Show my son some clemency
Mum pleads with US to allow ex-INLA man back to country if he visits dying dad in Ulster
By Stephen Breen
18 June 2006
The mother of a former INLA man facing deportation from the United States has accused the Washington government of stopping her son visiting his seriously ill father.
Ellen McAllister, from Belfast’s lower Ormeau Road, told Sunday Life that Malachy McAllister is “desperate” to visit dad Robert, who has Alzheimer’s.
The mother-of-eight fears that if her son makes a brief visit, he won’t be allowed to re-enter the US.
Said Mrs McAllister: “My husband is very seriously ill and needs 24-hour care and attention. The only thing that keeps him going is his desire to see his son again.
“Malachy went to America because loyalists fired over 30 shots into his living room and his kids’ bedroom - what else was he meant to do?
“He is worried that if he makes a visit there is no way the US authorities will let him in again. This whole nightmare is destroying him.”
She added her son had been an “upstanding member of the community” since he emigrated to the US.
“My son and his two kids are no threat to anyone, their whole life is in America,” she said.
A Federal Judge in New Jersey - who admitted she had “no choice” but to allow the deportation of the former republican - urged US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to intervene in the case.
McAllister (48), who has met with former US President Bill Clinton to discuss his case, is facing expulsion from his adopted country because of a conviction in the 1980s.
The builder was jailed when he signed a police statement after being implicated by republican supergrass Harry Kirkpatrick.
He fled Ulster in 1988 after Red Hand Commando terrorists came within inches of killing him and his family.
The weapons used in the attack were later found - along with McAllister’s personal details - in a loyalist arms dump.
His family are being backed by US congressmen Joe Crawley and Steve Rothman, as well as other senior politicians.
Sinn Fein MLA Alex Maskey has also offered to meet the family to discuss the case.
