Liam Kennedy: Brian Garrett was of a lost generation that might have reshaped Northern Ireland if not for the men with guns

(‘Click here for Mike Nesbitt MLA paying tribute to Brian Garrett’s support on libel law)

Coming to live in Northern Ireland in the late 1970s was like entering a wasteland, politically as well as socially.

My background was in the Irish Labour party in Cork and in the British Labour party in Yorkshire. Belfast was bewildering. It once had a strong labour movement but this had been swallowed up in the Troubles as national and sectarian conflict trumped all else

Meeting Brian Garrett was a revelation. Brian, who died this month aged 86, had been chairman of the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP), a party that once attracted about a quarter of the people’s votes. Here he was, a successful lawyer, still fighting to advance working-class interests on a non-sectarian basis all through the nightmare of the Troubles. He might well have despaired but that wasn’t in his nature. Charming in person, he was a persuasive speaker and always a fighter. He was associated with every progressive tendency in Northern Ireland: the co-operative movement, the movement for integrated education, the Peace Train Organisation, local arts and community associations.

I recall in particular his intervention in the 1992 general election, when Dr Joe Hendron of the SDLP achieved a spectacular result in deposing Gerry Adams in West Belfast. In no small way, I believe, this forced the Sinn Féin leadership into recognizing the barren future that lay before it if it persisted with terrorist violence. Brian introduced Dr Joe to loyalist voters in the Shankill, the other West Belfast. The result was a historic victory for a labour candidate with impeccable anti-sectarian credentials.

Even as illnesses ravaged his body, he was still to be found at public meetings, bravely seeking to advance social reform.

Brian Garrett, family man, social reformer, and brilliant advocate, was one of that lost generation of remarkable individuals who might have reshaped Northern Irish society for the better but for the stranglehold of gobshites with guns.

Professor Liam Kennedy, Queen’s University, Belfast