John Kelly (Sinn Féin politician)

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For other people with this name, see John Kelly.

John Kelly
Member of the
New Creation
Succeeded byGeraldine Dougan
Personal details
Born
John Kelly

(1936-04-05)5 April 1936[1]
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died6 September 2007(2007-09-06) (aged 71)
Maghera, County Londonderry
NationalityIrish
Political partySinn Féin
SpousePhilomena Kelly
ChildrenBronagh Kelly

John Kelly (5 April 1936 – 6 September 2007) was an Irish republican politician in Northern Ireland. He joined the Irish Republican Army in the 1950s, and was a founder member and a leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army in the early 1970s.

Personal life

John Kelly was born in

Watty Graham's Glen and a keen supporter of Gaelic games and the Irish language. [citation needed
]

IRA member

Kelly joined the IRA in the early 1950s when he was 18 and took part in the

nationalist areas of Belfast from loyalist rioters who were largely unhampered by the police.[citation needed
]

Prison record

He was jailed on three occasions for IRA related activity spending a total of fifteen years in prison in

1956 IRA border campaign, He also served a six-month term in 1973 in the Republic of Ireland for being a member of the IRA.[2]

Commenting later on the

Troubles, he said: "Yes, it was a terrible period. But you can't turn the clock back. The Irish government did not create the Provisional IRA. What happened was as inevitable as the changing seasons."[3]

Arms Trial

The citizens' defence groups sought help from the government in

Arms Trial" with ministers Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney, accused of conspiring to import arms illegally into the Republic of Ireland
. The trial eventually collapsed from a lack of evidence, as the relevant government files were kept secret, but the Irish government sacked several ministers as a result.

Councillor and MLA 1997–2003

Kelly went into electoral politics, serving on Magherafelt District Council from 1997. He was elected in the 1998 election to the Northern Ireland Assembly as a Sinn Féin member for Mid Ulster.[4] Kelly was deselected before the 2003 election, and criticised the decision by the Sinn Féin leadership to support policing reforms. In January 2006 he co-wrote a letter with Brendan Hughes which cast doubt on the claims that dissident republicans had threatened Sinn Féin leaders and claimed that the real threats were being made by the Sinn Féin leadership against those who sought a debate on policing. He left Sinn Féin which he considered too controlled from the centre, opposing the leadership: "deceit and the philosophy of creative ambiguity", and retired from politics.

Kelly died from cancer on 6 September 2007 after a long illness.

An Lúb and Dungiven on 8 September 2007, at the home of his local club, Watty Graham Park, Glen. A Na Piarsaigh Belfast GAC
jersey was draped over his coffin before he was interred .

References

  1. ISBN 978-0415396110
    .
  2. The News Letter
    Accessed 11 September 2007
  3. ^ a b Irish Times, 7 September 2007, p. 10
  4. ^ NI Assembly Biography of John Kelly Archived 26 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ ""Former MLA and IRA activist dies"". BBC News. 6 September 2007. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
  6. ^ ""Former IRA leader Kelly dies"". The Irish Times. 6 September 2007. Retrieved 6 September 2007.
Northern Ireland Assembly
New assembly MLA for Mid Ulster
1998–2003 		Succeeded by
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