Former bomber looks to start new life by entering priesthood

AN IRA bomber given 20 life sentences for masterminding a bombing campaign in Britain, is studying to become a priest.

Shane Paul O’Doherty, who spent five years as an active IRA member, will have to receive special dispensation from the Pope before he is ordained - because, among other activities, he once sent a bomb in a bible to a Bishop.

O’Doherty (50), who has spoken extensively, about his life as a teenage IRA bomber and his long years questioning that life, has taken a vow of silence since entering Maynooth.

He has almost completed the first year of his studies. Under Canon Law, a person is barred from being ordained for various reasons, including killing or attempting to kill. While the Dublin Archdiocese believes he was a suitable candidate to begin training, it is up to the Pope to grant dispensation prior to his scheduled ordination in 2011.

O’Doherty, just 20 when he received 30 life sentences for masterminding a letter bomb campaign in Britain, was the first IRA member to tell the inside story of life within the organisation. It was published years after his 1989 release from prison.

One of the explosive devices he sent was inside a hollowed out bible to Bishop Gerard Tickle, the Roman Catholic chaplain to the British Army in the 1970s. The device, one of a series posted to senior establishment figures that led to O’Doherty being named Britain’s most wanted, failed to explode.

The Derry man, who joined the IRA at 15, targeted Bishop Tickle after reading a newspaper report quoting the clergyman saying that the British Army did nothing wrong on Bloody Sunday. Bishop Tickle later said he was the victim of “press misrepresentation.”

Twelve people were injured in the series of bombings in 1973, carried out by O’Doherty when he was 18. He returned to Derry but was arrested two years later and brought back to London to face trial.

Even before his trial, he began to question his actions, particularly as he read of the people injured by his letter bombs, particularly a security guard whose hand was blown off, and a secretary blinded by glass.

That was only the start for, during his time in prison he began studying the Bible, turned his back on the IRA and indeed violence of any sort, even arguing against the Catholic interpretation of ‘just war.’

In an interview with the Boston Globe newspaper, which took place prior to him entering St Patrick’s College but published just last week, O’Doherty said: “I had come to believe that only pacifism was truly moral, truly Christlike.”