Irish fugitive deported for expired US work permit
August 24 2009 by Rebekah Nahai
Irish convict deported by US immigration
A Northern Ireland escapee of Maze prison has been deported from the US more than 25 years after entering the country.
Pol Brennan set foot on Irish soil for the first time in more than two decades after a six-hour flight from the US on Thursday. His hands and feet were in shackles for the length of the journey.
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said that “the restraints were for officer safety and are standard procedure when deporting aliens with criminal convictions. Mr. Brennan had significant criminal convictions.”
Brennan was sentenced to 17 years in prison after transporting explosives by ferry in Belfast in 1977. He escaped from prison alongside 37 IRA convicts and moved to the US, where he entered under an alias and lived quietly until he was arrested in 1995 for a felony gun conviction.
Brennan was also convicted in 2005 for a misdemeanour assault to a contractor who owed him money.
He has been in US custody since January 2008, when he was detained by US immigration officials for an expired work permit. Brennan had applied for a US work permit renewal on time but had never received one.
A judge ruled in favour of his deportation to Ireland citing his list of convictions.
Brennan was flown from Norfolk, Virginia to Shannon, Ireland in a “plane as cold as a refrigerator” and was greeted by family members upon his arrival.
He said he will stay in the Republic for “quite a while” before deciding whether to travel to Northern Ireland.
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