IRA terrorist convicted after 21 years

osnabruck - A former IRA terrorist was sentenced by the court in Osnabrück to a four-year cell for an assault that the man participated 21 years ago. Today, the 48-year-old Irishman attacked a British barracks in the German city on 28 June 1996 with four others.

The perpetrator was then a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the IRA militant branch. The attack in '96 was to make the British clear that they were not safe on the continent for the Irish Republican Army. The five men shot a gun to the barracks area, where 150 soldiers gathered in connection with a party. Only one of the fired projectiles exploded. There was no death or injury.

The convicted man, now father of seven children, has been in Germany for a year. He turned away from the IRA and worked for a while as a musician and actress in Belfast. After a lot of legal harassment, he volunteered at the Dublin authorities.