Tommy McKearney
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Tommy_McKearney.jpg/220px-Tommy_McKearney.jpg)
Tommy McKearney (born 1952) is a former Irish volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army who took part in the 1980 hunger strike.[1][2]
Background
McKearney was born in Lurgan in the north-east of County Armagh,[3] but he was raised in The Moy, a village in the south-east of County Tyrone, just across the River Blackwater from County Armagh. He was born into a family with a long tradition of Irish republicanism. Both his grandfathers had fought in the Irish Republican Army in the Irish War of Independence, his maternal grandfather Tom Murray being an Adjutant General in the North Roscommon Brigade.[1][4]
McKearney lost three of his brothers during the Northern Ireland Troubles. Sean was killed by his own bomb in 1974, Pádraig was killed by the Special Air Service (SAS) in the Loughgall Ambush on 8 May 1987, and Kevin, a non-paramilitary, was murdered by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in 1992 while working in the family's butcher shop.[5] His sister, Margaret, was the subject of an unsuccessful extradition attempt in 1975, when Scotland Yard described her as "possibly the most dangerous woman terrorist in Britain."[6]
IRA activity
On 9 August 1971, the day internment was introduced, McKearney received his A-level results.[7] He had hoped to study at Queen's University Belfast and become a teacher but his results were not good enough to secure entry.[7] He describes the introduction of internment as "the straw that broke the camel's back" and decided to join the Provisional IRA, becoming a member of the East Tyrone Brigade.[8][9] He became the brigade's OC during the mid-seventies.[8] On 19 October 1977 he was arrested and charged with the murder of Stanley Adams, a postman and part-time Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) lance corporal (L/Cpl) of the 8th Battalion. He was interrogated for seven days under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and says he was ill-treated while in custody. He later received a life sentence with a recommended minimum term of twenty years for the murder of L/Cpl Adams, after a statement which he never signed was accepted by the court on the word of a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Inspector.[10]
Hunger strike
McKearney was involved in the blanket and dirty protests, and took part in the 1980 hunger strike along with other IRA members.[11] Prior to commencing the hunger strike, McKearney told his mother and father:
I'll put all my cards on the table. I'm going on hunger strike. If and when I die, I want to be brought back to Roscommon and be buried alongside my Granda (grandfather) . . . Don't let people try to influence you, your only friends will be the Republican Movement. If I die, never let the family be ashamed. If I die, I'll die in the knowledge that my life was for the cause and for the other boys here. If at my funeral the press say, "See how the IRA let your son die", just say, "My son died as an Irish soldier, not a British criminal".[12]
He spent 53 days on hunger strike, from 27 October to 18 December and, according to a doctor had only a few hours left to live when the strike was called off.[13]
Split from Provisional IRA
In 1986, alongside 25 republican prisoners in HM Prison Maze, McKearney split from the Provisional IRA and formed a new organisation called the League of Communist Republicans. McKearney was the main theoretician behind the group, which took on a Marxist-Leninist outlook and analysis of Northern Ireland. McKearney called on the Provisional IRA to either return to a "ground war" against the British state or cease fighting altogether, rather than its strategy at that time of seldom but spectacular attacks. The members of the League believed that the "spectacular" attacks were too often botched, and too often resulted in the deaths of IRA members.[14] The league rejected electoralism and instead called for mass struggle against the British. However, it also made clear this mass struggle must be led by a Vanguard party.[14]
The League would fold in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.[14]
Release
McKearney was released from prison in 1993, having served 16 years of his sentence.[5] In 2003 he appeared in the BBC documentary Life After Life.[15] He is now a freelance journalist, edits the publication Fourthwrite, and is an organiser for the Independent Workers Union of Ireland.[16]
References
- ^ a b Taylor, Peter (1997). Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 100–102. ISBN 0-7475-3818-2.
- ^ Taylor, Peter (1989). Families at War. BBC. pp. 160. ISBN 0-563-20787-6.
- ^ English, Richard (2004). Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA. Pan Books. p. 404. ISBN 0-330-49388-4.
- ^ Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA, p. 129.
- ^ a b "One of 'the unmanageables'". Living Marxism. April 1994.
- ^ Coogan, Tim Pat (2002). The IRA (5th ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 461. ISBN 0312294166. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
- ^ a b Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin, p. 100.
- ^ a b Lister, David (11 February 2003). "Why the IRA Will Go On". The Times. Retrieved 21 May 2009.
- ^ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin, p. 101.
- ^ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin, pp. 206–07.
- ^ Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA, p. 193.
- ^ Families at War, p. 160.
- ^ Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin, pp. 232–34.
- ^ a b c O’Ruairc, Liam (2001). "The League Of Communist Republicans 1986-1991" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 November 2007. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ^ Mark Simpson (13 June 2003). "Life after the NI conflict". BBC News. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
- ^ Tommy McKearney (5 February 2006). "Sinn Féin: time to move on". The Sunday Business Post. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
External links
- Official site
- Independent Workers Union
- v
- t
- e
- Anti-Treaty IRA
- Sinn Féin
- Republican News
- An Phoblacht
- The Green Book
- The Troubles (Timeline)
- Haughey arms crisis
- IRA campaign
- Chronology of Provisional IRA actions
- Arms importation
- Weaponry
- Barrack buster
- Improvised tactical vehicles
- Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape
- Blanket protest
- Dirty protest
- HM Prison Maze
- Anti H-Block
- 1981 Irish hunger strike
- Maze Prison escape
- Armalite and ballot box strategy
- Punishment attacks
- Disappeared
- Smithwick Tribunal
- Northern Ireland peace process
- Good Friday Agreement
(Volunteers)
- Paddy Agnew
- Martina Anderson
- Declan Arthurs
- Thomas Begley
- Ivor Bell
- Patricia Black
- Charles Breslin
- Edward Butler
- Paul Butler
- Joe Cahill
- Liam Campbell
- Fergal Caraher
- Malachy Carey
- Owen Carron
- Gerard Casey
- Carál Ní Chuilín
- Gabriel Cleary
- Peter Cleary
- Kevin Coen
- Eamon Collins
- Eddie Copeland
- Marion Coyle
- Gerard Davison
- Matt Devlin
- Hugh Doherty
- Joe Doherty
- Kieran Doherty
- Martin Doherty
- Pat Doherty
- Colin Duffy
- Rose Dugdale
- Dessie Ellis
- Mairéad Farrell
- William Fleming
- Kieran Fleming
- Bernard Fox
- Angelo Fusco
- Michael Gaughan
- John Francis Green
- Dessie Grew
- George Harrison
- Brendan Hughes
- Francis Hughes
- Martin Hurson
- Pearse Jordan
- Brian Keenan
- Gerry Kelly
- John Kelly
- Patrick Joseph Kelly
- Sean Kelly
- Jim Lynagh
- Proinsias Mac Airt
- Breandán Mac Cionnaith
- Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde
- Joseph MacManus
- Seán Mac Stíofáin
- Patrick Magee
- Paul Magee
- Donna Maguire
- Larry Marley
- Paul Marlowe
- Leo Martin
- Alex Maskey
- Pearse McAuley
- Daniel McCann
- Fra McCann
- Jennifer McCann
- Raymond McCartney
- Martin McCaughey
- Raymond McCreesh
- Joe McDonnell
- Séamus McElwaine
- Thomas McElwee
- Brendan McFarlane
- Tom McFeely
- Gerry McGeough
- Pat McGeown
- John Joe McGirl
- Martin McGuinness
- Pádraig McKearney
- Tommy McKearney
- Billy McKee
- Kevin McKenna
- Laurence McKeown
- Michael McKevitt
- Thomas McMahon
- Jackie McMullan
- Martin Meehan
- Ian Milne
- Arthur Morgan
- Danny Morrison
- Conor Murphy
- Thomas "Slab" Murphy
- Kieran Nugent
- Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
- Ed O'Brien
- Dáithí Ó Conaill
- Éamonn O'Doherty
- Joe B. O'Hagan
- Siobhán O'Hanlon
- Rita O'Hare
- Diarmuid O'Neill
- Dolours Price
- Marian Price
- Liam Quinn
- Paddy Quinn
- Billy Reid
- Bobby Sands
- Seán Savage
- Pat Sheehan
- Frank Stagg
- Jimmy Steele
- Bobby Storey
- Gerard Tuite
- Seamus Twomey
- Roy Walsh
- Séanna Walsh
Supergrasses
killings
- Jeffery Stanford Agate
- Johnathan Ball
- Anthony Berry
- Robert Bradford
- Joe Bratty
- Matthew Burns
- Martin Cahill
- Eamon Collins
- Raymond Elder
- Gerard Evans
- Christopher Ewart-Biggs
- Joseph Fenton
- Billy Fox
- Maurice Gibson
- Ian Gow
- Heidi Hazell
- Donald Kaberry
- Andrew Kearney
- Baroness Brabourne
- William "Frenchie" Marchant
- Martin McBirney
- Jerry McCabe
- Robert McConnell
- Jean McConville
- Columba McVeigh
- Ross McWhirter
- Stephen Melrose
- Lord Mountbatten
- Lenny Murphy
- Robert Nairac
- Thomas Oliver
- Tim Parry
- Paul Quinn
- Robert Seymour
- Robert McCartney (allegedly)
- Joseph Rafferty (allegedly)
- Ray Smallwoods
- Sammy Smyth
- Nick Spanos
- James Stronge
- Norman Stronge
- Richard Sykes
- Stephen Tibble
- Sammy Ward
- Michael Willetts