Speech by RFJ CEO Mark Thompson at the Walk for Truth and Justice in solidarity with the family of Sean Brown 16th May 2025.
We stand here tonight to bear witness. We stand in solidarity with the Brown family and all other families impacted by the conflict –in particular families impacted by State violence and collusion.
Like most people gathered here this evening I never had the privilege of meeting Sean Brown.
But like you, through his brutal abduction and heinous murder, we have come to know of Sean – the media images of him etched into our minds. His heinous murder etched into our collective consciousness.
We know of the man dedicated to his family and the wonderful life he lived; a husband, father, brother, grandfather, uncle: an educator teaching those setting out in the world – helping them to build and realise their hopes and dreams in fulfilling their ambitions.
And then of course his life as a Gael. And his role at the heart of this wonderful club and our association.
It is so fitting to see such a huge attendance here this evening from fellow Gaels.
Naomh Eoin CLG, Béal Feirste, is my club. However, tonight I wear the green of the Albany Rebels GAA club, from the New York State capital. The good people of Albany, as do people throughout the USA from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, to Los Angeles and San Francisco want the Brown family to know they too stand with you. So, for fellow club members among us tonight, I haven’t changed club though!
May the grieving Brown family take comfort from knowing we all stand with you.
Our presence also sends a very clear message that the community demands a public inquiry into the murder of Sean.
Context
I want to focus on the context of Sean’s murder in terms of the period it occurred; one of political negotiations and an emerging yet fragile peace process yet to be finalised and agreed.
And it’s also important to note that Sean Brown lived much of his 61 years against the backdrop of conflict, and beforehand the discrimination and political turmoil during the peaceful cause for civil rights within this statelet.
And I’m in no doubt that Sean would have been hoping and praying for peace in 1997. For a political settlement that would end violence.
In September 1996 a large rally, in defiance of the UVF leadership, was organised in Portadown by loyalists in support of so-called dissident loyalist Billy Wright.
Wright had been ejected from the UVF as he publicly opposed that groupings ceasefire and political talks.
The then Mid-Ulster MP, the DUP’s Willie McCrea, also a Reverend in the Free Presbyterian Church, was the main speaker at the rally – sharing the platform with Wright and other loyalists. McCrea was also opposed to any talks with republicans or any nationalists that would alter the power dynamic of unionist domination.
Outraged at Wright’s treatment McCrea denounced those within the UVF leadership who had tried to silence Wright, including making death threats against him.
By this stage Wright, alongside a like-minded cabal of fellow sectarian killers within the Mid-Ulster UVF, including Mark ‘Swinger’ Fulton, had already formed the LVF. Both were State agents.
This new loyalist grouping was a mixture of informers and agents ran by RUC special branch, the British Army, and MI5 that had previously murdered scores of men, women and children in a sectarian campaign across this region on the direction of their State handlers. And they would murder again under a new flag of convenience – the LVF.
On May 1, 1997, the Westminster general election was held.
On May 2, 1997, the late Martin McGuinness was elected as MP for Mid-Ulster.
In his outgoing comments as the defeated MP McCrea warned the people of Mid-Ulster would “reap a bitter harvest” for electing Martin McGuinness.
On May 12, 1997, Sean Brown was abducted and murdered; a mere 10 days later.
The nature of the abduction and murder of Sean Brown was designed to instil fear and terror into the community. If this could happen to someone like Sean Brown, a respected pillar of the community and Chairman of this club, a friend of Seamus Heaney, then it could happen to anyone.
It was as clear a message as you could get – elect Sinn Féin and this is what we’ll do.
It was tried and tested tactic of the sectarian statelet since partition whenever Catholics, nationalists/republicans asserted their rights. But it failed.
The election of Martin McGuinness as MP was an endorsement of Sinn Féin’s peace strategy.
The murder of Sean Brown was an attempt by those within the same intelligence community – securocrats – to undermine and derail the peace process; to weaken the negotiation position of Sinn Féin; to fracture the community; to cause disruption.
This old-guard of the State’s secret police (RUC special branch), military and intelligence apparatus, were still at war on every level with the community we come from; they resented the fact that those we democratically elected – those we endorsed – would hold political sway about the constitutional future of this statelet. And so, they choose the tactics of terror and collusion. And they’re still colluding in the cover-up.
It was very similar to the tactics used in apartheid South Africa where a minority of supremacists tried to also halt democratic elections and the pace of change; to maintain a status quo of injustice, inequality, anti-rule of law, denial of rights, subversion of democracy. It’s almost a carbon copy.
Unfortunately, Sean Brown never saw peace – he never witnessed the Good Friday Agreement.
Hilary Benn very consciously stands with the very agencies that created the LVF – in particular MI5; the same state agencies that ran and controlled those who murdered Sean, rather than stand on the side of law, rights, and justice.
His is defending Britain’s role in collusion and counter-insurgency in Ireland and the human carnage it caused.
We bear witness too to Hilary Benn’s determination to stand alongside and defend all that is wrong and rotten in Britain’s sordid dirty war in Ireland; a sectarian campaign of violence, for the most part, waged against the uninvolved civilian Catholic-Nationalist community – and in many instances Gaels. The terror tactics.
It is MI5 who are setting the agenda on Sean’s case – and on legacy overall. Hilary Benn is effectively protecting and defending the murderers of Sean. When all is stripped away it’s that simple. There are hundreds of Sean Brown’s. That’s why they’ve created the legacy act – why they’ve set up the ICRIR.
I also think of this immediate area and hinterlands and of similar killings – John Davey murdered two days after Pat Finucane, Castlerock, Greysteel, Tom Donaghy, Malachy Carey, Danny Cassidy, Bernard O’Hagan, Peter Gallagher, Eugene Martin, and Francis Bradley, all from this area and surrounding locality. And the countless others across this constituency of Mid-Ulster. Impacted by Britain’s death squads. And I think of Fergal ‘Rick’ McCusker also murdered by the LVF in Maghera in January 1998.
I would appeal to Hilary Benn to do the decent thing – but it’s quite obvious to date that he’s incapable of doing the decent thing. His actions speak for themselves.
Wright would eventually be killed whilst held in Europe’s most highly secured prison, Long Kesh, on December 27, 1997. A public inquiry was held into his death.
So, I’ll leave you with this thought – if the British government could grant an inquiry into the death of the LVF leader Billy Wright, then they can grant an inquiry into the murder of Sean Brown by that same LVF.
Billy Wright McCrae rally Portadown – Sept 4, 1996
May 1st, 1997, Westminster election
May 2nd, 1997, McCrea lost election & made speech ‘bitter harvest’
May 12th, 1997, Sean killed
Fergal McCusker murder Jan 18, 1998
