Republican News · Thursday 31 January 2002

Oliver De Brún

Republicans in Britain and Ireland were deeply saddened to hear of the death of Oliver De Brún in February. Oliver had been active in the republican family in Britain since the 1950s, when he first emigrated to England from his native Galway to find work. He was involved in the Anti-Partition League in London and went on to be involved in the 1960s and 1970s in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in London. He was also a member of the Sinn Féin cumann in London in the 1970s and 1980s, where he was seen at every demonstration selling An Phoblacht and collecting for Irish POWs and their families. He was particularly well known among republicans in the Kilburn area of London.

From the 1980s, Oliver was involved in a number of key organisations and campaigns, including the Wolfe Tone Society, the Saoirse campaign for the release of POWs, the Dessie Ellis campaign, the Justice for Diarmuid O'Neill campaign and other campaigns around issues affecting the Irish community in Britain. He was also a very welcome regular visitor to the annual Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Dublin.

Oliver retired from his job in the Post Office in the 1990s, but continued to be very active in politics. In his retirement he did even more political work until he became ill with cancer. Despite his illness, however, he was seen on pickets and demonstrations supporting the right of the Irish people to be free in a united Ireland. He will be missed by his friends and comrades in the Wolfe Tone Society, the Connolly Association, those involved in Irish prisoners' welfare and by his many friends in Sinn Féin and in anti-imperialist struggles throughout the world.

In keeping with Oliver's wishes, his ashes will be scattered at Bodenstown.

I measc laochra na nGael a raibh sé.

BY PETER MIDDLETON
WOLFE TONE SOCIETY