'The name of Sean Brown will haunt the British establishment' - reaction to RTÉ documentary

The RTÉ documentary, Murder of a GAA Chairman, on the abduction from a GAA ground and murder of Sean Brown, has provoked a strong response and added to further calls for a public inquiry into the case. 

Murdered locking up his GAA club in 1997, Sean Brown’s inquest revealed the involvement of state agents. As the UK Legacy Act shuts down cases like Sean’s, his family fight on, the RTÉ documentary explains. 

The show aired on Monday night on RTÉ and recounted the terrible sectarian killing of the late Mr Brown, and also how the family's fight for justice has been frustrated since.

Many questions were raised in the documentary, including the fact that there were up to 25 suspects, many of whom were State Agents. 

The esteemed chairman of Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAA Club, Sean Brown fell victim to a brutal act of violence that shook the foundation of the community. At 11:25pm, Sean Brown was ambushed by members of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) as he locked up the gates to the training ground. 

He was abducted, beaten, and shot six times in the head. He was found next to his burning car the following morning in Randalstown, Co. Antrim. The perpetrators fled the scene, leaving behind a trail of devastation that would scar a community for decades to come. 

Within two days of Sean Brown’s murder, the RUC said the LVF was responsible, but almost three decades later, no one has been charged. 

The passage of the ‘Troubles Legacy Act’, which becomes law on May 1st, has drawn widespread condemnation from victims' families, and opposition from the Irish Government, the European Union, the United Nations, and all the main political parties in the North.

Aspects of the laws include a limited form of immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences for those who co-operate with the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

On April 11th, the UK government announced it is taking legal action over the inquest into Sean Brown's death. Despite a coroner's request for a public inquiry into Sean's death, the UK government has chosen to challenge the decision by the Coroner to disclose to the family that intelligence had identified 25 suspects in the murder and that several of those suspects were State Agents.

Sean’s death sent shockwaves throughout every GAA club in Ireland. A childhood friend, Seamus Heaney was “heartbroken”. Upon hearing the news, he sent a fax to the Irish News to make plain Sean Brown’s “goodwill and integrity”. Only one year earlier, Heaney had shared a stage with Sean at a cross-community event Brown had organised at the club to celebrate the poet’s Nobel Prize win.  

Despite the decades long campaign by Sean’s family, no one has been brought to account for this crime, however failings in the police investigation have been exposed. 

You can view the Murder of a Chairman documentary on the RTE Player here

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