IRA member and 'Hooded Man' Joe Clarke - who just received an apology from PSNI - was a millionaire who once nearly crippled neighbour Eamonn Magee with a pickaxe handle

Clarke, who was buried on Thursday with paramilitary honours, recently received an apology from the PSNI for his ill-treatment while interned during the 1970s.

He had long campaigned – alongside the other 13 Hooded Men – for recognition and recompense after being subjected to inhumane interrogation techniques.

Upon learning of his death, the PSNI said this week: “The Police Service of Northern Ireland has expressed sympathy to the family of Joe Clarke.”

It added: “[B]y today’s standards, the treatment of these men at that time would likely be characterised as torture.

“The Police Service of Northern Ireland has formally apologised for the actions and omissions of police officers involved in their treatment whilst in police custody in 1971.

“It is our view that this was the right thing to do to help give the ‘Hooded Men’ and their families recognition about how they were treated.”

– A STROKE OF LUCK... –

Clarke had been given a five-figure sum in compensation for the treatment he received.

Then in January 2013, he won €12.5m in the Euromillions lottery on a ticket he bought in a west Belfast store.

A report in the Irish Independent at the time said this:

"A life-long friend of Mr Clarke, who asked not be named, said everyone in the area was delighted.

“’Everyone knows Joe,’ he said. ‘He worked in that garage six days a week, he's a real grafter. He has worked hard all his days so it's good to see him have a bit of luck.’

“’Joe's a top man. He always has time for anyone he meets and is well-liked round here.’

“The store's owner, Brendan McKee, described Mr Clarke as a ‘delightful man’ who would always be willing to ‘pull you out of a hole’.

“Locals said Mr Clarke had helped to raise thousands of pounds for disadvantaged children in Belarus.”

Eamonn Magee has different recollections of Clarke.

Mr Magee – whose own life had been marked by crime, alcoholism, and tragedy (having lost his son to murder by a romantically-jealous knifeman in 2015) – described the pair’s encounters in his authorised biography, “The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee”.

The two had been neighbours in Lagmore Dale, west Belfast.

Clarke was “a physically large man” said Mr Magee, and had worked as a Sinn Fein “minder”.

He was also “a coward and a scumbag,” claimed Mr Magee.

– ...AND A BLOODY PICKAXE HANDLE –

Mr Magee recalled that back in 2014 their two sons got in a fight, and Clarke supposedly threatened to hit Eamonn Junior.

Mr Magee, 20 years his junior, “found him, threatened him and then knocked the 50-year-old to the ground with a single punch”.

Then 18 months later they got into another dispute when Clarke claimed the Magee children had damaged a snowman.

Once again, “Eamonn snapped”.

He headbutted Clarke, knocking out a tooth.

The book continues: “Eamonn arrived home, suddenly and terribly sober with a feeling of dread heavy in his stomach.

"He peered out his front window and saw Clarke standing in the street on his phone.

"Mary called a friend, also named Joe, from a nearby street and he flew round to collect Eamonn.

"The plan was to drive him over to the relative safety of Isobel’s in the Ardoyne, but as they left Lagmore Dale, a car entered the estate to pick up Clarke.”

A car chase followed, ending in a crash.

"At this point, Clarke and his driver emerged with the pickaxe handle and a baseball bat in their hands.

"Clarke’s massive hand then reached in and wrestled the passenger door open.

"Eamonn, convinced that he was a dead man if he let himself be removed from the car, leaned across and held on to the steering wheel with every ounce of his strength.

"Clarke eventually gave up on dragging Magee out of the car and instead set to work on his kicking legs with the heavy wooden club [later identified in the book as a three-foot-long pickaxe handle].

"Each swing was that of a baseball slugger aiming for the fences, and each direct hit splattered blood onto the road and emitted a sickening crunch of bursting muscle and fracturing bone.

"Eamonn, convinced he was fighting for his life, didn’t feel a thing, and it was only when he stole a glance back at Clarke that he noticed he could see straight through his flesh to his own splintered tibia.

"Clarke must have looked, and the gruesome sight must have interrupted his blind fury, for he immediately ceased the attack and walked calmly back to his car...

"Five minutes later the battered car pulled up at the Royal Victoria Hospital with Eamonn’s mangled left leg hanging limply out the window.”

He had fractured legs, a shattered knee, and a punctured lung.

Mr Magee says a doctor told him he may never walk again.

He ultimately did – and in fact went on to box again.

In 2006, Clarke was given a three-year suspended sentence for GBH over the incident.

Clarke’s coffin was draped in an Irish tricolour on Thursday, and at the head of the cortege were men dressed in black berets, dark sunglasses, white shirts, black ties and black trousers – outfits synonymous with IRA funerals.

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