Appeal urged over European court’s ruling ‘Hooded Men’ did not suffer torture

The Irish Government is being called on to appeal against a European court decision that found the so-called Hooded Men did not suffer torture.

Speaking before putting a motion to the Seanad, Sinn Fein senator Niall O Donnghaile said he wanted the Government to “see the case through” and lodge an appeal against the decision, made by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in March.

The Hooded Men were 14 Catholics interned – detained indefinitely without trial – in 1971 who said they were subjected to a number of torture methods.

The men were hooded and flown by helicopter to a secret location, later revealed to be a British Army camp at Ballykelly, outside Londonderry.

Mr O Donnghaile said: “It’s about vindication for these men and what they went through but also the people who continue to suffer torture around the world.”

One of the Hooded Men, Liam Shannon, 70, who was at Leinster House on Wednesday to see the motion put forward, said the decision was “massively” important to the men.

“We are going to continue, it doesn’t matter how it goes, we are going to continue and we will get the truth in the end.”

He added: “We can only hope that the Irish Government will fulfil its obligation and continue what they started and finish this off.”

The ECHR dismissed Ireland’s request to find the men suffered torture by six votes to one and said there was “no justification” for revising a 1978 ruling.

The court said new evidence had not demonstrated the existence of facts that were not known to the court at the time or which could have had a decisive influence on the original judgment.

The Irish Government first took a human rights case against Britain over the alleged torture in 1971.

The European Commission of Human Rights ruled that the mistreatment of the men was torture, but in 1978 the European Court of Human Rights held that the men suffered inhumane and degrading treatment that was not torture.