Sean Brown's family hail ‘very promising meeting' with Tanaiste
The family of murdered GAA official Sean Brown have hailed a 'very promising' meeting with Tánaiste Simon Harris.
Mr Brown's daughter, Siobhan, said they left Mr Harris with the message of 'what us as a family have been going through'.
In a statement after the meeting, Mr Harris said the Brown family have waited far too long for an investigation into his murder.
Mr Harris said the failure to effectively investigate the murder is 'simply unacceptable'. He pledged to 'continue to use every channel available to me to pursue this matter'.
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It comes after the UK government confirmed it will seek to appeal to the supreme court over a court ruling that ordered it to hold a public inquiry into Mr Brown's killing.
Mr Brown (61), the chairman of Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAA Club in Co Derry, was ambushed, kidnapped and murdered by loyalist paramilitaries as he locked the gates of the club in May 1997.
No one has ever been convicted of his killing.
Preliminary inquest proceedings last year heard that more than 25 people were linked by intelligence to the murder, including several state agents.
It was also alleged in court that surveillance of a suspect in the murder was temporarily stopped on the evening of the killing, only to resume again the following morning.
Appeal Court judges in Belfast affirmed an earlier High Court ruling compelling the UK government to hold a public inquiry. It said the failure to hold such an inquiry is unlawful.
However, the Northern Ireland Secretary says the case involves a key constitutional principle of who should order public inquiries, the Government or the judiciary.
GAA president Jarlath Burns was part of the delegation which met Mr Harris at Government Buildings in Dublin on the 28th anniversary of Mr Brown's murder.
Ms Brown said after the meeting that they had provided Mr Harris with 'clear documents as to what we've received throughout the course of inquiries and the failings by the British government in dealing with an article two compliant investigation into our father's murder'.
'He (Mr Harris) was very empathetic to our cause today and listened closely to us, and we look forward to the Irish Government working alongside us in support of a public inquiry into our father's murder,' she said.
Speaking alongside her sister, Clare, and their elderly mother Bridie, she said they made it clear that the 'only mechanism to go forward is to have a public inquiry'.
'At this point we do (have confidence in the Irish Government), he has been provided with copies of all the documents that we have in our possession. He is fully aware of all the redacted material.
'He is fully aware of the issues that we have encountered in this inquiry.'
Mr Burns said he was there to represent the 'support of all the GAA people'.
'We have made it very clear that we will be with this family throughout this process, and I want to thank the Tánaiste for the time that he took to meet the family, the sympathy that he showed and the support that the Irish Government has given this family right from the beginning of this tragedy, and we know that that will continue,' he said.
Mr Harris also paid tribute to the family after the meeting
'Bridie Brown and her family have shown enormous strength in pursuing this case and I will continue to use my influence and that of the Irish Government to bring about a resolution that is acceptable to the Brown family. They have waited too long,' he said. -PA
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Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Meabh Quoirin on life after her daughter's death in the jungle: ‘Nóra was meant to be here by our sides'
In her grandparents' home in Belfast , Nóra Quoirin is everywhere. Michael and Eithne Agnew keep photographs of their eldest grandchild in every room, just as Nóra's parents, Meabh and Sébastin Quoirin, do in their own home in London. 'I can't bring myself to take any of them off the wall,' says Meabh, 'so I just go around the house looking at them and talking to her and laughing about the stupid stuff she would laugh at and crying. Every day has tears.' She is speaking the day after what would have been Nóra's 21st birthday. A framed photo sits on a side table in the sittingroom of the house off the Malone Road in south Belfast where Meabh grew up, and which Nóra loved to visit; behind it is a bright bouquet of alliums, a gift from Meabh's friend Sylvie. 'She brought the purple flowers because everyone knows purple was Nóra's colour. READ MORE 'We went to Hillsborough yesterday for a picnic, with her [favourite] chocolate cake, and there were purple rhododendrons and purple flowers absolutely everywhere, and it was almost like this display had been put on for her birthday. 'She might not be standing physically beside me, but my universe is still filled with Nóra, constantly.' In August 2019, the family was waking up on the first morning of their holiday at a rainforest resort in Malaysia when Sébastien discovered Nóra was missing. Her body was found more than a week later in a deep ravine 3km away. Her family has always believed she was abducted, as she would not have been physically capable of opening or climbing out of the window in their apartment, and in any case never left the safety of her family. They have been strongly critical of the Malaysian police's investigation. An initial inquest verdict of death by misadventure was overturned after a campaign by the Quoirins, and a second inquest returned an open verdict, with the judge saying he agreed with the family that Nóra simply could not have made her way through the jungle on her own. A photograph of Nóra Quoirin on display in her grandparents home in Belfast 'The day after her body was found – not everybody in Malaysia was awful, a lot of them were, especially the police – but a beautiful lady from the government came to see us. 'She read Yeats's The Stolen Child , and I thought, that's the most extraordinary thing that you could have given us as a gift today. 'I often think of that poem now too, and I really do feel she has been stolen from me. 'We should have been growing old with Nóra beside us. She would have always been with her dad and I. Her sister's about to go off to university, other kids are supposed to go off, but Nóra was not meant to leave, Nóra was meant to be by our sides. She should be here.' Nóra was born with holoprosencephaly, a genetic brain condition that affected her physical and mental development. She, I think, just by virtue of who she is and who she was, just reminds people of what really matters in life — Meabh Quoirin She spent the first month of her life in hospital with breathing difficulties, had limited motor skills and cognitively 'it's not really comparable, but if you could compare, [was] more like a five- or six-year-old than a 15-year-old. 'She did instinctively realise she had a lot of limitations, and I think she felt anxious when she didn't feel safe ... but because we were determined to treat her like we would treat any other child and live our lives normally and just be, she learned to just be.' Nóra's favourite phrase was ''Mummy, what's the plan?''. Best of all was 'the travelling plan', says Meabh. She 'really loved travelling, and the journey mattered more than the destination for Nóra, she just loved being on long journeys. 'She would just be staring out of the window, sometimes having a wee chat to the animals she was going past.' Nóra loved animals and had a vivid imagination – 'creatures, the crazier the better, she kind of preferred it if they weren't even real, monsters featured heavily' – and her favourite teddy was the Gruffalo. On holiday in Bali, they visited a monkey park: 'This was on her birthday and this was great, because the monkeys just kept coming up to people and sitting on their heads, and this was her best day.' Nóra was born with holoprosencephaly, a genetic brain condition that affected her physical and mental development Meabh takes out her phone – she has saved 'pages and pages' of memories about her daughter – to search for a list she once made of all the places Nóra had visited. 'There was nothing Nóra didn't get to do in life.' She had been to Singapore, to Thailand and 'all over Europe' – especially to visit her French grandparents, Sylvain and Anne, in Venizy in Burgundy – but Donegal was 'truly her most favourite place in the world. She loved running into that sea, it didn't matter how freezing it was. 'She spent most of her birthdays there, she really loved her birthday, it was her day, so I think she associated it with all the really very best things in life. 'She used to love sitting up in The Rusty Nail [in Crossconnell near Clonmany] and having a Cidona and a packet of crisps and just taking in the pub.' Though half French, Nóra was 'a very Irish wee girl ... she'd all the freckles and all the mannerisms. There was just something about Belfast and Donegal, it was in her soul.' After Nóra's death, Meabh began collecting memories. 'I remember sitting here the night of her funeral and just this wave of panic coming over me thinking, all these people are going to go away, and they'll not remember everything about Nóra, my Nóra, and who she was and who she is and I just thought, I can't let that happen.' Meabh and Nóra Quoirin. Photograph: Courtesy of the Quoirin family Nóra was 'extremely close' to her siblings – her sister Innes is about to turn 18, and her brother Maurice is 14. 'I would say to them, okay, give me a memory, and they gave me every single one of their memories, and one day I'll make a book for them of their memories of their sister. 'She was highly dependent on us, of course, so if I was busy, Innes would be looking after her ... things like tying her laces or helping her get her zips up or doing buttons on her coat, or telling her what we were going to do now.' Meabh reads their recollections from her phone, smiling as she does so. 'Innes, she said, 'I miss her distracting me while I'm doing my homework to play Fishdom [a video game]'. 'Maurice remembered she always put her Crocs on the wrong feet, and Innes remembered she always ate her toast upside down. 'She really made them laugh a lot, and we all remember just how quiet the house became after we lost her.' In time, the memories formed themselves into poems, then Sylvain read them, and transformed them into songs. 'He really tried to capture all the aspects of Nóra's character and her French and Irish heritage, the fact that this little girl had transcended borders all over the world.' Two years ago, they were performed in a concert in the church in Venizy. Among those present was Meabh's sister, Nóra's godmother Aisling Agnew, a professional flautist and the artistic director of the Hard Rain contemporary music ensemble, artists-in-residence at Queen's University Belfast. I have zero faith in Malaysia ever paying attention to Nóra's case again — Meabh Quoirin 'Aisling decided she was going to bring this somehow, somewhere to Ireland.' The performance took place in Belfast last weekend. 'It couldn't have been more special, to be doing it the night before Nóra turned 21,' says Meabh. In such moments, she explains, 'I'm just in my own head with Nóra and she holds my hand and we do it together. 'I'm just in my space with Nóra, and she never lets me down. 'But then afterwards, you look up and you see all these people, and you realise that you've touched people's lives, and you've allowed them to grieve, and you've given them a hint of what one little girl can do, and how much love it can bring into anyone's life, into so many people's lives, and I think that's what we're here to do. 'She, I think, just by virtue of who she is and who she was, just reminds people of what really matters in life.' Meabh and Sébastin Quoirin outside the Four Courts in Dublin in 2022. Photograph:Collins Courts In the six years since Nóra's death – 'just a heartbeat for us' – what keeps Meabh going is that 'I think Nóra is always there. She was always very brave, she spent so much time in hospital and she was so brave in all those moments and I promised her I would be brave, and I would stand up for who she was and try to live life the way she inspired me to be.' She does not believe anyone will ever be brought to justice for Nóra's death. 'The judge did say it was highly probable Nóra had been abducted and led there by someone else, but of course we just don't have proof of that, and I don't think we'll ever have answers.' The family asked that unidentified handprints found on the outside of the window that Meabh had pulled shut the previous night but which was 'wide open' the next morning be kept, 'but I have zero faith in Malaysia ever paying attention to Nóra's case again. 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[ Child death in Ireland: Child death: Families face 'significant difficulties' in getting answers Opens in new window ] The Belfast concert was recorded, so Meabh hopes some day more people will be able to hear it; she has also signed up for a training course that will allow her to volunteer with people with special needs. Her dream had been one day to sell her company – she is chief executive of Foresight Factory, a global trends and forecasting consultancy – 'and do a small project with Nóra and the Nóras of this world, I don't know, run a cafe or something. 'My plan was we'd be doing this around now, when she would leave school ... and of course, that dream is broken. 'I can't make plans for the future. I don't know what she's asking me to do yet, so I'll just wait until she lets me know. 'I'll know myself when she's decided, but I don't think she's decided yet. It's too soon.' [ A 2019 film on the grief following the death of a child' Opens in new window ] For the meantime, Meabh is leaving it all to Nóra. 'I said at the concert, I didn't write the poems, Nóra wrote the poems, Nóra made the concert happen. 'She has a way of just showing up in people's lives ... and I think that's quite extraordinary for a little girl who had so many difficulties in her life, and I suppose that's the thing I want people to remember. 'Without wanting to be judgemental, I think people decide things about the Nóras of this world, and I want them to realise these are extraordinary people that have so much love to give and so much to teach us and so much to say, and sometimes without any words at all. 'If you're just listening carefully enough, you can experience the most wonderful moments, and I had that gift for 15 whole years.'
Irish Times
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Death In Derry - Martin McGuinness and the Derry IRA's War Against The British: Strong on candour, weak on analysis
Death In Derry: Martin McGuinness and the Derry IRA's War Against The British Author : Jonathan Trigg ISBN-13 : 978-1785375477 Publisher : Merrion Press Guideline Price : €19.99 This book is a valuable contribution to the literature of the Troubles period and the history of the IRA. Jonathan Trigg has secured interviews with several former British soldiers and IRA members, many under pseudonyms. This is new material. The weaknesses in the book are that it is not strong on political analysis and that it accepts simplistic versions of key events such as the Battle of the Bogside and the Falls Road rioting of August 1969. He says, for instance, that the 1971 internment raids were not extended to loyalists because of unionist pressure. Actually, this was on legal advice that such a measure could not be used against a force that did not threaten the state – the same logic by which the Irish government refused to intern IRA members at the same time. READ MORE Trigg is happy to describe the period of violence as a war, accepting terminology favoured by the IRA themselves. He writes of IRA activists in a tone bordering on admiration, apparently as one soldier respecting others. [ A former British army officer and author on former IRA members opening up to him: 'Trust is a huge issue' Opens in new window ] That will grate with some who will prefer a more moralistic approach and will not like to read of murders being described as 'successes'. Trigg is a military historian. His strengths are in understanding military culture and warfare. It is almost endearing how he admits to occasional failings in his research. One IRA man refuses to tell him what he was jailed for and he leaves it at that, when another researcher might have gone into the newspaper archives and found out. He misses some important nuances. In a chapter about the south Derry IRA centred around Bellaghy, he attributes the reduced level of republican militancy in the area to the presence of the literary centre Seamus Heaney HomePlace, and the 'thousands of tourists wandering around with their camera phones'. Clearly he hasn't been to Bellaghy lately. However, he has secured the candour of several former Provos and soldiers, and this factor provides an understanding of their actions and their thinking that earns the book a place on the shelves of any serious future researchers or writers on the period. One amusing detail is that the British army developed a remote control camera system for monitoring suspects but had to scrap it because those suspects would hear the click and the whirr of the film winder. That wouldn't be a problem with the technology of today.
Agriland
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