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1988 Ariz. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 244 (1988)
The Political Offense Exception: Recent Changes in Extradition Law Appertaining to the Northern Ireland Conflict

handle is hein.journals/ajicl1988 and id is 250 raw text is: THE POLITICAL OFFENSE EXCEPTION: RECENT CHANGES IN EXTRADITION LAW APPERTAINING TO THE NORTHERN IRELAND CONFLICT INTRODUCTION Both the Republic of Ireland and the United States, like many other democracies, have traditionally remained sympathetic to the pleas of refugees. Consequently, in the years following the rebirth of conflict in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, the courts of both the Republic of Ireland and the United States have consistently refused representations from the British government for the extradition of alleged terrorists who had fled from Northern Ireland or Great Britain, seeking refuge in the United States or Ireland. On March 17, 1984, St. Patrick's Day, the Irish Supreme Court met and agreed to uphold the extradition order for Dominic McGlinchey,' a member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA),2 for the alleged murder of a 63-year-old postmistress in Northern Ireland. This was a major change in policy, especially in light of the fact that since 1970, 48 such extradition applications had been rejected.3 On December 13, 1984, Justice John E. Sprizzo of the Federal District Court in Manhattan, ruled that Joseph Doherty, a Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA)4 member who had been convicted of killing a British officer in Northern Ireland in 1980, subsequently escaping a year later, was exempt from extradition to Britain as his offense was political. It was the fourth British extradition request rejected by the United States since 1979.5 This decision provoked strong reactions both domestically and, not surprisingly, in Britain. The court's refusal to grant extradition proved 'For a brief biographical sketch of McGlinchey see Boasted of 30 Killings, Manchester Guardian Weekly, March 25, 1984, at 3. -The Irish National Liberation Army is the armed wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), a faction which split off from the official IRA in 1975 because of the latter's publicly declared and indefinite cease-fire since May 1972. See K. Kelley, The Longest War Northern Ireland and the IRA, 229-32 (1982) for the origins of the INLA. 'Economist, March 24. 1984, at 45. McGlinchey was the first Republican activist to be extradited since the Southern state (the Republic of Ireland) was set up in 1922. See M. Farrell. Shelteing the Fugitive the Extradition of Irish Political Offenders 93 (1985). 4One of the effects of the outbreak of civil strife in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s was the splitting of the revived IRA into two factions, the Officials, and the new, more militant and nationalistic Provisional wing. See Kelley, supra note 2, at 127-34. See also. London Sunday Times Insight Team. Northern Ireland: A Report on the Conflict 176-97 (1972). •Belfast Telegraph. December 14. 1984. at 1.

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