Ex-IRA man jailed for 1981 shooting
A former IRA man who attempted to murder a soldier in a 1981 ambush has been jailed for 20 years.
Gerry McGeough, 52, was convicted earlier this year of trying to kill former postman Samuel Brush as he carried out his mail run.
McGeough, who went on the run from the North after the shooting, was arrested in March 2007 as he left a polling station in Co Fermanagh where he was standing as a republican candidate.
Mr Justice Stephens, sitting at Belfast Crown Court, imposed the 20-year jail term, saying there is a clear need to deter other terrorists.
“There should be a clear message to others that no matter how long is the time that elapses and no matter what changes occur in a terrorist’s way of life, that condign punishment will be imposed for committing such offences once they have been brought to justice,” the judge said.
“There is a continuing and compelling need to deter all other potential terrorists.”
McGeough's victim is now a councillor in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, with the Democratic Unionist Party, but at the time was a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) and was delivering a letter.
He had just put a letter through the letterbox of a house north of Aughnacloy, Co Tyrone, when he saw a masked gunman stepping out from an adjacent shed, turn in his direction and shoot at him.
A bullet proof jacket saved his life and he returned fire with his own personal protection pistol, wounding the gunman.
A judgment from the Belfast court found McGeough showed no signs of remorse.
The judge found that McGeough thought of himself as a leader and looked down on some of his fellow IRA recruits.
And he warned that the gunman had adopted an attitude of failing to express remorse despite having had many years to reflect on the attempted murder.
McGeough, from Carrycastle Road in Gortmerron, Dungannon, is married with children aged 10, eight, six and two. He has a serious heart condition.
The judge said he accepted that McGeough had changed his life despite refusing to help a probation officer analyse whether he is a risk to the public or likely to reoffend.
The judge said the former IRA man was committed to the peace process and democracy.
McGeough was given a character reference by the North's Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew at a bail hearing in 2007. The Sinn Fein representative said it was her firm view that McGeough was no threat to the peace process.
The judge said the change in his way of life was a significant mitigating factor.
The court heard that McGeough studied at Trinity College Dublin between 1998 and 2002 and worked as a teacher and vice-principal at a school in the city until 2006.
Later he carried out community work before standing for election.
The court was told that McGeough also worked as a journalist with Catholic newspaper The Irish Family and as editor of the Hibernian Magazine.
He was jailed for 20 years for attempted murder, 12 years for possessing firearms with intent and seven years and four years for two separate charges of IRA membership.
The non-jury court ruled that the sentences should run concurrently.
McGeough’s co-accused, Vincent McAnespie, was acquitted of the charges against him.
