Pat Sheehan | |
---|---|
Member of the Legislative Assembly for Belfast West | |
Assumed office 7 December 2010 | |
Preceded by | Gerry Adams |
Personal details | |
Born | [1] Belfast,Northern Ireland | 28 May 1958
Nationality | Irish |
Political party | Sinn Féin |
Spouse | Siobhán O'Hanlon (2006;her death) |
Children | Cormac Sheehan |
Other organizations | Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer (formerly) |
Pat Sheehan (born 28 May 1958) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician,and former Provisional Irish Republican Army member and hunger striker at the Maze Prison. [2]
Sheehan was born in Belfast,Northern Ireland. He attended St Malachy's College and gained several O-levels before dropping out of full-time education. [3] In his youth he was a member of Fianna,the IRA youth wing. [4]
In 1978—aged 19—Sheehan took part in the bombing of cash-and-carry. [5] He was sentenced to 15 years. [6]
Sheehan was the 17th republican inmate at the Maze Prison to join the 1981 hunger strikes,which was aimed at gaining political status for Provisional IRA and Irish National Liberation Army prisoners. Sheehan began fasting on 10 August –after nine prisoners had already died –and ended when the hunger strike was officially called off on 3 October. He survived 55 days without food.
Sheehan was released in 1987. In 1989,he was convicted and sentenced to 24 years for attempting to booby trap a Belfast security checkpoint with a bomb. [7] Sheehan spent his first two years at Crumlin Road Gaol,before being moved to H-Block,sharing a cell with Danny Morrison. [8] He was released under the terms of the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
He picked up his education again on his release and in 1992 began to study Social Sciences and Philosophy with The Open University. He graduated with a first class honours degree in 1998. [9]
On 7 December 2010,he succeeded Gerry Adams as MLA for Belfast West,Adams having resigned to contest the 2011 Irish general election. Sheehan retained the seat for Sinn Féin at the 2011 Assembly election.
Sheehan has provoked anger and controversy by describing the Troubles as "probably quite civilised" and saying the IRA "could have left a 1,000lb car bomb on the Shankill" if it wanted to kill Protestants. [10]
As at August 2015,he is a Political Member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board. [11]
Pat Sheehan is the widower of Sinn Féin activist Siobhán O'Hanlon who died from cancer in 2006. He has a son. [12] Pat is also a keen cricket fan. [13]
Gerard Adams is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018,and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011–2020. From 1983–1992 and from 1997–2011,he won election as a Member of Parliament (MP) of the British Parliament for the Belfast West constituency but followed the policy of abstentionism.
Robert Storey was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer from Belfast,Northern Ireland. Prior to an 18-year conviction for possessing a rifle,he also spent time on remand for a variety of charges and in total served 20 years in prison. He also played a key role in the Maze Prison escape,the biggest prison break in British penal history.
Daniel Gerard Morrison is an Irish former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer,author and activist who played a crucial role in public events during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. An Irish republican,Morrison is also a former Sinn Féin publicity director and editor of Republican News and An Phoblacht. He is the secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust and current chairman of Féile an Phobail,the largest community arts festival in Ireland.
DáithíÓConaill was an Irish republican,a member of the IRA Army Council of the Provisional IRA,and vice-president of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin. He was also the first chief of staff of the Continuity IRA,from its founding in 1986 until his death in 1991. He is credited with introducing the car bomb to Northern Ireland.
Denis Martin Donaldson was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a member of Sinn Féin who was killed following his exposure in December 2005 as an informer in the employ of MI5 and the Special Branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. It was initially believed that the Provisional IRA were responsible for his killing although the Real IRA claimed responsibility for his murder almost three years later. His friendship with French writer and journalist Sorj Chalandon inspired two novels:My Traitor and Return to Killybegs.
Dolours Price was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer. She grew up in an Irish republican family and joined the IRA in 1971. She was sent to jail for her role in the 1973 Old Bailey bombing,and released in 1981. In her later life,Price was a vocal opponent of the Irish peace process,Sinn Fein,and Gerry Adams.
Gerard Kelly is an Irish republican politician and former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer who played a leading role in the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998. He is currently a member of Sinn Féin's Ard Chomhairle and a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Belfast.
Brendan McFarlane is an Irish republican activist. Born into a Roman Catholic family,he was brought up in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast,Northern Ireland. At 16,he left Belfast to train as a priest in a north Wales seminary. He joined the Provisional IRA in 1969.
Denis O'Beirne Faul,was an Irish Roman Catholic priest best known,in the course of the Northern Ireland Troubles,for publicising security-force abuses and,controversially among Irish republicans,for his role,with the families of prisoners,in bringing to an end the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike. In 1995,his church awarded him the honorific title of Monsignor.
Siobhán O'Hanlon was an Provisional IRA volunteer and Sinn Féin activist.
Patrick Quinn was a volunteer with the 1st Battalion,South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
Brendan Hughes was a leading Irish republican and former Officer Commanding (OC) of the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Also known as 'The Dark',and 'Darkie',he was the leader of the 1980 Irish hunger strike.
Tommy McKearney is a former Irish volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army who took part in the 1980 hunger strike.
Bernard Fox is a former member of the Army Council of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
Laurence McKeown is an Irish author,playwright,screenwriter,and former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
Pat "Beag" McGeown was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
Jackie "Teapot" McMullan is a former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
Laurence Marley was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member from Ardoyne,Belfast,Northern Ireland. He was one of the masterminds behind the 1983 mass escape of republican prisoners from the Maze Prison,where Marley was imprisoned at the time,although he did not participate in the break-out. Marley was described by British journalist Peter Taylor as having been a close friend of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams. Marley was shot dead by an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) unit two years after his release from the Maze. His shooting was in retaliation for the killing of leading UVF member John Bingham the previous September by the Ardoyne IRA.
The 1973 Old Bailey bombing was a car bomb attack carried out by the Provisional IRA (IRA) which took place outside the Old Bailey Courthouse on 8 March 1973. The attack was carried out by an 11-person active service unit (ASU) from the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade. The unit also exploded a second bomb which went off outside the Ministry of Agriculture near Whitehall in London at around the same time the bomb at the Old Bailey went off.
Tom McFeely is an Irish property developer and former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Originally from Dungiven area in County Londonderry,Northern Ireland,McFeely was drawn into the violence that signalled the beginning of the Troubles in 1969 and would soon become a member of the Provisional IRA. Following a period of living life on the run,McFeely was captured and imprisoned after he and an accomplice robbed a post office in the mid-1970s. McFeely was sent to HM Prison Maze where he took on a leadership role amongst other imprisoned IRA men. In 1980 McFeely led seven IRA men on a hunger strike in protest against the revoking of special status for political prisoners,ultimately surviving for 53 days without food until the strike was called off by IRA leadership. In 1986 McFeely was amongst a number of Irish republicans who split from the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin over their recognition of the legitimacy of Dáil Éireann. He subsequently founded the League of Communist Republicans alongside fellow inmate Tommy McKearney.