Sean Brown’s widow calls for answers 28 years after his murder

The wife of murdered GAA official Sean Brown has said she is still looking for answers about why her husband was killed.

The 61-year-old was abducted and shot dead by members of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) as he locked the gates of Bellaghy GAA club, County Londonderry, in 1997.

Mr Brown’s family have long campaigned for a public inquiry to get answers about his murder.

Bridie Brown said her husband “walked with both sides of the community” and doesn’t know why he was targeted.

Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal affirmed a previous court ruling, compelling the UK government to hold a public inquiry into his killing.

The government said it intends to seek a Supreme Court appeal over the ruling.

There have been two police investigations and a Police Ombudsman investigation into Mr Brown’s murder.

Mrs Brown was speaking during her first long-form interview on BBC’s The GAA Social podcast 28 years after Mr Brown’s murder.

“I don’t know why they chose Sean, I just do not know because he was the same with everybody,” she said.

“He treated everybody alike, he walked with both sides of the community.”

The 87-year-old said months before his death, her husband organised a gathering to celebrate poet Seamus Heaney’s Nobel Prize in Bellaghy GAA club.

“They had all come and had a great time so I don’t know why,” she added.

“That’s the question – why choose him?”

Mrs Brown said she first met her husband while travelling to attend evening classes in Magherafelt, and would often meet up at a shop in the town.

They bought a house just one year before they got married in 1965, and the family has lived there ever since.

She said her husband was a “nice man” who was always looking out for the children in Bellaghy and was a keen athlete.

Last week, thousands of people took part in The Walk For Truth in Bellaghy in support of the Brown family.

It came after the government said it will seek a Supreme Court appeal over a ruling compelling it to hold an inquiry.

Mrs Brown said she couldn’t believe how many people came to support the family, adding there were mixed feelings.

“It was emotional,” she said.

“Never in my wildest dreams had I thought about so big a turn out.”

Mrs Brown said while it’s difficult to live with her husband’s death, and the publicity around it, she “takes each day as it comes”.

“There’s not a lot you can do,” she added.

“It’s still there at the back of your mind but [you] just carry on as normal as best as you can.”

Mr Brown was locking the gates of GAA club Bellaghy Wolfe Tones when he was kidnapped by the Loyalist Volunteer Force ( LVF).

Early last year, a court heard more than 25 people, including state agents, had been linked by intelligence material to Mr Brown’s murder.

In March 2024 a coroner said Mr Brown’s inquest could not continue due to material being withheld on the grounds of national security.

He decided that redactions of intelligence material meant he could not properly investigate the circumstances of the killing.

Instead, he wrote to the then Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, requesting a public inquiry into the case.

In December, the High Court ruled Hilary Benn must set up a public inquiry into the murder.

The government then appealed against that ruling, mounting a legal challenge to the Court of Appeal.

However, Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan said it was “a shocking state of affairs” that more than 25 years had passed but there had been no “lawful inquiry into the circumstances” of Mr Brown’s death.

After that ruling, Mr Brown’s family said Benn should “do the right thing”.

Mr Brown’s widow spoke directly to the NI secretary, saying: “Five judges have told you what to do, do the right thing and please don’t have me going to London.”