Irish government to stand by calls for public inquiry in Sean Brown case

The new joint UK/Irish framework on legacy issues will not result in the Dublin government dropping its call for a public inquiry into the Troubles murder of GAA official Sean Brown.

Irish deputy premier Simon Harris spoke to Mr Brown’s widow Bridie on Friday morning to offer reassurances that he would continue to press the UK Government to set up an inquiry.

Mr Harris believes a public inquiry remains the best avenue for truth for Mrs Brown to receive a timely remedy in her case given she is aged in her late 80s and the legislative steps to create new legacy structures for investigating unsolved Troubles crimes will take some time to complete.

Despite the wide-ranging deal struck by the UK and Irish governments, the Brown case remains a point of difference.

Earlier this year, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn applied for a Supreme Court appeal on judicial rulings in Belfast that compel him to establish a public inquiry into the 1997 murder by loyalist paramilitaries.

Mr Brown, 61, the then chairman of Wolfe Tones GAA Club in the Co Londonderry town of Bellaghy, was ambushed, kidnapped and murdered 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 in excess of 25 people had been linked by intelligence to the murder, including several state agents.

It had also been 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.

This year, Appeal Court judges in Belfast affirmed an earlier High Court ruling compelling the Government to hold a public inquiry.

However, Mr Benn is taking the case onward for further appeal at the Supreme Court, insisting the case involves a key constitutional principle of who should order public inquiries – the Government or the judiciary.

The Labour MP believes that a reformed legacy investigative commission is a more appropriate way to examine the Brown case.

At an event to unveil the new legacy framework in Hillsborough, Mr Harris reiterated his call for a public inquiry, making the point that the time frame for reforming the new-look Legacy Commission was not “immediate”.

“Legislation will need to be laid in Westminster, will need to go through normal parliamentary processes, governance will need to change,” he said.

“And, for that reason, I do make clear today the Irish government continues to support the Brown family in their call for a public inquiry into the murder of Sean Brown.

“Indeed, I spoke with Mrs Brown on that today.”

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said the ordering of a public inquiry would serve as a confidence-building measure around the UK government’s approach to legacy.

“I should say that the British government’s approach to the case of Sean Brown I think is particularly important in these times,” she told reporters in Belfast.

“The courts have been explicit, they have ordered that a public inquiry be held.

“We have always urged the British government to listen to the courts, to respect those judgments. We do so again today and we think that there could be no better confidence building measure, no more effective way of engendering trust within the community that the Government is serious about bringing truth and justice and closure to families and victims, than for them to press ahead now and to give effect to that inquiry into Sean Brown’s death.”