The family of a GAA chairman who was murdered in 1997 suspect there was ‘state agent’ involvement in his death.

Sean Brown was locking up the Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAA grounds in Derry after a club meeting on the night of May 12th, when he was abducted and shot six times in the head.

An inquest into his death was opened in March of last year but was shut down 12 months later when the coroner said he could not continue due to material being redacted on national security grounds.

On The Pat Kenny Show today, the daughter of the 61-year-old GAA chairman, Siobhan Brown, said he was a well-liked figure in the community.

“He was a great family man, a great community man, and was out to help everyone,” she said.

“He was a totally innocent victim, hadn’t a bad bone in his body – but was cruelly taken away from us.

“He wasn’t involved in anything political and worked with both sides of the community."

A photo of Sean Brown being held his widow Bridie Brown. Image: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Siobhan said her mother had been concerned from early on, on the night of his death.

“At 2.30am she took a torch and walked the short distance to the Gaelic grounds to have a look around because she thought something had happened, that he had taken ill or something like that,” she said.

“Mummy walked around, shone the torch around between the two clubhouses, around the pitch, around the gate – but there was no sign of anyone, no cars, and she went home again.

“At about 6.30am in the morning she noticed two police officers a short distance from the house and at that point she went out to them and said, ‘My husband didn’t come home last night – where is his body’.

“At that point, she knew something serious was wrong as news had come through a man had been found beside his burnt-out car on the edge of Randalstown.”

Answers

Siobhan said they’ve been searching for answers to what happened for 27 years.

“We were hoping when his inquest opened in March of last year that we would get some of those answers,” she said.

“But, unfortunately, in March of this year, his inquest was closed because of claims it posed a risk to national security as information was held within the papers and files.

“There were public interest immunity certificates lodged by the PSNI, the Ministry of Defence, and MI5 security services, they were going all out to stop us as a family from getting information as to why he was cruelly murdered.”

'Dirty secrets'

Sean Brown’s grandson Daman told the show they were put “through a legal minefield to cover it all up”.

“Our coroner told us there are 25 suspects and several of them were state agents,” he said.

“I believe that the Government has got a few dirty secrets that they don’t want the public getting any knowledge of.

“There’s a lot of state agents on both sides, that’s possibly why the Government doesn’t want to release the information we need because they could be found to be guilty of cold-blooded murders carried out through the troubles.”

Daman added that the Legacy Bill is an “insult” to families whose loved ones were killed during The Troubles.

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Main image: A photo of Sean Brown being held his widow Bridie Brown. Image: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo