The GAA Must Step Up And Demand Justice For The Family Of Sean Brown
On the 22nd of December last, Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAC in County Derry issued a powerful statement regarding the 1997 murder of their then chairman, Sean Brown. Sean was the victim of a sectarian assassination by the ‘Loyalist Volunteer Force’.
As Sean was locking up the Wolfe Tones clubhouse after a committee meeting on the 12th of May 1997, he was approached by members of the unionist death squad who then proceeded to abduct him, dragging him to a waiting car. The car was found burnt out nearly 17 kilometres away. Sean’s body was found beside the car, he had been shot six times.
Sean Brown and his recently deceased son Damian were both passionate members of the GAA.
It was clear from the outset that this was a sectarian murder, and that Sean was targeted due to the fact that he was a prominent local member of the GAA. It was also clear that from the beginning there were significant failures in the investigation.
In 2004, the Police Ombudsman in the Six Counties admitted that the “Investigation was not efficiently and properly carried out, and no earnest effort made to identify those who carried out the murder.” On the 25th anniversary of his murder the RUC-PSNI offered Sean Brown’s family a full apology, however British authorities continue to hamper the pursuit for truth and justice by Sean Brown’s family and the wider community in Bellaghy.
The RUC-PSNI are extremely reluctant to disclose any files related to the murder, unless those files are heavily redacted first. They claim the decision to withhold this information is made on Personal Identifying Information (PII) grounds, but it can be assumed that some of those implicated in the murder of Sean Brown were, or are, state assets, and as such are still being protected by the Six County authorities.
The fear now is that the British state will attempt to ‘run down the clock’ on such cases until ‘The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill’ comes into effect. This has prompted the government in the Twenty-Six Counties to initiate a case with the European Court of Human Rights, of which Britain remains a member, to test whether this new legislation is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The widow of Sean Brown, Bridie Brown, holds a picture of her late husband with their daughters and son.
The initial statement from Wolfe Tones GAC welcomes the intervention of the Twenty-Six County government, but correctly asks - where is the outcry from the GAA? There seems to be, as is often the case when legacy issues from the Six Counties arise, a wall of silence from the GAA in the Twenty-Six Counties.
In the Six Counties, Tyrone, Derry and Armagh all passed motions at their recent annual conventions supporting the family of Sean Brown in their quest for justice. On social media over thirty GAA clubs have voiced their support for the Brown family and for Wolfe Tones GAC Bellaghy - not one of these clubs was in the Twenty-Six Counties. This is just not good enough!
The GAA is the largest civil society group in Ireland. This was a horrific sectarian murder carried out against one of their own elected representatives. There should be national outcry, but instead there is silence.
The GAA should bring the full force of its influence and membership to bear on those seeking to prevent justice for the family of Sean Brown by demanding an inquest without any more delays.