Big Irish hunt for kidnappers

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33966, 6 October 1975, Page 1

Big Irish hunt for kidnappers

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

DUBLIN, October 5.

The Provisional wing of the I.R.A. was today believed to be helping in last-minute attempts to save a Dutch businessman whose kidnappers threatened to kill him unless the Irish Government yielded to their demands.

As the deadline approached, thousands of policemen and troops in both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland continued their hunt for the persons who seized Mr Tiede Herrema, aged 54, the managing director of a Limerick factory, on Friday.

The Irish police last night named a man and a woman they want to question in connection with the kidnapping.

Mr Herrema’s life was being bargained against the release from prison of two I.R.A. leaders, Kevin Mallon and James Hyland, and an English millionaire’s daughter, Dr Rose Dugdale, who was imprisoned for her part in an art theft. The Irish Government has declined to make any deal with the kidnappers for the release of prisoners. But the Dutch-owned company for which Mr Herrema works said that it had contacted his captors through mediating groups.

The company declined to identify these groups, but police and Government sources believe it has been in contact with the Provisional I.R.A.

The police were today looking for Marion Coyle, aged 19, and Eddie Gallagher, aged 27. both known Republican activists, who are wanted for questioning in connection with the kidnapping. Miss Coyle is said to be the girl friend of Kfevin Mallon, the I.R.A.s explosives expert, and is wanted by the police in England in connection with bombing incidents.

Gallagher escaped from prison last year and is said to head a radical group which broke away from the I.R.A. The I.R.A. has denied involvement in Mr Herrema’s kidnapping, saying that its gaoled members were always prepared to escape, but did not approve of using this sort of blackmail to win freedom.

Republican militants have come under public pressure to prove their innocence by using their intelligence network to find the captured Dutchman and save him. In a television interview recorded last night in the Dutch Embassy in Dublin, Mrs Herrema begged the kidnappers to spare her husband’s life. The couple have four sons. Top executives of the Dutch parent company of Mr Herrema’s firm, the Ferenka Steel Cord Company, flew to Dublin after the kidnapping. It was they who arranged contact with the kidnappers. In Belfast today the police continued to ferret out suspected members of the Ulster Volunteer Force, which yes-

terday hurriedly went underground after being outlawed. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr Merlyn Rees) declared the U.V.F. illegal after Thursday’s explosions and shooting in Ulster which killed 12 and injured 46.

“The U.V.F. publicly claimed responsibility for what it called “a series of military operations.” The police today were questioning 20 suspects — after a net had been drawn over the U.V.F.’s known haunts.