海角大神

It should have been Ireland's trial of the century: The elderly leader of a communist breakaway group from the IRA, whose former party comrades are now in government, sat accused by the US State Department of distributing 鈥渟uperdollars鈥� 鈥� perfect forgeries of US dollars 鈥� printed by the North Korean government to underwrite the dictatorship's failing economy, and, in some of the more thriller-like reports, to undermine the US economy at the same time.

And yet, other than the initial allegations, the long-running extradition battle barely registered in the press in Ireland or abroad. 聽 This morning, it drew to a close as Ireland's High Court ruled against extraditing former Irish political party leader Se谩n Garland to the United States to face charges of distributing counterfeit dollars allegedly printed by North Korea.

Speaking at a hearing this morning, Justice John Edwards said the court would not grant the application and will furnish the reasons for doing so on Jan. 13. The decision had originally been due in October, after the hearing adjourned in July.

Mr. Garland was indicted by the US for circulating North Korean forgeries of American $100 bills in the 1990s in cooperation with the Russian Communist Party and British criminal contacts.聽 Garland denies the charges, and claims the American government wants to put him in Guant谩namo Bay or, at the very least, a "Supermax" prison from which he will never see daylight again.

Garland was first arrested on the charges in Northern Ireland in 2005, but while awaiting extradition, he jumped bail and fled to the Republic of Ireland, where he lives.聽 He was rearrested by Irish authorities in 2009.

The Rev. Chris Hudson, chair of the Stop the Extradition of Se谩n Garland campaign, today issued a statement supporting the judgment.

鈥淭his has been a horrendous six-year ordeal for Se谩n, his family, and friends,鈥� said Mr. Hudson, 鈥渁nd I am delighted with the progress we have made today. I have always believed that the US extradition demand was a vindictive act by the former Bush administration designed to punish and isolate North Korea and anyone who had connections with that country.鈥�

Speaking to 海角大神 in July, Mick Finngean, the current president of the Workers' Party, said the聽allegations against Garland were absurd and politically motivated, and聽the US justice system was too slanted. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no way Se谩n Garland, given his opposition to [US foreign聽policy] and political beliefs, would get a fair trial,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he most right-wing fanatics have already presumed him guilty.鈥�

In his bid against extradition, the aging and ailing Mr. Garland gathered significant support across Ireland: 74 current and former lawmakers聽and many other prominent figures, from trade union leaders to entertainers, had stated their opposition to his being聽handed over to the US authorities.

The charges are rooted in the history of the Workers' Party, which in decades past, like many Soviet-aligned groups, maintained fraternal links with ruling parties in the Eastern bloc. In this case, the Workers' Party made contacts not only with the Soviet Union, but also with the North Korean regime.

A book documenting the party's rise and fall says the links went deeper than holidays paid for by Kim Il-sung, though. "The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party" by Brian Hanley and Scott Millar claims more than a dozen members of its secretive armed wing, the Official IRA, receiving military training while in Korea in the late 1980s.

Mr. Finnegan disputed the idea of shady connections to the Kim regime. 鈥淭he connection to North Korea has always been of a humanitarian nature,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd to promote trade and peace 鈥� and we also聽saw it as a country that was partitioned, like Ireland,鈥� he said.

But many people wonder why the US is putting such effort into going after the obscure figure of Se谩n Garland, particularly now that his party has shrunk to a shadow of its former self, the Irish conflict has come to an end, and the cold war is a distant memory.

The answer may lie in the Workers鈥� Party鈥檚 history as an offshoot of the IRA with Communist ties, says Mr. Millar. 聽The Workers' Party was聽once the political wing of the Official IRA (OIRA), which "was fairly close to the Eastern bloc intelligence agencies," says Millar.

Millar鈥檚 co-author, historian Mr. Hanley, says the case is linked to ongoing US tensions and politicking over Korea. 鈥淭he cold war is over but the US is not finished with North Korea,鈥� he says.

A major source of confusion is the alphabet soup of groups in Ireland styling themselves the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Garland鈥檚 group is not connected to the mainstream Provisional IRA 鈥� now usually just referred to as the IRA 鈥� from which the modern political party Sinn Fein evolved. In fact, both the PIRA and OIRA originated in a split in Irish republicanism in 1969.

The OIRA declared a ceasefire in 1972 to focus on its political arm, Official Sinn F茅in, later renamed the Workers鈥� Party.聽The Workers' Party saw electoral success in the Republic of Ireland, but by 1992, the party fractured over the end of the cold war and allegations that the OIRA was still active. Some reform-minded members quit to form a new party, Democratic Left, which聽eventually merged with Labor, leaving the hardline communist rump as a much reduced force that barely registered at聽the polls.

Ireland's deputy prime minister, Eamon Gilmore, is a former Democratic Left and Workers' Party member, as are several of his Labor party colleagues.