Ceremonies

The proceedings were chaired by Seán Lynch, of North County Longford. The Lynch family has had a relationship with the Brady/Ó Brádaigh family since the 1910s. In 1919, for example, Seán Lynch’s father helped save the life of Matt Brady, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh’s father, after he had been shot while trying to capture weapons from the Royal Irish Constabulary. In 1974, Seán Lynch was a Sinn Féin representative on the Longford County Council. That year, he offered the funeral oration for Ruairí Ó Brádaigh’s mother, May Brady Twohig.

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was a republican to the end. The tricolor that had draped his coffin was presented to his wife, Patsy Ó Brádaigh, by two uniformed members of Cumann na mBan, Peig King and Cecilia Conway.

Wreaths were laid by Seán Maguire (on behalf of Republican Sinn Féin), Mickey McGonigle (on behalf of republican prisoners), Joe O’Neill (on behalf of the Republican Movement), and Richard Behal (on behalf of comrades from the 1950s). Seán Maguire, from County Mayo, was a member of the Republican Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle and the son of Tom Maguire, an IRA Commandant General in the 1920s. Tom Maguire (1892-1993) was elected to the Second Dáil Éireann in 1921, opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921), and never wavered in his opposition to taking seats in the Dublin or Belfast parliaments. Maguire was considered a model republican and was the subject of a biography written by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, entitled, Dílseacht: Comdt. General Tom Maguire and the Second (all-Ireland) Dáil Éireann (1997). Richard Behal, Mickey McGonigle, and Joe O’Neill were comrades from the 1950s. In the early 1970s, and with Ó Brádaigh President of Sinn Féin, Richard Behal established the party’s Foreign Affairs Bureau. At the time of Ó Brádaigh’s death, Joe O’Neill was a Vice-President of Republican Sinn Féin.

In addition to remarks offered by Seán Lynch, Des Dalton and Dan Hoban spoke at the funeral. Dalton, who joined Republican Sinn Féin in 1989, succeeded Ó Brádaigh as President of Republican Sinn Féin in 2009. Hoban, another comrade from the 1950s, was also imprisoned with Ó Brádaigh in the Curragh, in the early 1970s.

The remarks of Seán Lynch, Des Dalton, and Dan Hoban, with transcriptions, are available on separate pages of this web site.