Malachy McGurran (1938 – 27 July 1978) was a leading Irish republican and founding member of the

Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ) was an organisation that campaigned for civil rights in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in Belfast on 9 April 1967,

, of which he was chairman. A native of

Lurgan, County Armagh Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

, McGurran joined

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

and the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...

in 1955. He was interned in the Curragh military barracks, near

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, from 1957 to 1959 during the IRA Border Campaign. In 1969, at the time of the split in the Republican Movement, he became commander of the IRA in Northern Ireland, in an effort to head off the newly formed

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

. In 1970 he became Chairman of the executive of Republican Clubs (the name adopted by

in Northern Ireland after it was banned in 1964). He represented Official Sinn Féin on a speaking tour of the United States in the early 1970s when the party was trying to promote its case and separate itself in the public mind from the Provisional IRA. In 1977 McGurran was elected for Craigavon 'A' which included the northern parts of

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

and the Loughside areas. He polled over 5,000 votes (8.2% of the total) as a Republican Clubs candidate in the October 1974 Westminster general election. He unsuccessfully contested the 1975 Constitutional Convention election. Malachy McGurran was a Vice-President of

Sinn Féin the Workers Party The Workers' Party ( ga, Páirtí na nOibrithe) is a Marxist–Leninist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It arose as the original Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, but took ...

when he died of bone cancer aged 38 on 27 July 1978. death announcement, Irish Times, 29 July 1978

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGurran, Malachy 1938 births 1978 deaths Deaths from bone cancer Irish Marxists Irish Republican Army (1922–1969) members Irish republicans Official Irish Republican Army members People from Lurgan Workers' Party (Ireland) politicians