but Magee and O'Brien fled the scene after a member of the public arrived. A manhunt was launched, and hundreds of police officers, many of them armed, searched woods and farmland. Magee and O'Brien evaded capture for four days by hiding in a
culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe (fluid conveyance), pipe, reinforced concrete or other materia ...
, before they were both arrested in separate police operations in the town of
Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district in West Yorkshire, England. It lies to the east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the ...
.


Imprisonment in England

On 31 March 1993 Magee was found guilty of the murder of Special Constable Goodman and the attempted murder of three other police officers, and sentenced to life imprisonment. O'Brien was found guilty of attempted murder and received an eighteen-year sentence. On 9 September 1994 Magee and five other prisoners, including Danny McNamee, escaped from HM Prison Whitemoor. The prisoners, in possession of two guns that had been smuggled into the prison, scaled the prison walls using knotted sheets. A guard was shot and wounded during the escape, and the prisoners were captured after being chased across fields by guards and the police. In 1996 Magee staged a dirty protest in
HM Prison Belmarsh His Majesty's Prison Belmarsh is a Category A men's prison located in Thamesmead, south-east London, England. Belmarsh Prison is run by His Majesty's Prison Service and is situated next to HMP Isis and HMP Thameside. The prison is used for ...
, in protest at glass screens separating prisoners from their relatives during visits. Magee had refused to accept visits from his wife and five children for two years, prompting
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...
to accuse the British government of maintaining "a worsening regime that is damaging physically and psychologically". In January 1997 Magee and the other five escapees from Whitemoor were on trial on charges relating to the escape for a second time, four months earlier the first trial had been stopped because of prejudicial publicity. Lawyers for the defendants successfully argued that an article in the ''
Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...
'' prejudiced the trial as it contained photographs of Magee and two other defendants and described them as "terrorists", as an order had been made at the start of the trial preventing any reference to the background and previous convictions of the defendants. Despite the judge saying the evidence against the defendants was "very strong", he dismissed the case stating: "What I have done is the only thing I can do in the circumstances. The law for these defendants is the same law for everyone else. They are entitled to that, whatever they have done".


Extradition battle

On 5 May 1998 Magee was repatriated to the Republic of Ireland to serve the remainder of his sentence in Portlaoise Prison, along with Liam Quinn and the members of the Balcombe Street Gang. He was released from prison in late 1999 under the terms of the
Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...
, and returned to live with his family in
Tralee Tralee ( ; , ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the River Lee') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in ...
. On 8 March 2000 Magee was arrested on the outstanding Supreme Court extradition warrant from 1991, and remanded to
Mountjoy Prison Mountjoy Prison (), founded as Mountjoy Gaol and nicknamed The Joy, is a medium security men's prison located in Phibsborough in the centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current prison Governor is Ray Murtagh. History Mountjoy was designed by Cap ...
. The following day he was granted bail at the High Court in Dublin, after launching a legal challenge to his extradition. In November 2000 the Irish government informed the High Court that it was no longer seeking to return him to Northern Ireland. This followed a statement from
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland The secretary of state for Northern Ireland (; ), also referred to as Northern Ireland Secretary or SoSNI, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the Northern Ireland Office. The offi ...
Peter Mandelson Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, (born 21 October 1953) is a British politician, lobbyist and diplomat who has served as British Ambassador to the United States since February 2025. A member of the Labour Party, Mandelson serve ...
saying that "it is clearly anomalous to pursue the extradition of people who appear to qualify for early release under the Good Friday Agreement scheme, and who would, on making a successful application to the Sentence Review Commissioners, have little if any of their original prison sentence to serve". In December 2000 Magee and three other IRA members, including two other members of the M60 gang, were granted a
Royal Prerogative of Mercy In the English and British tradition, the royal prerogative of mercy is one of the historic royal prerogatives of the British monarch, by which they can grant pardons (informally known as a royal pardon) to convicted persons. The royal prer ...
which allowed them to return to Northern Ireland without fear of prosecution.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magee, Paul 1948 births Escapees from England and Wales detention Irish people convicted of murdering police officers Irish prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Living people People convicted of murder by England and Wales People convicted of murder by Northern Ireland Paramilitaries from Belfast Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by England and Wales Provisional Irish Republican Army members Recipients of British royal pardons Republicans imprisoned during the Northern Ireland conflict