DUBLIN — Three men linked to the Irish Republican Army who were convicted of training rebels in Colombia have returned surreptitiously to Ireland after eight months on the run from South America. RTE, the Irish national broadcasters, carried an interview with one of the fugitives, Jim Monaghan. He said all three had returned to Ireland recently, "and, as you can imagine, a lot of people in a lot of countries had to help us."
| And we'd like their names ... |
Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley were arrested in August 2001 as they were trying to board a flight out of Colombia after spending about 18 months with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Colombia's major rebel group known by the acronym FARC. The trio were charged with training rebels to make and deploy IRA-style weaponry, including truck-mounted mortars. |