In 1986 journalist John McCarthy was taken hostage by Islamic jihadists in Beirut and held in brutal captivity.
On Saturday, Jonathan Mayo told of the powerful bond he forged with fellow prisoner, Brian Keenan, and how John’s girlfriend, Jill Morrell, campaigned tirelessly to ensure his plight was not forgotten back home.
In this concluding part, four years have passed and the two men are moved to their 17th secret location with no prospect of release.
But back home their loved ones dare to hope the end is in sight...
In 1986 journalist John McCarthy was taken hostage by Islamic jihadists in Beirut and held in brutal captivity - here he steps out of a plane at RAF Lyneham after his release in 1991
1990
May
At John’s old university, the Hull University Friends Of John McCarthy have persuaded the Students’ Union to name their bar The John McCarthy Bar. It’s opened by John’s father Pat and his old friend Chris Pearson. Chris says that he and John had closed many bars, but opening one was a first.
June
Conditions in the apartment have improved. John and Brian have access to a television to watch the 1990 World Cup. It takes John a while to realise that Lineker isn’t Arabic for ‘goal’. When their chains are removed so they can exercise, the two captives play their own game using a football made out of a pair of pants and an old mask.
A few weeks later they hear sounds from the other side of the wall. They translate the tapping: ‘My name is Terry Waite, I have been alone for over three years.’ John taps out his name but Terry is so excited to have made contact that he fails to catch Brian’s name.
August 23
Guards unchain Brian and lead him away saying: ‘You go home, family, Dublin.’ He insists on going back to say goodbye to John, but they ignore him. Brian is bundled into the back of a Mercedes, and after a short journey with his head on the lap of one of the guards, he is handed over to the Syrians.
On his release Brian speaks publicly of his friend as ‘a rare, unique and beautiful creation’. John misses Brian keenly, but is glad that he’ll be able to take news of him to his family and friends.
He later recalled how good they were for each other, playing off each other’s strengths. ‘God knows, without Brian I could not have made it through’, he said. ‘I love the man.’
American hostages Terry Anderson and Tom Sutherland are brought into John’s cell. They have a radio so are able to update him on world events — the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Poll Tax, the death of Ayatollah Khomeini. John asks for news about his family.
After a long pause Terry Anderson reaches over, holds his hand and says: ‘John, I don’t know how to tell you, your mother died a year ago’.
September 3
In Britain, support for John’s release continues to spread. The Body Shop and Our Price give away yellow ribbons, Radio One DJ Simon Mayo starts a new feature in which every month Jill will come on to his Breakfast Show to give updates on the hostages.
A Friends Of John McCarthy poster appears on the set of the newsroom TV comedy Drop The Dead Donkey.
November 3
The apartment fills with guards and John is bound, gagged and thrown into a car boot once again. Then the heavy bulk of a second man is put on top of him and a deep voice says: ‘This is a very large boot.’
Brian Keenan, Terry Waite and John McCarthy at a book launch at the Geographical Society in London in 1993
John says: ‘It was, until you got in!’ Terry Waite has had no contact with anyone other than a guard nor any news of the outside world for four and a half years. In that time he was given the occasional book, including one called ‘Great Escapes’.
Christmas Day
It is John’s fifth Christmas in captivity. He is in a room with Tom Sutherland, Terry Waite and Terry Anderson. They play a game of Scrabble made out of a cardboard box and listen to the BBC World Service.
To their delight, in her Christmas message the Queen refers to their plight: ‘We must remember those still held hostage. Some of them have spent years in captivity, and Christmas must, for them, be especially hard to bear. My heart goes out to them and to their families.’
1991
May
John, Tom and the two Terrys have been moved to a new building. Their conditions continue to improve — when air conditioning is installed, the hostages spend the morning under sheets so the engineer doesn’t know who they are. ‘He probably guessed’, John said.
Even more valuable to John are glimpses of the sun and the moon and the thought that it’s the same light shining down on England. Sometimes after waking John is overwhelmed by panic at his five lost years.
August 6
Early afternoon
A guard enters the room and kneels beside John, undoes his chain and says: ‘Come.’ John hugs Terry Waite and says a quick ‘Goodbye’.
One of the guards begs John not to think badly of him and asks what he will tell the world about them. John smiles. ‘We’ll just have to wait and see.’ John is bound and gagged and put into a boot of a car.
Unbeknownst to him, a UN diplomat called Giandomenico Picco, working on behalf of UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, has brokered the
