When friends die in distant places

By Anthony McIntyre (for the Blanket)

Last month long time denizen of the Irish Echo, Jack Holland, wrote an article about the difficulty faced by some former republican prisoners who have tried to carve out a new life for themselves and their families in the United States. One family he referred to was the McAllisters. They had been involved in a lengthy battle against deportation back to Ireland. Jack Holland hailed from Belfast so he appreciated the importance of a fresh start, and the devastating effect it could have on a family to be forcibly returned to Belfast. Even if the threat of assassination had receded, what would the bore capital of Europe have that would draw other than trouble tourists and masochists to it? For Bernie McAllister and her family - whose sole ‘misdemeanour’ on this earth was to have been the wife and children of Malachy McAllister, a former H-Block prisoner - it seemed at last that they had turned a corner and were gazing on a beautiful vista just the other side of the interminable maze of the American legal system.

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