Des O'Hagan
Des O'Hagan (29 March 1934 – 5 May 2015)[1] was a prominent member of the Workers' Party and was a founding member of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.[2]
O'Hagan was born in
In 1947 At age 13 he joined
On his release from imprisonment, O'Hagan was enrolled in the
In 1967 O'Hagan was one of the founding members of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) and played an important role in organising many of the campaign's major demonstrations and in the development of NICRA into a serious political machine which forced the British government of the time to make major political concessions.
Des O'Hagan was one of a large number of Republicans who were arrested and interned without trial in August 1971. He quickly began documenting the ill-treatment of prisoners by the British authorities and had these articles smuggled out of the
On his release from internment, O'Hagan became once again involved in the official republican movement and played an important role of its development into the Workers' Party. He was for a time editor of The Irish People and served on the party's Central Executive Committee for many years during which he was chairman of the party's education committee. He also contested a number of elections on behalf of the Workers' Party in the South Down constituency.
By the 1970s he had adopted the nickname "The Divil" (a Northern Irish pronunciation of "The Devil") after he was denounced at the pulpit by Canon Murray of St Peter's Catholic Cathedral for his Communist outlook.
Following
Des O'Hagan died on 5 May 2015, aged 81.[6]
References
- ^ "Staunch polemicist who dedicated his life to the Workers Party". The Irish Times.
- ^ ISBN 1-84488-120-2
- ^ a b "Des O'Hagan: Belfast's Red Devil". LookLeft.org. 7 May 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-9572835-0-3
- ^ "A Jacobin who planned a better Ireland". LookLeft.org. 3 August 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
- ^ "Workers Party veteran des O'Hagan dies at 81".