This
month marks the one year anniversary of the Kelly's
Winecellar incident. So how does the man at the
centre of the controversy, Bobby Tohill, feel after
one year? Bobby Tohill disagrees with the one year
time frame, because he says that his problems started
"way before that". They started
whenever he left Dublin and came back to Belfast.
His problems were of a double nature. The first
was personal. Some individuals who were "high
ranking members" of the Provisional movement
had "deep personal grudges" against
him for a long time. Soon after returning to Belfast,
Tohill once again clashed with them. The second
problem was political. Tohill began to publicly
voice criticism of the Provisional leadership's
strategy (though he does not advocate a return to
armed struggle).
During
the second half of 2004, Bobby Tohill discovered
that he was "under heavy surveillance from
the Provisionals". They tried to find out
where he was living, who he was associating with
and so on. For example, they regularly followed
him into Robinson's Bar in the heart of Belfast
city centre, and with mobile phones discretely took
photographs of him and the people he was associating
with. Tohill started to change his daily routine
after one of his friends was kidnapped in late 2004.
The Provisional movement abducted John Donaghy,
who worked as a chef at the Culturlann restaurant
and was not politically involved. He was hooded
and held for five hours during which he was interrogated
about Tohill. Bobby said that his friend was severely
shaken as a result of that experience.
So
the Kelly's Winecellar incident was not the beginning
of Tohill's difficulties, but an addition to a very
long list of problems. After the Kelly's incident,
Bobby gave a number of interviews to newspapers,
local, national and international where he outlined
his criticisms of the Provisional movement's strategy
and how he feared for his own life. In response,
he received no fewer than six death threats. The
PSNI told him that all his movements were being
monitored by the Provisional militia "in
view of being executed". Bobby believes
that under the present circumstances, it is not
the opportune moment for them to carry out his execution.
But he is convinced that as soon as they will have
the opportunity, they will have no hesitations in
carrying it out. These are dangerous times for him;
he is under surveillance right as we speak.
Tohill
is talking to The Blanket because he wants
the Irish people "to know the truth about
the terrible trauma my family and I are going through".
Back in December,
Bobby had told the Blanket that he was ready
to talk to anyone who was interested to know the
truth about his situation. Subsequently, he was
approached by the Daily Ireland newspaper,
and gave them an interview two weeks ago. Tohill
saw the proposed draft and was not happy about it
as he felt it did not give the full picture. He
contacted the paper asking why they were not publishing
it; and he was told by journalist Anne Campbell
that the editors of the paper "were unhappy
with the interview". However, she promised
that she would to everything in her power to publish
it. Tohill was previously unhappy with the Andersonstown
News' coverage of his case, and says that he
expects the same kind of treatment from the Daily
Ireland in the immediate future.
Concluding
this interview, Bobby Tohill said that it was his
"duty to stand up against oppression and
speak the truth as a Republican". And he
has no doubts that "all true Republicans
will be appalled at this situation".
