David Madigan And Liam Kearns

EDM number 454 in 1991-92, proposed by Harry Barnes on 19/12/1991.

That this House notes with grave concern that David Madigan and Liam Kearns of Newry will have been in hiding for 130 days on Christmas Eve from the Provisional IRA, which has threatened to take direct military action against them for so-called anti-social activity; recognises that the young men deny such activity; utterly refutes the notion that the Provisional IRA or any other paramilitary group has any legal, popular or moral authority to enforce 'justice' in any part of Northern Ireland or in the Republic; warmly endorses the appeal of the Mr and Mrs Madigan and Mr & Mrs Kearns and their support group for honourable Members and other public figures to both give support to the Newry men and to raise the matter with human rights organisations such as Amnesty International; welcomes the comments of Amnesty International founder member, Peter Benenson, on Friday 6th December in Dublin, in the presence of the Irish President, Mary Robinson, that secret trials, such as that conducted by the Provisional IRA on Madigan and Kearns are 'both unjust and dishonourable'; further welcomes that organisation's new policy that it will, in future, criticise the activities of 'non-governmental entities' such as the Provisional IRA or the UVF, although detailed guidelines for the implementation of this policy have yet to be agreed; urges Amnesty International to at least monitor cases such as that of these two men; and appeals to democrats of all parties and none to place the maximum political and moral pressure on the Provisional IRA to withdraw its illegitimate threats against the two men in Newry and other such people.

This motion has been signed by a total of 4 MPs.