The Belfast native was convicted in 1983 in Brooklyn Federal Court for conspiring to buy missiles to shoot down British helicopters amid the violent clashes in Northern Ireland known as “The Troubles.”
At the time, federal authorities considered Megahey “the officer commanding (OC) of America and Canada” for the IRA.
Megahey, known by the nickname “Skinny Legs,” was convicted with three others, with then U.S. Attorney John Dearie describing him at the time as “the most culpable of these defendants,” and the group as a whole as “a network of men who sought to use this country as a base of terrorist activities,” according to reports.
“No one wants peace more than us,” Megahey, who first settled in Jackson Heights, Queens in 1975, insisted at the sentencing hearing. He was released from prison in 1988 — but never deported.
I guy who worked to rid his nation of tyrannical oppressors. No wonder they want him out.
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