Who was Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and why is he important?

On 5 June 2013, at eighty years of age, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh passed away in the small town of Roscommon, Ireland. Roscommon is in the western province of Connacht, and it is very much removed from Northern Ireland and Ulster, where between 1969 and 2005 more than 3,600 people died in political conflict. And yet, for the next few days, events in Roscommon would attract the attention of Irish Republican activists of all stripes. This is because Ó Brádaigh, an unassuming family man and secondary school teacher, was arguably the most important of the “dissident” Irish Republicans who support the right to pursue armed struggle in Ireland today. Indeed, between the mid-1950s and the early 1980s, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh had more influence on the Irish Republican Movement than any other single person.

In death, media descriptions of him ranged from “a sensitive and courteous man” and “gentleman terrorist” to “Irish warrior” and “Rory O’Bloodbath”. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh saw himself as a revolutionary who drew on the Irish experience as well as liberation movements around the world to blend armed struggle with political activism. His parents, Matt and May Brady, were IRA and Cumann na mBan veterans of the Irish War of Independence (1919-21) and his early life was filled with the traditions of Irish Republicanism. When he was born, for example, they named him after his grandfather, Peter Brady, and executed 1916 leader Roger Casement — Peter Roger Casement Brady. The commitment of his parents did not waver over time. His father served as an "Independent Republican" on the Longford County Council until his death in 1942. With her son as Chief of Staff in the 1950s, on occasion IRA "HQ" meetings were held in the home of May Brady Twohig. The family also embraced Irish culture; while in college, Rory Brady “Irishized” his name — Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.

His parents also followed liberation struggles in other countries. When he joined the Republican Movement in the early 1950s, anti-colonial struggles were flourishing in places like Cuba and Vietnam. Many of those insurgencies were directed against the British Empire — Aden, Cyprus, Kenya, Palestine, et al. Not only was Ó Brádaigh aware of these liberation struggles, but as President of Sinn Féin in the 1970s, he helped the “Provisionals” establish links with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Catalan and Basque nationalists, and other liberation organizations and movements. For him, the 1916 Easter Rising was the first anti-colonial insurgency of the twentieth century. In his words, “We started it in 1916. We put the first crack in the British Empire.” He wanted his generation to finish what his parents’ generation had started.

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is probably best known as an ardent abstentionist, as someone who refused to endorse participation in constitutional politics. Critics view him as a traditionalist without politics, as someone who simply followed the lead of those in his parents’ generation who refused to accept the outcome of the Irish Civil War (1922-23). When the Civil War ended, it was clear that there would not be an all-Ireland republic but instead there would be a parliament in Belfast for the six counties of Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom, and another parliament in Dublin for the twenty-six county Irish Free State, a dominion of the British Commonwealth of Nations (to become the Republic of Ireland in 1949).

On the surface, Ó Brádaigh’s behavior was predictably consistent with this perspective. In the Irish general election of 1957, for example, he was one of four members of Sinn Féin elected to an “all-Ireland” parliament that did not exist. Even if he had not been imprisoned because of IRA-related offenses, Ó Brádaigh would not have taken his seat in the Dublin parliament. His refusal to recognize the validity of the Dublin and Belfast parliaments and take his seat was influenced by more than tradition, however. In fact, his perspective paralleled that of political theorists like Rosa Luxembourg and Robert Michels who argued that participation in constitutional politics leads to reform, not revolution. In his words, “if you think you can keep one leg in the streets and the other leg in Parliament, you’ve a bloody awful mistake”. The choices are “reform” or “revolution” and he wanted the latter.

At one time or another Ruairí Ó Brádaigh held virtually every rank available in the Irish Republican Army. He joined the organization in 1951 and was quickly promoted from volunteer to training officer. In 1955, he led a successful arms raid against a British army base in England and he was elected to the IRA’s governing body, the Army Executive. When the “Resistance Campaign” or “Border Campaign” began in December 1956, he was one of the seven members of the “Army Council”. The Army Council is charged with running the IRA; along others on the Council at that time, he voted in favor of a military campaign. Ó Brádaigh was second in command of an IRA column that attacked the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Barracks at Derrylin, County Fermanagh, in 1956. The attack resulted in the first casualty of the IRA’s “Border Campaign,” Constable John Scally. It also led to the first of what would be several arrests of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.

When the campaign ended in 1962, Ó Brádaigh was the IRA’s Chief of Staff. Although he drafted the statement announcing the end of the campaign, his support for armed struggle had not wavered and he remained on the Army Council through the 1960s. Thus, when the IRA split in 1969, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was one of the seven men elected to the founding Army Council of the “Provisional” IRA. Between 1955 and 1983, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh spent more time in the IRA leadership than any other person.

Because of his IRA background and his refusal to endorse the Irish peace process, critics reduce Ruairí Ó Brádaigh to a militarist. This underestimates the complexity of his politics. In 1970, when Sinn Féin split, Ó Brádaigh was appointed Chairman of the party’s “Caretaker Executive” and he was subsequently elected President of “Provisional” Sinn Féin. His notable achievements as President of Sinn Féin include the development of the Éire Nua (New Ireland) policy and the internationalization of the Provisionals. Éire Nua is an anti-imperialist, pro-small government political program that calls for an all-Ireland federal government that reaches out to the Protestant/Unionist Community of Northern Ireland (https://rsfnational.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/c3a9ire-nua_pdf.pdf). Of the many different Irish Republican organizations in existence from the 1960s on through to today, including “Official” Sinn Féin, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), the Republican Network for Unity (RNU), including Sinn Féin (since 1983), none of them has developed a political program that unifies Ireland while embracing the Protestant tradition. Francie Mackey, Chairman of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, has described Éire Nua as “The seminal Republican document outlining a Republican blueprint for a United Ireland….”

In 1983, Ó Brádaigh resigned as President of Sinn Féin; his successor was Gerry Adams. Under Adams’ leadership, Sinn Féin participated in the peace process and along the way was transformed into a mainstream political party. At the party’s 1986 Ard Fheis, delegates endorsed taking seats in the Dublin parliament. And in 1998, with the Good Friday Agreement, the party endorsed taking seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Another outcome of the peace process was that in 2005 the Provisional IRA ended their military campaign. Through the efforts of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, among others, the Irish Peace Process became a potential model for ending protracted conflict in other parts of the world. And, from the sidelines, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh refused to compromise. In 1986, he led the walkout of the Ard Fheis that resulted in the creation of a rival political organization, Republican Sinn Féin. He would serve as President of Republican Sinn Féin from 1987 to 2009. Although it was not known at the time, the IRA also split in 1986. From this split came the “Continuity” IRA—the first of the contemporary “dissident” paramilitary organizations. The Continuity IRA’s bombing of the Killyhevlin Hotel in Fermanagh, in 1996, was the first military attack by “dissident” Irish Republicans.

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and others like him reject the “dissident” label. From their perspective, it is “Provisional” Sinn Féin that has dissented from the traditional Irish Republican position of unyielding support of the right of Irish people to engage in armed struggle against the British presence in Ireland. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was one of the first “dissidents” and his political and military credentials coupled with his refusal to compromise laid a foundation for Irish Republicans who questioned the Irish peace process and the Good Friday Agreement, and who continue to endorse the right of Irish people to engage in armed struggle. Ó Brádaigh was an "anti-Good Friday Agreement Republican" in the sense that he opposed the GFA, but there was much more to his politics than opposition to the GFA.

In summary, for more than sixty years Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was an uncompromising Irish Republican. He was there when the Provisionals were founded and as the Provisionals changed he became the public face of those who refused to change with them. He was one of very few people who: attended the IRA Convention when the organization split in 1969; helped organize a second IRA Convention in which the Provisionals were formed; attended the 1970 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis when the party split; and, helped organized the “Caretaker Executive” that allowed the transition to “Provisional” Sinn Féin. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was the last member of the founding Provisional IRA Army Council to succumb to the inevitable and pass away. For his critics, his fellow travelers, and for observers of Irish politics, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh’s funeral was an important milestone in the history of the Irish Republican Movement.