RNU man shot, then denied medical treatment

A member of the Republican Network for Unity was shot by unknown assailants in Belfast on Sunday morning and then denied permission to travel to Scotland for urgent surgery.

Seán O’Reilly was struck twice after two masked men fired shots through the window of his taxi as it was parked in the Dunmurry area of Belfast on Sunday.

The attack has been widely condemned. Amid media speculation of a “republican feud” Mr O’Reilly, who comes from a well-known republican family, has called for calm.

His lawyer has said that urgent legal action, understood to be in the form of a judicial review, will be launched against the decision to block his travel for surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow.

Peter Corrigan, of Phoenix Law described it as “absolutely disgraceful”.

He said Mr O’Reilly was admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast on Sunday for surgery on Monday for a bullet which had lodged in his collarbone.

He said a subsequent scan showed he had also suffered a severed nerve in his arm and he was told he would have to travel to the Glasgow hospital to have the nerve damage repaired.

The lawyer said an air ambulance was on standby to take Mr O’Reilly to Glasgow on Wednesday evening ahead of surgery on Thursday, but he was blocked from travelling by “anti-terrorism” legislation.

“We are going to challenge this decision. We think it’s unlawful, we think it’s absolutely disgraceful, where someone’s been the victim of an attack, a gun attack, that he’s going to be treated in this way,” he said.

Mr O’Reilly is a former prisoner and member of the leadership of the Republican Network for Unity (RNU). The RNU has been linked to the breakaway armed group, Óglaigh na hÉireann, which called a ceasefire in 2018.

Addressing financial allegations against him, he said he has been involved in republican politics since he was a young teen.

“I want to make clear my life and my family and wider family has been dedicated to the republican movement for a long, long time,” he said in a statement on social media.

“My mother who is also a well-known lifelong republican, cannot fathom why this has happened to her son, having seen me in A&E in a bad state, she cannot come to visit due to the distress the sight has caused her,” he said.

Mr O’Reilly said that over the past 18 months he has been constantly stopped and searched and harassed by the PSNI at the taxi depot where he works.

“In fact, I was stationary in the exact parking bay that I was attacked in and was pulled from my car forcibly searched...last year,” he said.

“Conveniently the PSNI were noticeably absent on the morning of my attack, I believe that state agents where involved in my attempted murder.”

Mr O’Reilly urged people to remain calm.

“I am facing a very lengthy rehabilitation programme over the next 12 months or more and will undoubtedly lose my means of employment due to this, but still I look forward to returning to my community to live and work,” he said.

“I would ask for calm and for cool heads to prevail in this situation.”

Urgent Appeal