The club of murdered GAA official Sean Brown has called on the entire association to support his family as continued delays in producing material threaten to derail his inquest.
The father-of-six was attacked and beaten by an LVF gang as he locked the gates at Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAC in Co Derry in May 1997.
After he was placed in the boot of his own car, the club chairman was taken to a country lane outside Randalstown, Co Antrim, where he was shot six times.
Collusion is suspected, and several of those thought to be involved are believed to be state agents.
Mr Brown’s inquest, which began in March, has been held up due to ongoing PSNI delays in producing disclosure material linked to the murder.
Since his death, members of Mr Brown’s family, including his widow Bridie, have been present at more than 40 inquest-related hearings, with the majority attended by his son Damian, who died in 2021 after a short illness.
Coroner Patrick Kinney, who is also a High Court judge, confirmed the inquest will not resume next month as planned and will take place in March.
Under the British government’s controversial Legacy Act, inquests that have not reached their findings stage by next May will be halted.
The act has been challenged in the High Court by relatives of the dead, while the Irish government has launched an inter-state case against the British government under the European Convention on Human Rights.
In a statement in support of the Brown family, Bellaghy Wolfe Tones is scathing of the British government’s legacy law.
“The family invested their full faith in the inquest process, an inquest being the most fundamental, rudimentary, perfunctory of legal processes, that the state must conclude when a life is taken in the manner in which Sean’s was stolen from him,” it said.
“Far from discharging its international obligations in law, to convene and conclude Sean’s inquest, the British government has instead abandoned its legal obligations and has attempted to legislate impunity for itself.
“The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 is an obscenity whose one achievement has been to unite all communities here.
“Whereas this legislation will have different traumatic outcomes for different traumatised families, its effect on the Brown family, and therefore our club and wider community, is that Sean’s inquest is now in jeopardy, if all evidence has not been heard and a verdict reported by the coroner – a High Court judge – by an artificially imposed cut-off date of May 1 2024. "
Part of the delay is down to a failure by the PSNI to produce material that may be subject to Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificates.
PII certificates are used by security agencies to withhold information they do not want in the public domain.
The PSNI recently suggested that an inquest is not an “appropriate vehicle” for continuing the investigation into Mr Brown’s death and said they would not object to a public inquiry.
The Brown family want the inquest to continue.
The club statement said that in successive court hearings, “the family, our esteemed neighbours, have been insulted” by suggestions that the state cannot discharge its legal obligations.
It is also critical of secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris, saying he had become a “cheerleader” for the Legacy Act “that has the potential to take this inquest away before it is concluded”.
The statement also says that “successive investigations and reviews” carried out by the Police Ombudsman, the now defunct Historical Enquiries Team “and even the PSNI have proven an abject and frightening litany of failings evident in the original RUC investigation”.
“The fact that this is the present situation after two decades and several robust judicial interventions is a disgrace, no other court or forum in a civilised society would countenance one party to proceedings causing a delay of that length.”
“And to conclude, the Brown family ask one simple question of the state intelligence and security forces - ‘If you have nothing to hide, why has it taken you 26 years to prove it?’
Bellaghy Wolfe Tones, which is well known across Ireland, said it has now been forced to speak out.
“As a club, as friends and neighbours, we can no longer hold our dignified silence,” it said.
“As a community, we are furious at the treatment of the Brown family and we actively seek the support and solidarity of our wider association at this time.
“As a unit of our association, we represent what is best about our society. However, what we have observed the Brown family endure in recent weeks and months, indeed years, is the lowest, and which can no longer be tolerated.
“Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAC welcome the decision of the Irish government to take an inter-state case against the British government to the European Court of Human Rights.
“This is a welcome display of both courage and conviction.
“It is clear that politicians are now prepared to match the groundswell of public opinion against the Legacy Act with political action.”
In recent months several GAA county boards, including Derry, have passed motions in support of the Brown family.
Bellaghy Wolfe Tones has now called on the entire GAA community to show solidarity.
“What we, as members of the GAA, now seek is that the leaders of the association show the same commitment, leadership and action,” it said.
“We are indebted to the voluntary motions of solidarity reciting expressions of concern, by the recent county conventions of Derry, Tyrone and Armagh.
“We respectfully request that this correspondence is considered by all units of our association, at both club and county level, and we ask each chairman or the last person to lock your club gates, is this how you would accept your family, your club, your community, your own dignified memory, to be treated.”
The NIO was contacted.