THE former Taoisigh, Garret FitzGerald and Albert Reynolds, have sent messages of support to the Release Colin Duffy appeal rally in Lurgan, Co Armagh, yesterday.
More than 500 people attended the march aimed at highlighting the case of Colin Duffy, jailed in July 1995 for the murder of John Lynass, who was shot in Lurgan. At his trial, the chief prosecution witness was Lindsay Robb, a member of a Progressive Unionist Party peace delegation team, who was convicted recently in Scotland on charges of running guns for the UVF.
Dr FitzGerald sent a donation towards the cost of the appeal. In a letter to Mr Duffy's wife, Susan, he said: "The facts presented there are indeed extremely disturbing and I hope that would be taken fully into account by the appeal court".
Messages of solidarity also came from Cardinal Daly, the SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon, and Sinn Fein president Mr Gerry Adams, as well as a variety of groups including Amnesty International and the British Irish Rights Watch.
The main speaker at the end of the march in St Peter's Church car park was former prisoner Judith Ward, who spent 18 years in jail for a bombing in Yorkshire in 1974. After an intense campaign, she was released in 1992 and now spends her time working for the Britain and Ireland Human Rights Centre.
She said: "I spent 18 years in prison and I certainly hope that Colin Duffy does not have to spend 18 years in prison."
Ms Ward urged people to keep up the good fight, adding that it was "horrendous" what was happening in Northern Ireland.
Colin Duffy's seven year old daughter, Caitriona, made a passionate appeal for her father's release. "My dad is in jail for something he didn't do. When I started Tanaghmore school my dad wasn't here. Now I am making my first holy Communion and he still isn't here. I really miss my dad a lot. I just hope everyone here today helps us to try and get my dad out and maybe if we try hard enough he will be home soon where he belongs."
Mr Adams in a letter to the group said: "Internment without trial, the use of no jury Dip lock courts, the use of paid perjurors, the end of the right to silence and the use of numerous other special powers have ensured that at any given time over the past 25 years there have been several hundred political prisoners in jails in Ireland and England."