page_title: Colombia Three
section_title: James Monaghan
hierarchical_section_title: Colombia Three / The Colombia Three / James Monaghan
caption_attribution_description: English: Release the Colombia Three Badge
context_page_description: The Colombia Three are three individuals – Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley – who are currently living in the Republic of Ireland, having fled from Colombia, where they were sentenced to prison terms of seventeen years for training FARC rebels. The incident came during a crucial time in the Northern Ireland peace process and risked damaging it. The three were granted amnesty by a Colombian special court in April 2020.
context_section_description: James William Monaghan  was born on 9 August 1945, and is originally from County Donegal but his last known address was in Newry, County Down. In the 1970s he was believed to have been active in the IRA, gaining the nickname 'Mortar' on account of his skill in manufacturing homemade mortars and, according to security sources, he was head of the IRA's engineering section.
  Monaghan was arrested on terrorist charges in County Donegal in the 1970s. In 1972 he was arrested in London and given a prison sentence for terrorism offences. In 1976, he escaped from the Special Criminal Court in Dublin following a double bomb blast. He was elected to the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle in 1989. According to Alex Maskey, he left Sinn Féin in 1989 or 1990, In 1999 he joined an organisation called Coiste na n-Iarchimí, a Republican ex-prisoners group. He was reported to have been a member of the IRA Army Council.
caption: A badge calling for the release of the Colombia Three
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