Peadar Tóibín urges Micheál Martin to raise Sean Brown case with Keir Starmer - video Dailymotion

Peadar Tóibín urges Micheál Martin to raise Sean Brown case with Keir Starmer

Transcript

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.