Brian Keenan (IRA member)

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Brian Keenan (born 1942 in Sawtragh , County Londonderry , † May 21, 2008 in Cullyhanna , County Armagh ) was a former member of the IRA Army Council and one of the founders of the modern IRA .

Life

Born into an apolitical family to a Royal Air Force employee, Keenan joined the IRA in 1970 or 1971. He became the IRA Quartermaster in Belfast in August 1971 . He planned bombings and organized weapons supplies for the IRA. He was arrested near Banbridge in 1979 and sentenced to 18 years in prison in 1980. After 14 years in prison, he was released and became one of seven members of the IRA Army Council.

In 1996 he was jointly responsible for ending the IRA's first armistice with an explosives attack in London's Docklands.

He was known as a hardliner in the Disarmament Commission, which was agreed as part of the Good Friday Agreement . In May 2000, as head of the IRA Army Council, he approved the compromise formula of the Good Friday Agreement. David Trimble, head of the Protestant Ulster Unionist Party , had previously taken the no guns, no government blockade position . This position referred to a government participation of the Catholic Sinn Féin and simultaneous disarmament of the IRA. This compromise between Keenan and Trimble was probably brokered by the former Secretary General of the South African ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa . He is said to have had good relations with Keenan as well as Trimble. In May 2008, Keenan died of cancer after a long illness.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Compromise is treason . In: Die Zeit , No. 28/1999
  2. ↑ David Trimble promotes IRA compromise proposal . In: Berliner Zeitung , May 9, 2000
personal data
SURNAME Keenan, Brian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British member of the Provisional IRA Army Council
DATE OF BIRTH 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Sawtragh , County Londonderry
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 2008
Place of death Cullyhanna , County Armagh