Seán Ó Cionnaith
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Seán Ó Cionnaith (born July 1938 near Ballinasloe, County Galway - 16 February 2003 in Dublin) was an Irish socialist republican politician, and a prominent member of The Workers' Party[1].
Ó Cionnaith joined the Irish republican movement as a teenager, and in the late 1950s became Chief Scout of Fianna Éireann, the movement's youth section. He spent some periods of work in England but eventually based himself in Dublin where he continued as a member of Sinn Féin[2].
Ó Cionnaith was a supporter of the efforts to move Sinn Féin into a more socialist position and was a close confidante of figures such as IRA Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding, along with Seán Garland and Tomás Mac Giolla. He strongly opposed the emergence of the Provisional IRA, regarding its campaign as sectarian.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Ó Cionnaith showed a flair for agitational politics and used his skill to develop a number of campaigning organisations including the Dublin Housing Action Committee, the Gaeltacht Civil Rights Movement (Coiste Cearta Síbialta na Gaeilge, the Resources Protection Campaign and the campaign to end the control by private landlords over the fishing rights to Irish rivers and lakes.
Among the many organisations he was involved include:
- National Association of Tenants Organisations - (National PRO)
- National Waterways Restoration Campaign - (founding member)
- Dublin Housing Action Committee - (founding member)
- Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign
- Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement
- The Peace Train Organisation - (founding member)
- Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association
- Ireland-Korea Friendship Organisation
He strongly identified with the socialist cause and its internationalist outlook and was involved in many solidarity campaigns with nations under attack from imperialism, including Cuba, Korea, Nicaragua and Vietnam.
In the 1970s he became joint General Secretary of Official Sinn Féin (later Sinn Féin the Workers Party and ultimately The Workers' Party) along with Mairín De Burca. He was also responsible for the official republican movement's publicity section at this stage.
Ó Cionnaith served as Director of International Affairs of the Workers' Party for many years, and was the party's representative in the United States during the early 1970s.
In the 1980s and 1990s he continued his agitational politics, especially in the Ballymun area on Dublin's northside where he was a tireless worker on behalf of the ordinary people of this neglected working class community. Much of his work came to fruition with the total redevelopment of Ballymun.
In the late 1990s Seán Ó Cionnaith became a member of Dublin City Council where he continued with his fortright campaigning role, often becoming a thorn in the side of establishment figures. Most notable was his leading role in the campaign for the replacement of dangerous and reliable lifts in the Ballymun high-rise complex which saw the local community win a landmark court case against the local authority.
Ó Cionnaith was outspoken in his opposition to the sectarian murder campaign of the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland and was a founding member of the Peace Train Organisation which campaigned against paramilitary attacks on the Dublin-Belfast railway organisation by running a number of "Peace Trains" between the two cities.
On 15 February 2003 Seán Ó Cionnaith joined over 100,000 Irish people who participated in a major march in Dublin against the impending US / UK led invasion of Iraq. He died suddenly early the following morning. He was cremated at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, and buried in Kilbegly cemetery, Creagh, Co Roscommon.
Married to Philomena Donnelly in the early 1980s and separated with two sons.
