By ANDY McSMITH
Joe Cahill, a violent Irish republican who escaped the noose more than 60 years ago, has died in his Belfast home, aged 84.
The cause of his death dated back to a time when he was neither in prison nor involved in an IRA campaign. His lungs had
been ravaged by asbestosis, acquired while working in Belfast's Harland & Wolff shipyards in the 1950s.
After an IRA association spanning more than 50 years Cahill was a pivotal figure in the political moves that brought about the ceasefire in the 1990s.
It is doubtful whether Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness would have been able to redirect the republican movement into political channels without Cahill's backing. He was the most important link between the Provisional IRA, founded in the north in 1969, and the old pre-war organisation, which had become almost defunct by the early 1960s.
He owed much of his reputation to being one of eight young IRA volunteers who tangled with the Royal Ulster Constabulary during Easter 1942 to draw attention away from parades held in Belfast to mark the Easter rising.
The eight volunteers, who included two women, were arrested, but only after a gunfight in which Constable Patrick Murphy was killed.
The six men were sentenced to hang, but five were reprieved after their 18-year-old leader, Tom Williams, claimed sole responsibility for the shooting.
Cahill, who spent seven years in prison, took part in the IRA campaign in 1956-1962, but later broke with the Marxist leadership.
He was the first Belfast commander of the Provisional IRA, and organised its contact with Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi. In 1973, the Irish Navy caught him attempting to smuggle 5 tonnes of Russian-made explosives, guns and ammunition from Libya. He spent a further two years behind bars.
In the 1980s, he was treasurer of Sinn Fein, responsible for funnelling donations from the United States. He was deported after entering the US illegally in 1984.
He is survived by his wife, Annie, and seven children.
- INDEPENDENT
By ANDY McSMITH
Joe Cahill, a violent Irish republican who escaped the noose more than 60 years ago, has died in his Belfast home, aged 84.
The cause of his death dated back to a time when he was neither in prison nor involved in an IRA campaign. His lungs had
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