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‘Chaotic’ criminal who was garda, PSNI and IRA target apologises to victims

The dad-of-six, who was in and out of prison for most of his life, tells how jail course took him on new path

Ciaran O’Neill

Today at 16:16

A former criminal who spent decades running from the IRA, PSNI and garda says he has turned over a new leaf and wants to apologise for the misery he caused his family and victims.

Glen Smith, who was released from jail in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, spent 30 years behind bars or on the run from police on both sides of the border.

When he was out of prison, the IRA wanted to shoot him for the many crimes he had committed.

His life was “chaos” and the Derry man, who once escaped from garda custody while on crutches, thought he would be dead before he turned 50.

However, he recently celebrated that landmark birthday, is continuing to put his life back together and is trying to make up for all the misery he caused his family and victims.

One of the catalysts for this, says the father of six, was a creative writing course he took part in during his last spell in prison.

“That changed everything and saved my life,” he said.

After discovering the “power of writing,” he stopped taking drugs in 2019, ending a lifetime of addiction.

“I remember saying to myself ‘it’s time to stop’,” he said.

“This boy used to give me grass and tablets every week in prison and I remember him coming over to me one day in the creative writing class and handing me the drugs. I said no and I just went cold turkey after that.”

“It’s like I became a different man.”

Smith was first banged up when he was just 15. His litany of crimes included theft, robbery, assault and threats to kill.

“My ma used to be glad when I was put in jail because at least then she knew where I was,” he told the Sunday World this week.

“I got put away for the first time when I was 15 into St Pat’s (borstal in Belfast) but they couldn’t control me.

“So the next time they put me in Hydebank (Young Offenders Centre), but they said I was uncontrollable and I was sent to the Crumlin Road prison. You are not meant to be there if you’re under 21, but I went when I was 19.

“I was a lunatic with drugs and anger, always fighting.”

However, Smith, who witnessed his father being shot in a punishment-style attack by the IRA when he was 12, found it easier to be in jail.

“My life was chaos when I got out of jail. The ‘Ra was after me, the cops were always after me.

“But when I was caught again for whatever I had done and put back in jail, my body kind of relaxed. It was a relief and it felt like it was where I belonged. That was my family in there.

“It’s sad to say now, but that’s the way my life was. Out here was abnormal and in there was normal for me for 30 years.

“All the crimes I was doing, I never hid my face because I wanted to go back to prison. I didn’t care.”

Despite his desire to be locked up, he escaped from police custody a number of times on both sides of the border.

In one widely-reported incident, he fled from Garda custody twice in one day in 2000.

He was facing charges relating to assault and theft in the Bundoran area of Co Donegal.

While being transferred from a Dublin prison to court in Donegal, he escaped from gardaí when they stopped in Longford but was soon rearrested.

However, after the court appearance in Donegal, he fled through a rear window of a garda station. After a three-hour search, he was finally caught hiding up a tree near the station. In another incident, Smith was being brought from prison in Dublin to appear at a court in Co Sligo when he was allowed to stop at Longford Garda Station to use the toilet.

At the time he was on crutches, but on leaving the station he threw them away and ran off. He was captured the next day.

It looked like this would continue to be the story of his life until he joined that creative writing class.

“I have been writing all my life. I remember my ma telling me that I had been writing stories when I was five or six.

“Teachers used to tell her I had an amazing imagination.”

In the writing class at Magilligan Prison, he was encouraged to write about his own experiences.

“Writing the book really changed my life. I would go to the class between 9 and 12 in the morning and then back to the wing for dinner and be locked up for an hour.

“I would then go back to the class for a couple of hours. I didn’t take anyone on and I just kept writing.”

His title for the book, No More Walls, which he has recently self-published, was inspired by Brian Keenan, the Belfast man who was held hostage for four years in Beirut in the 1980s.

“Brian came into Magilligan to do a talk about his life and his book,” Smith said.

“I read his book and wrote him a poem called All Souls.

“The poem was read out for him at the event and he got very emotional. He came over to me and thanked me for writing it.

“A few months later, the prison governor said Brian had sent me something but they couldn’t let me have it as it could be used as a weapon.

“It was a plaque with the message ‘When life shackles you, escape no matter what. No more walls’.

“He also wrote me a letter saying the plaque he had sent to the prison had been up on the wall in his study for many years but he had taken it down and replaced it with a framed copy of my poem.

“That’s where I got the name for my book.”

After completing the creative writing course, which was run by the Prison Arts Foundation (PAF), Smith stayed on to help with the project.

He explained: “When I was mentoring the class, I would see the young fellas coming in. Wee hard men about 22 or 23. I was thinking ‘I have been there’.

“They would stand with their chests out and ask ‘what’s this’ and when they were told it was a creative writing class, they would get all defensive and say ‘what will I write about?’

“I told them to write about themselves and their own lives. Every one of them had a story.”

Since his release from prison, Smith has maintained links with PAF and is full of praise for the organisation.

“The work they do is unbelievable.

“They gave me a lot of help and I am still involved with them.

“They even link in with prisoners after they are released from jail and continue to help them.”

Smith’s family have suffered horrifically through suicide with his father, sisters Kelly and Charlotte, and a young niece all taking their own lives.

As the eldest of nine children, he admits he was often not there to support his loved ones but now wants to make up for the pain he caused to his family, especially long-suffering partner Rhona.

“My life now is just heaven. Me and Rhona are settled and my life is all about my family, my six children and five grandchildren.

“It is great to be here consistently for them, for christenings, birthdays and pantomimes.”