John Patrick McCarthy CBE (born November 26 1956) is a British journalist who was kidnapped by terrorists in Lebanon in April 1986, and held hostage for more than five years.

McCarthy, of Irish Catholic extraction, is known as Britain's longest-held hostage in Lebanon, having spent over five years in captivity until his release on August 8, 1991. He shared a cell with the Northern Irish Protestant, Brian Keenan for several years.

He was appointed a Commander of the British Empire in 1992. He sailed around the coast of Britain with Sandi Toksvig in 1995, making a BBC documentary TV series and a book of the experience.

He attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College, a public school in Hertfordshire.

His former fiancée Jill Morrell had campaigned for his release and public expectations of a re-kindling of the romance between them were high. The couple wrote a book together about his ordeal but they separated amicably in 1994. McCarthy married Anna Ottewill in April 1999.

Miscellaneous information

• The Student Union bar at the University of Hull is named after him, as he is an alumnus of the University.

• A critically acclaimed film version of the two men's kidnapping and incarceration was made in 2003. Titled Blind Flight, the Scottish movie was directed by John Furse starring Ian Hart as Keenan and Linus Roache as McCarthy.

• He is currently presenting episodes of the BBC Radio 4 travel programme 'Excess Baggage'.

• The Stiff Little Fingers song Beirut Moon was inspired by John McCarthy's ordeal. It criticized the government for not acting to free him and was subsequently banned in Britain.

• In the first Christmas special of the British comedy programme "The Office", David Brent (played by Ricky Gervais) explains how he would like to be interviewed by Michael Parkinson. His agent then says that Parkinson only interviews people who have done things. To which Brent replys saying "He had that in Lebanon who spent years chained to a radiator, what did he do? Nothing he was chained to a radiator!" Referring to John McCarthy.

Books

• Some Other Rainbow by John McCarthy and Jill Morrell (ISBN 0563393165)
• Between Extremes by Brian Keenan and John McCarthy (ISBN 0552145955)
• A Ghost Upon Your Path by John McCarthy (ISBN 0593048849)
• An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan, (McCarthy is a main character).

External links

• BBC: Beirut hostage John McCarthy freed
• Debriefing of released British hostages from Lebanon
• Bio at Jeremy Hicks Associates

1956 births | Living people | British journalists | Hostages | People of Irish descent in Great Britain | Commanders of the Order of the British Empire | Old Haileyburians