Séanna Breathnach

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Séanna Breathnach (English: Séanna Walsh; born 1957) is an Irish republican and a former member (volunteer) of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Breathnach was born in Short Strand in East Belfast but for a time lived in Ravenhill Avenue until loyalists intimidated the Walsh family out of their home. Séanna’s great grandfather had been shot dead in the same area by B-Specials when Northern Ireland was founded.^[1]

In 1973, he was arrested along with a number of fellow IRA men while robbing a bank and was sentenced to five years imprisonment. In Long Kesh prison, where he was entitled to Special Category Status as an IRA prisoner, he met and befriended Bobby Sands.^[1]

Séanna was released from prison in May 1976. Three months later he was arrested and charged with possession of a rifle and was sentenced to ten years. By the time he arrived back in the H-Blocks, the British government had withdrawn Special Category status and IRA members had commenced the blanket protest. Walsh refused to wear a prison uniform and went on to become one of the leaders of the blanket protest.^[1]

When the hunger strike ended in late 1981, Walsh became the Officer Commanding (OC) of the IRA prisoners in the H-Blocks. He was released after seven years and seven months. Upon his release, he married Sinéad Moore, a former republican prisoner, and had two daughters, the youngest of whom was only two weeks old when he was arrested again.^[1]

He was caught making explosives and mortar bombs and was sentenced to twenty-two years. While on remand in Crumlin Road Gaol he again became OC of the IRA prisoners.^[1]

At the age of forty-two he had spent over half his life, a total of twenty-one years, in jail. He was released under the provisions of the 1998 Belfast Agreement. He now works for Sinn Féin.^[1]

In July 2005, he appeared on a DVD reading out a statement from the IRA Army Council announcing the end to its armed campaign.^[2]