Hayes was jailed in 1976 over deadly IRA arsenal

MICHAEL HAYES first came to the attention of British police in 1974 when he was charged as one of eight men who formed a paramilitary procession to mark the death of hunger striker Michael Gaughan.

Then aged 27 and living in Birmingham, Hayes and his co-accused were found to have accompanied the remains of Gaughan from the Isle of Wight to London.

They were wearing berets and sunglasses during the procession, which the Crown Prosecution Service said constituted a uniform associated with a political organisation. They were each fined £60.

Two years later, in September 1976, he was arrested in Portlaoise and brought with two other men before the non-jury Special Criminal Court, established to deal with terrorists. Hayes was charged with IRA membership and the possession of two Armalite rifles, a Magnum revolver, 94 rounds of ammunition, two electric detonators, five hand grenades and seven pounds of explosive mixture.

One of his co-accused was Patrick Stagg, a relative of Frank Stagg, who had died in the IRA hunger strikes.

The men had been arrested on a farm in Co. Laois after a haul of weapons was discovered in a car and in outhouses. The car, which had false plates and was registered under a fake identity, was also seized.

Gardaí went to the location after reports of gunfire. When they arrived, they recognised one of the men present as Eamonn O’Sullivan, who was an IRA man from Drimnagh, Dublin, on the run after escaping from the Curragh military prison in Co. Kildare.

Hayes, O’Sullivan and Stagg, then aged 21 and from Palmerstown, Dublin, were jailed. Hayes was imprisoned for three years but was released after two years and three months after standard remission of 25% was applied.

Hayes told the MoS: ‘They couldn’t get me at all. People call me the green pimpernel.’

He added: ‘I was convicted, they caught me. I went to blow up the governor of Portlaoise [prison]. I was convicted – arms and explosives. I had to get out and I got out. I was free. I got out before that [1979]. I’m not a criminal, I was a political prisoner.’