Losing Hearts and Minds

By NiallO’Dowd

THERE are few Irish Americans as qualified as Sean Mackin to address the issue of Northern Ireland and the impact of the peace process there.

The Belfast native was an absolutely key figure in swinging Irish America behind the process, despite his own early misgivings. Because Mackin has walked the walk – he was arrested over 50 times, won political asylum in the U.S. and survived death threats in Belfast – he has a street credibility on the issue that no one else could match.

He is a real pain in the rear end for those who oppose the peace process from the comfortable confines of radio studios and Irish bars 3,000 miles away. After all, Mackin is able to speak from personal experience, and his ability to forge ahead and forgive much of the past was a personal annoyance to the naysayers.

He was sent a special Christmas greeting in 1981 from a British Army base that included his mug shot with a third eye, where his forehead should have been. “ This time – one third eye coming up. Enjoy your last Xmas,” read the charming note. 

After one arrest Mackin was beaten so badly that he was brought up before the judge, black and blue. The judge demanded to know what happened. “He looked worse yesterday,” one policeman offered lamely. 

Mackin was the poster boy for Amnesty International on prison brutality in Northern Ireland. Little wonder that soon after, he decided it was better to leave.

Mackin was memorably described by then Newsday columnist Jim Dwyer in 1992 as having “thrown away a promising career as a professional defendant” in Belfast. Amazingly, despite those 50 arrests, Mackin was never convicted of a single crime when he finally split with his family for the U.S.

Few could have come with less promising prospects. He was undocumented, wanted by killers in Northern Ireland, his wife and then two children were with him. It was an unpromising beginning.

After his visa ran out Mackin was arrested by the FBI and the INS. They sent a helicopter over Bainbridge Avenue in the Bronx, blocked the streets off and wore their flak jackets and machine guns, all to capture Sean Mackin, never convicted of any crime. 

In spite of all this Mackin almost had them fooled by claiming he was Sean Mackin’s brother and Sean would be back shortly – meanwhile, could he just get to work?

They were grim times. Soon after his arrest Mackin applied for political asylum. 

It seemed a long shot, as the U.S. courts had invariably sided with the British when it came to Irish extradition and asylum cases. Mackin, however, would break the mould.

In 1992 Judge Annette Elstein ruled that Mackin was entitled to stay in the U.S. after a five-year battle. Elstein said there was no evidence that Mackin was not a person of high moral character. 

Significantly, in light of this week’s events, the British, in their effort to deny Mackin political asylum, said he had nothing to fear in Belfast and that he was not wanted for any crimes.

Mackin beat the odds, and what followed next was a true American success story. He and wife Philo-mena settled down and raised four children, and Mackin became a very successful figure in the construction business, running his own plumbing company with many employees.

The run-up to the peace process was a critical time, and Sinn Fein needed every major Irish American figure to get behind it. Mackin did so unequivocally and became a vital figure in ensuring that Irish Americans came on board. Without him it is conceivable that the Irish American dimension would have been far more fractured and split.

Mackin has put his money where his mouth is too, supporting many political candidates, all based on their backing for Irish issues. Congressman Peter King, Senator Hillary Clinton and Congressman Eliot Engel were among those who counted on him as a strong supporter.

The world came crashing down around Sean Mackin in Belfast last week when his past reached out and tried to reclaim him. What the police were doing arresting him, interrogating him and then releasing him without charge remains a complete mystery.

If their aim was to roll back the support in Irish America for the peace process, they certainly did a good job. Fortunately, in part because of his hundreds of friends who strived might and main to win his release Sean, Mackin was freed. 

The reality of what happened, however, will be a lot tougher to dismiss. There is still something very rotten in Northern Ireland.