Ruairí Ó Brádaigh

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Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ó Bradaigh in 2004
President of Republican Sinn Féin
In office
1987–2009
Succeeded byDes Dalton
President of Sinn Féin
In office
October 1970[1] – 13 November 1983
Preceded byTomás Mac Giolla
Succeeded byGerry Adams
Teachta Dála
In office
March 1957 – October 1961
ConstituencyLongford–Westmeath
Personal details
Born
Peter Roger Casement Brady

(1932-10-02)2 October 1932
Political activist

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh (IPA: [ˈɾˠuəɾʲiː oː ˈbˠɾˠaːd̪ˠiː]; born Peter Roger Casement Brady; 2 October 1932 – 5 June 2013) was an Irish republican political and military leader. He was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) from 1958 to 1959 and again from 1960 to 1962, president of Sinn Féin from 1970 to 1983, and president of Republican Sinn Féin from 1987 to 2009.

Early life

Ó Brádaigh, born Peter Roger Casement Brady, was born into a middle-class republican family in

Roscommon
.

Ó Brádaigh was a deeply religious Catholic who refrained from smoking or drinking.[4]

Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Army

He joined

Fairview Park, Dublin. A teacher by profession, he was also a Training Officer for the IRA. In 1954, he was appointed to the Military Council of the IRA, a subcommittee set up by the IRA Army Council in 1950 to plan a military campaign against Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in Northern Ireland
.

On 13 August 1955, Ó Brádaigh led a ten-member IRA group in an arms raid on Hazebrouck Barracks, near

Bren
guns, two .303 rifles and one .38 pistol. Most if not all of the weapons were recovered in a relatively short period of time. A van, travelling too fast, was stopped by the police and IRA personnel were arrested. Careful police work led to weapons that had been transported in a second van and stored in London.

The

IRA Border Campaign commenced on 12 December 1956. As an IRA General Headquarters Staff (GHQ) officer, Ó Brádaigh was responsible for training the Teeling Column (one of the four armed units prepared for the Campaign) in the west of Ireland. During the Campaign, he served as second-in-command of the Teeling Column.[5] On 30 December 1956, he partook in the Teeling Column attack on Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in Derrylin, County Fermanagh. RUC Constable John Scally was killed in the attack; Scally was the first fatality of the new IRA campaign. Ó Brádaigh and others were arrested by the Garda Síochána across the border the day after the attack, in County Cavan. They were tried and jailed for six months in Mountjoy Prison for failing to account for their whereabouts. O'Bradaigh was a leading abstentionist, upon his arrest he refused to recognize the authority of the Irish government and refused to renounce violence in exchange for his release.[6]

Although a prisoner, he was elected a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD) for the Longford–Westmeath constituency at the 1957 Irish general election, winning 5,506 votes (14.1%).[7] Running on an abstentionist ticket, Sinn Féin won four seats which went to Ó Brádaigh, Eighneachán Ó hAnnluain, John Joe McGirl and John Joe Rice. They refused to recognise the authority of Dáil Éireann and stated they would only take a seat in an all-Ireland parliament—if it had been possible for them to do so. Ó Brádaigh did not retain his seat at the 1961 Irish general election, and his vote fell to 2,598 (7.61%).[8]

Upon completing his prison sentence, he was immediately

Tomás Óg Mac Curtain
. He was the first Sinn Féin TD on the run since the 1920s.

That October, Ó Brádaigh became the

Offences against the State Act
in Mountjoy. He was released from Mountjoy in May 1960 and, after Cronin was arrested, he again became C/S. Although he has always emphasised that it was a collective declaration, he was the primary author of the statement ending the IRA Border Campaign in 1962. At the IRA 1962 Convention he indicated that he was not interested in continuing as chief of staff.

After his arrest in December 1956, he took a leave from teaching at Roscommon Vocational School. He was re-instated and began teaching again in late 1962, just after he was succeeded by Cathal Goulding in the position of Chief of Staff of the IRA. He remained an active member of Sinn Féin and was also a member of the IRA Army Council throughout the decade.

In the 1966 United Kingdom general election, he ran as an Independent Republican candidate in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency, polling 10,370 votes, or 19.1% of the valid poll. He failed to be elected.

Leader of Provisional Sinn Féin

1970–1973

He opposed the decision of the IRA and Sinn Féin to drop abstentionism and to recognise the Westminster parliament in London, the Stormont parliament in Belfast and the Leinster House parliament in 1969/1970. On 11 January 1970, along with Seán Mac Stíofáin, he led the walkout from the 1970 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis (party convention) after the majority voted to end the policy of abstentionism (although the vote to change the Sinn Féin constitution failed as a two-thirds majority was required to do so, whereas the motion only achieved the support of a simple majority of delegates' votes). The delegates who walked out reconvened at the Kevin Barry Hall in Parnell Square, Dublin and established Provisional Sinn Féin.[9]

He was voted chairman of the Caretaker Executive of Provisional Sinn Féin.

Danny Morrison, who had been editor of An Phoblacht/Republican News. Sean Ó Brádaigh was the first editor of the paper.[11]

In the 1970s Ó Brádaigh made multiple visits to the

Basque independence movement as akin to the Irish situation.[12]

In his presidential address to the 1971 Provisional Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, Ó Brádaigh said that the first step to achieving a United Ireland was to make Northern Ireland ungovernable.

On 31 May 1972 he was arrested under the

Offences Against the State Act and immediately commenced a hunger strike
. A fortnight later the charges against him were dropped and he was released.

With Dáithí Ó Conaill he developed the Éire Nua policy, which was launched on 28 June 1972. The policy called for a federal Ireland.

On 3 December 1972, he appeared on the

Curragh
Military Prison.

1974–1983

In 1974, he testified in person before the

British Foreign Office and supported by the Dublin government.[13] In 1997, Canadian authorities refused to allow him board a charter flight to Toronto at Shannon Airport
.

During the May 1974

British troops over a number of years, in order to avoid a Congo situation".[14]

On 10 December 1974, he participated in the Feakle talks between the IRA Army Council and Sinn Féin leadership and the leaders of the

Protestant
churches in Ireland. Although the meeting was raided and broken up by the Gardaí, the Protestant churchmen passed on proposals from the IRA leadership to the British government. These proposals called on the British government to declare a commitment to withdraw, the election of an all-Ireland assembly to draft a new constitution and an amnesty for political prisoners.

The IRA subsequently called a "total and complete" ceasefire intended to last from 22 December to 2 January 1975 to allow the British government to respond to proposals. British government officials also held talks with Ó Brádaigh in his position as president of Sinn Féin from late December to 17 January 1975.

On 10 February 1975, the IRA Army Council, which may have included Ó Brádaigh, unanimously endorsed an open-ended cessation of IRA "hostilities against Crown forces", which became known as the 1975 truce. The IRA Chief of Staff at the time was

which?] that the IRA leaders had mistakenly believed they had persuaded the British Government to withdraw from Ireland and the protracted negotiations between themselves and British officials were the preamble to a public declaration of intent to withdraw. In fact, as British government papers now show, the British entertained talks with the IRA in the hope that this would fragment the movement further, and scored several intelligence coups during the talks.[citation needed] It is argued by some[according to whom?] that by the time the truce collapsed in late 1975 the Provisional IRA had been severely weakened. This bad faith embittered many in the republican movement, and another ceasefire was not to happen until 1994. In 2005, Ó Brádaigh donated, to the James Hardiman Library of University College, Galway, notes that he had taken during secret meetings in 1975–76 with British representatives. These notes confirm that the British representatives were offering a British withdrawal as a realistic outcome of the meetings. The Republican representatives—Ó Brádaigh, Billy McKee
and one other—felt a responsibility to pursue the opportunity, but were also sceptical of British intentions.

In late December 1976, along with

better source needed
]

In the aftermath of the 1975 truce, the Ó Brádaigh/Ó Conaill leadership came under severe criticism from a younger generation of activists from Northern Ireland, headed by Gerry Adams, who became a vice-president of Sinn Féin in 1978. By the early 1980s, Ó Brádaigh's position as president of Sinn Féin was openly under challenge and the Éire Nua policy was targeted in an effort to oust him. The policy was rejected at the 1981 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis and finally removed from the Sinn Féin constitution at the 1982 Ard Fheis. At the following year's ard fheis, Ó Brádaigh and Ó Conaill resigned from their leadership positions, voicing opposition to the dropping of the Éire Nua policy by the party.

Leader of Republican Sinn Féin

On 2 November 1986, the majority of delegates to the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis voted to drop the policy of abstentionism if elected to

Continuity IRA
became publicly known in 1996. Republican Sinn Féin's relationship with the Continuity IRA is similar to the relationship between Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA when Ó Brádaigh was Sinn Féin's president.

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh speaking at the 2003 RSF Ard Fheis

Ó Brádaigh believed RSF to be the sole legitimate continuation of the pre-1986 Sinn Féin, arguing that RSF has kept the original Sinn Féin constitution. RSF readopted and enhanced Ó Brádaigh's Éire Nua policy. His party has had electoral success in local elections only, and few at that, although they currently have one elected Councillor in Connemara, County Galway.

He remained a vociferous opponent of the Good Friday Agreement, viewing it as a programme to copperfasten Irish partition and entrench sectarian divisions in the north. He condemned his erstwhile comrades in Provisional Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA for decommissioning weapons while British troops remain in the country. In his opinion, "the Provo sell-out is the worst yet – unprecedented in Irish history". He has condemned the Provisional IRA's decision to seal off a number of its arms dumps as "an overt act of treachery", "treachery punishable by death" under IRA General Army Order Number 11.

In July 2005, he handed over a portion of his personal political papers detailing discussions between Irish Republican leaders and representatives of the British Government during 1974–1975 to the

National University of Ireland, Galway
.

Retirement

In September 2009, Ó Brádaigh announced his retirement as leader of Republican Sinn Féin.

Celtic people and promotes the culture, identity and eventual self-determination for the people, in the form of six sovereign states, for the Celtic nations - Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Scotland, Isle of Man and Ireland.[17]

Death

After suffering a period of ill-health, Ó Brádaigh died on 5 June 2013 at

Gardaí in riot gear, for "operational reasons", a show of force believed to have been to deter the republican tradition of firing a three-volley salute of shots over the final place of rest during the graveyard oration.[19][20] As a result there was some minor scuffles between gardai and mourners.[21]

Writings

  • Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, What is Irish Republicanism, Dec 1970
  • Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Restore the means of production to the people, Dec 1970
  • Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Our people, our future, Dublin 1973
  • Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Dílseacht – The Story of Comdt General Tom Maguire and the Second (All-Ireland) Dáil, Dublin: Irish Freedom Press, 1997,
    ISBN 0-9518567-9-0

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0313285646
    .
  2. ^ Maume, Patrick. "Ó Brádaigh, Ruairí". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  3. ^ Interview by Eamon Dunphy, 1998: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xUhMuiT64?t=3m22s
  4. ^ "Ruairi O Bradaigh: IRA leader who believed fervently in armed struggle". The Independent. 6 June 2013. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  5. ^ Saoirse, "50 Years Ago Archived 5 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine".
  6. ^ White, Robert (1993), Provisional Irish Republicans, Greenwood Press, Westport, pg 52, ISBN 0-313-28564-0
  7. ^ "Rory Brady". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 7 November 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
  8. ^ "Rory Brady". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 17 July 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
  9. ^
    ISBN 9781785370939
    .
  10. ^ An Phoblacht, November 1970.
  11. ^ Robert White, Ruairi Ó Brádaigh, The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary, pp. 157–58, 275; An Phoblacht/Republican News, November 1980.
  12. ^ Maillot, Agnès. “Comrades in Arms: Sinn Féin and Basque Separatism.” Nordic Irish Studies, vol. 4, 2005, pp. 1–12.
  13. ^ Saoirse Archived 14 November 2004 at the Wayback Machine, September 1996.
  14. ^ "Northern Ireland - the crisis deepens - Postscript". Militant International Review (9). June 1974. Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. Retrieved 7 December 2010 – via geocities.com.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  15. ^ Saoirse Archived 2 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine, July 2005.
  16. Irish News
    , 28 September 2009.
  17. ^ "Ruairí Ó Brádaigh « The Celtic League". www.celticleague.net. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  18. ^ "Former republican leader passes away". Westmeath Independent. 6 June 2013. Archived from the original on 14 June 2013.
  19. ^ Barry, Aoife (9 June 2013). "Gardaí in riot gear attend funeral of former IRA chief of staff". TheJournal.ie. Archived from the original on 17 September 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  20. ISSN 0021-1222. Archived
    from the original on 16 September 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  21. ^ Angry clashes break out at O Bradaigh funeral, Irish Independent, 9 June 2013.

Sources

Further reading

  • Robert W. White, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh: The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary, (Indiana University Press, 2006),
    ISBN 0-253-34708-4

External links
Media offices
Preceded by Editor of the United Irishman
1958–1960 		Succeeded by
Denis Foley
Party political offices
Preceded by President of Sinn Féin
1970–1983 		Succeeded by
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