Patrick Fell

Patrick Fell (Irish: Pádraig Ó Fithchill; born 1940 – died 18 September 2011) was a Roman Catholic priest who was accused and later convicted in the 1970s of being a commander of an IRA active service unit. Fell never admitted to being an IRA volunteer and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In June 1984 he was successful in an action to find the British Government guilty of violating the European Convention on Human Rights. But this did not relate to his original conviction which stood. The Government had denied the right of legal representation to prisoners facing internal prison disciplinary charges.

Fell was born in England and was a convert to Roman Catholicism before being ordained as a priest. He was assistant priest at All Souls Church, Earlsdon, Coventry.

In April 1973, Fell was arrested with six others alleged to comprise an IRA unit planning a campaign in Coventry. He was tried at Birmingham's Crown Court. The jury found three of the seven not guilty; the remaining four were all found guilty of criminal damage and conspiracy to commit arson. Fell pleaded not guilty. Fell and Frank Stagg, were accused of being the unit's commanding officers.

Upon conviction, Stagg was given a ten-year sentence and Fell twelve years. (Stagg would later die on hunger strike.) Thomas Gerald Rush was given seven years and Anthony Roland Lynch, who was also found guilty of possessing articles with intent to destroy property, namely nitric acid, balloons, wax, and sodium chlorate, was given ten years. Fell never admitted IRA membership.

Fell was eventually sent to the top security Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight. It was here that, following an incident, he was one of six republican prisoners charged with various offences including mutiny, incitement to mutiny, and violence. Fell and the others were involved in a "sitting down" protest against the treatment of another prisoner. As a result of attempts to break up the protest, both prisoners and prison warders received personal injuries. Fell was punished by the Prison's Board of Visitors and given 91 days solitary confinement and 570 days loss of remission.

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