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Seán Ó Cionnaith | |
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 | |
| Dublin City Councillor | |
| In office 1999 | |
| Constituency | Finglas |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1938-06-07)7 June 1938 Ballinasloe,County Galway, Ireland |
| Died | 16 February 2003(2003-02-16) (aged 64) |
| Political party |
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| Military service | |
| Branch/service | Fianna Éireann(1950s) |
Seán Ó Cionnaith (7 June 1938 – 16 February 2003 inDublin) was an Irishsocialistrepublicanpolitician, and a prominent member of theWorkers' Party.[1]
He was born on 7 June 1937 inCreagh nearBallinasloe,County Galway, and was the second youngest of a family of five. His mother, Bridget, died when he was aged four and later stated that it had a profound and lasting effect on him. He left school at fourteen and got a job in a hardware store.[2]
Ó Cionnaith joined theIrish republican movement as a teenager, and in the late 1950s he became a chief scout withNa Fianna Éireann, the movement's youth section.[2][3] He moved to England in the late 1950s and worked as both abus conductor inLondon and an organizer forClann na hÉireann, before returning in the 1960s and basing himself in Dublin where he continued as a member ofSinn Féin.[2][4]
Ó Cionnaith was a supporter of the efforts to move Sinn Féin into a more socialist position and was a close confidant of figures such asIRA Chief of StaffCathal Goulding, along withSeán Garland andTomás Mac Giolla. He strongly opposed the emergence of theProvisional Irish Republican Army, regarding its campaign as sectarian.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Ó Cionnaith developed a number of campaigning organisations including theDublin Housing Action Committee, theGaeltacht Civil Rights Movement (Coiste Cearta Síbialta na Gaeilge), the Resources Protection Campaign and the campaign to end the control by private landlords over the fishing rights to Irish rivers and lakes.[3]
He identified with the socialist cause and itsinternationalist outlook, and was involved in many solidarity campaigns withCuba,North Korea, theSoviet Union, and theanti-apartheid movements inSouth Africa.[2][5] In the mid-1970s he organised an Anti-Imperialist Festival in Ireland, featuring delegates from thePalestinian Liberation Organisation, theAfrican National Congress, theMPLA, and others.[2]
In the 1970s he became joint General Secretary of Official Sinn Féin (later renamed Sinn Féin the Workers' Party, and ultimately the Workers' Party) along withMáirín de Burca.
Ó Cionnaith served as Director of International Affairs of the Workers' Party for years, and was the party's representative in the United States and Canada during the early 1970s.[2]
He remained with the Workers' Party after the split that led to the formation ofDemocratic Left.[2]
Ó Cionnaith wasco-opted on toDublin City Council in 1999 for theFinglas constituency, however several months he lost it in the1999 local elections.[2] Most notable was his leading role in the campaign for the replacement of dangerous and unreliable lifts in theBallymun high-rise complex, which saw the local community win a landmark court case against the local authority. He lost his council seat in 1999, and was unsuccessful when he stood inDublin North-West at the2002 general election.[6]
On 15 February 2003, Ó Cionnaith joined over 100,000 Irish people who participated in a major march in Dublin against the impendingUS/UK-led invasion of Iraq. He died suddenly early the following morning at his home in Ballymun.[2][7]
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