Michael Farrell

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For the Australian cricketer, see Michael Farrell (cricketer).
For the American screen actor, see Mike Farrell.

Michael Farrell (born 1944) is an Irish civil rights activist and former leader of People's Democracy.

Farrell was educated at Queen's University, Belfast and at the University of Strathclyde. He became involved in the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and was a founding member of the People’s Democracy, which was established on 9 October 1968, after Royal Ulster Constabulary police had broken up a Civil Rights march in Derry on 5 October. He stood as their candidate for Bannside in the Northern Ireland general election of 1969 where he finished third behind Terence O'Neill (the Northern Ireland Prime Minister) and Ian Paisley.[1] He was on the executive of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and was interned without trial for six weeks from 9 August 1971. Imprisoned for breach of the peace in 1973, Farrell and another PD member, Tony Canavan, went on hunger strike in demand of political status. The strike lasted for thirty-four days before they were released.

In the 1980s he campaigned for the release of victims of miscarriage of justice cases in England and in the Republic of Ireland, including the Birmingham Six. He also campaigned against political censorship under Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act in Ireland.

Farrell was co-chairperson of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties from 1995 to 2001. He was appointed a member of the Irish Human Rights Commission in 2001 and re-appointed in October 2006. In 2005 he was appointed to the Steering Committee of the National Action Plan Against Racism. He is a solicitor currently working for Free Legal Advice Centres, Dublin, and has brought cases to the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee.

[edit] Published works

[edit] References

  1. ^ CAIN: Stormont General Election (NI) - Monday 24 February 1969