Peadar Tóibín urges Micheál Martin to raise Sean Brown case with Keir Starmer
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00:00Sean Brown was a father of six, a lifelong GAA member and official, and a highly respected member of his community.
00:06On the 12th of May 1997, while locking at the gates of the Wolftones football club in Ballaghae, County Derry,
00:11he was abducted and viciously murdered.
00:14He was murdered because he was a Catholic and because he was the chairperson of his GAA club.
00:19Brydie Brown, Sean's wife, attended the recent GAA Congress in Donegal to plead for help in the search for justice.
00:25The family have attended court 57 times in their search for justice,
00:29and they've said that they've met with silence, excuses and denials.
00:32They said that the police investigations were a failure, an insult and a cover-up of British state collusion.
00:38The High Court in the North says that there must be a public inquiry of Sean's murder.
00:43But the Northern Secretary, Hilary Benn, is appealing that court order.
00:47Now given that the suffering of the family has been put through in the long block for their search for justice,
00:54I think this latest move by the British government is disgusting.
00:58Will you directly appeal to the British Prime Minister that there is a speedy inquest into the murder of Sean Brown?
01:06Deputy Torbien raised a Sean Brown case, I've raised that with Hilary Benn when I was Minister for Foreign Affairs.
01:11And again, the issue there, the Secretary of State is saying that he's appealing for a broader issue,
01:19not one specific to the case of Sean Brown, who was viciously murdered.
01:24And there was, without question, collusion there.
01:27But the broader issue of legacy more generally, how do we deal with legacy in a comprehensive way?
01:31And so the talks and discussions have been around the Legacy Act, changes to the Legacy Act.
01:38Prime Minister Starmer and Secretary of State Benn have brought about significant changes since they were elected.
01:44And since there was a change of government in the UK, the issue is whether the ICRIR can be restructured
01:52to enable us to get a solution that would deal with investigations and with information retrieval
01:57and separate out the two that would earn the confidence of victims groups.
02:03And I think ultimately, because there's many, many other cases as well, that are not getting closure.