On June 4th, 1974 Lord Donoughmore (John Hely-Hutchinson), once, briefly, a British MP and grand master of the Masonic Lodge of Ireland, and his wife were kidnapped by the IRA from their home near Clonmel and held hostage for the fate of Dolours and Marian Price, Gerry Kelly, and Hugh Feeney who were on hunger strike in Britain after being convicted of bombings in London the previous year. The group ended their hunger strike after 205 days, having been force-fed during 167 of them, a few days later the Donoughmores were freed. Donal Musgrave reported on their return home to Clonmel. - JOE JOYCE
‘WE ARE almost weeping with joy to be home,” said the Earl of Donoughmore, when he returned with Lady Donoughmore to Knocklofty House, near Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, for an emotional, tearful and joyful reunion with their family, after being unexpectedly freed in the Phoenix Park in Dublin by I.R.A. kidnappers early yesterday morning.
The earl, whose head was scarred from pistol blows, described how their captors had awaited orders from a mysterious leader about when to take them away from the hideout. They did not see this person who is believed be a Provisional I.R.A. man, during the four days and nights when they were kidnapped.
The 71-year-old earl said that he is “100% Irish” as he recounted the dramatic kidnapping and their experiences during the past four days when they were confined under armed guard in a dark 14-foot square room as hostages for the Price sisters.
They were told that they were lucky the sisters had ended their hunger strike.
In a detailed account of the kidnapping, the earl said that he went to dinner with his wife on last Tuesday and came back in evening dress around 11 p.m. As they got out of the car he went towards the front door to get the dogs to give them a run. He heard his wife saying: “Hello. Who are you?”. He then saw people approaching, waving guns, two of them screaming and running.
“One put a gun to my ear and I struggled”, he said. “I was hit on the head five times with a revolver. I think they call it pistol-whipping in the Wild West.
“I saw my wife being dragged across the gravel and I realised then that there was no future in continuing to struggle. We were taken to the car and whisked away. Outside the entrance, we stopped and bandages were put over our eyes”.
Asked if they feared for their lives, Lord Donoughmore said there was no moment when they did not have such fears. The kidnappers told them they had been abducted, not for money, but in exchange for the transfer of the hunger-striking Price sisters .
Asked how they were treated, Lady Donoughmore said: “Once we got there , they could not have been kinder. Absolutely anything we requested they gave us. For meals in the morning we had fries and, for lunch, steak or chops.”
Asked about the kind of conversations they had with the men, Lord Donoughmore said that “they told us of the news about ourselves, that our son had come home and offered a reward and about the big meeting in Clonmel .
“I was very keen to get the racing pages to see who won the Epsom Derby,” said the Earl, who is Senior Steward of the Irish Turf Club. “But they would not give us the newspapers, only the sporting pages cut out.
“We did not talk about politics with them, but they know a lot more about racing now,” said Lord Donoughmore.
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