A former active member of the IRA now condemns violence and calls for a ceasefire.
Shane Paul O'Doherty was born in Derry in 1955. At the age of fifteen, he joined the IRA where he became a bomb maker. By the time he was eighteen, he had sent a number of letter bombs. For these actions, he was sentenced to life in prison. During his time in prison, he wrote a number of letters apologising to his victims, publically renounced the activities of the IRA and called for a ceasefire. Shane Paul O'Doherty was released in 1989 after serving 14 years in prison.
Shane Paul O'Doherty talks to David Hanly about growing up in Derry and the seeds of his republicanism. An uncle and aunts took part in the War of Independence. While there were family links to republicanism, he believes the greatest influence was history books about the 1916 Rising, the executions of the leaders and the foundation of the Irish Free State.
Reading that stuff, I suppose, certainly inclined me to think that the IRA still had a role in Ireland.
He believed that the people in the south of Ireland had turned their backs on the people in the north and that the IRA still had a role. As a young teenager, Shane Paul O'Doherty was present at many of the civil rights demonstrations in Derry and the attacks on the Bogside.
I was stone-throwing and petrol-bombing along with the rest.
Shane Paul O'Doherty subsequently joined the Provisional IRA and became a bomb maker.
I wanted to make a mark on the scene. I was quite prepared to be killed in action.
This episode of 'Hanly's People' was broadcast on 1 October 1989. The presenter is David Hanly.
