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Rockland family angry over case twists

February 17, 2011

By Staff Reporter

But Mairead Byrne is older now and far more aware of her father’s absence, the length of it, and the fact that it could be even longer yet.
“My daughter is now six and much more aware. She gets upset because her daddy isn’t around, Eileen Grady Byrne told the Echo.
Byrne’s husband and Mairead’s father is Joe Byrne. The Dundalk, County Louth native was extradited to Ireland over a year ago to face charges arising from the robbery of a pub in the town in 1997.
Byrne, who ran his own construction business in Rockland County before being extradited, has been jobless in Ireland where he has been living with his mother and father, a retired Garda sergeant.
After more than a year of anxious waiting, Byrne’s case will finally be heard by an Irish court on April 21. If the case goes against him, it will mean more upset for his daughter and wife.
It could also mean the loss of his green card and an ocean dividing a family that desperately wants to be back together under one, American roof.
Byrne’s troubles with the Irish legal authorities are rooted in a house burglary and the robbery of the pub during which the daughter of the owner was tied up.
Joe Byrne was working in the pub at the time as a part time barman. He was also employed by a local contractor, a man the Byrne family believes had ties to the Irish National Liberation Army.
Byrne was questioned by police after the robberies and made statements he now says were coerced. Either way, he was released without charge at the time. There the matter rested for a decade.
A few years after the robberies, Byrne moved to the U.S. He and Eileen were married and Byrne applied for a green card.
On the advice of an attorney, Byrne admitted to U.S. immigration authorities that he had been questioned by Irish police in connection with the burglary and pub robbery.
The immigration authorities did not see this as an impediment and Byrne was granted legal U.S. residence.
Byrne began his own contracting business and both he and his wife settled into a life that would, in time, include their daughter. Byrne, meanwhile, was able to renew his Irish passport without difficulty.
Then came the extradition warrant and the charges filed by Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions. Byrne lost his legal bid to remain in the U.S. when, in late 2007, a court in White Plains ruled in favor of the Irish authorities.
He was able to remain in the U.S. for a few weeks after the ruling before having to leave for Ireland in February, 2008.
Eileen Grady Byrne, who is on disability, flew the Atlantic with her daughter to see her husband just after Christmas. This was both good and bad for Mairead. She got to see her dad, but it also reinforced the fact that she is not seeing him at all back home in Pearl River.
For Grady Byrne, the main focus for the next few days is upon the opening of her husband’s trial. She claims that the prosecuting authorities in Ireland have changed their story, most especially with regard to the man identified by her husband as an INLA member.
“They are saying that the INLA man doesn’t exist, and that Joe made it up,” Grady Byrne said.
She said that the main witness in the case, the woman who was tied up during the robbery, does not now want to give evidence.
“We’re arguing that the extradition warrant was wrong to begin with, and that Joe shouldn’t have been extradited in the first place.”
In the meantime, according to Grady Byrne, she recently received a notice from the Department of Homeland Security requesting that she and her husband show up at Federal Plaza in New York City. The notice came because her husband has been out of the country for over a year.
Joe Byrne was on track to receive U.S. citizenship, but his wife now worries that he will end up losing his green card and right to enter the United States.
“It’s a very convoluted case. I’m at my wits end,” Grady Byrne said.
“It has been impossible to make any headway with the Director of Public Prosecutions and with both the Irish departments of justice and foreign affairs,” she said.

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