Ongoing Taylorincarcerationbeing monitored

Derry priest Fr. Paddy O'Kane recently reiterated his call for the release of parishioner, Tony Taylor, who's been in jail since having his licence revoked by the erstwhile Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers, last March.
Lorraine and Tony Taylor.Lorraine and Tony Taylor.
Lorraine and Tony Taylor.

Fr. O’Kane has been outspoken in calling for justice for Mr. Taylor, who has now spent over ten months in jail, without having been charged with any offence.

The Holy Family parish priest recently revealed how he had visited the Taylor family at Christmas with a card and a jar of honey.

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“You can see the hives through the church windows). I have already written in the papers about the injustice of his continued detention without charge,” he said.

The ongoing incarceration of the Republican Network for Unity (RNU) member has been decried on human rights grounds by Derry City and Strabane District Council, local politicians and activists and civil liberties groups.

At Christmas Mr Taylor’s wife Lorraine wrote to the current Secretary of State James Brokenshire emphasising how her husband’s continued detention in Maghaberry was making it a “very rough Christmas” for her entire family.

The Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charles Flanagan recently confirmed that his officials are now monitoring the case. He confirmed the interest in a written reply to a question from Fianna Fáil TD, Éamon Ó Cuív.

Mr Taylor had spent 10 months to the day in prison on Tuesday.

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