GAA club denies any knowledge of commemoration for dead Provisional IRA commander Paul Magorrian after Sinn Fein advertises event at club premises

The event is called "The Paul Magorrian Story" and is being advertised on Facebook by Sinn Fein's Betsy Gray Cumann (covering much of south Down).

Paul Magorrian was killed by the army in August 1974.

Sinn Fein's Castlewellan office describes him as the "adjutant" of the IRA's South Down Brigade, saying he is "always remembered with pride".

Sammy Heenan, a south Down man who was orphaned by the IRA, called the upcoming event a "repugnant glorification of a hardened republican terrorist".

But whilst the Sinn Fein branch has advertised the event as taking place at "Castlewellan GAA Club" on August 16, the club secretary told the News Letter "there has been a misrepresentation here and we hope to get the issue resolved".

Pressed further, the secretary added: "The event recently published on social media purporting to take place on August 16, 2024, in Castlewellan GAC was posted without the knowledge, agreement, or approval of the Executive Committee of St Malachy’s GAC Castlewellan."

Such an event would not be without precedent for a GAA club.

Every year the Joe Cahill under-11s gaelic football competition takes place in west Belfast, named after one of the PIRA’s founders, while Dungiven’s GAA club is named after INLA gunman Kevin Lynch and Louis Leonard GAA park in Fermanagh is named after a man who was in charge of the PIRA’s arsenal for much of the county.

As recently as 2022, a memorial was unveiled to three dead PIRA men at Clonoe O'Rahilly's GAA club in east Tyrone in 2022, in a ceremony attended by Michelle O’Neill.

At that time the GAA issued a statement saying: “We respect the right of any unit of the Association to remember its dead members but in so doing it is important to recognise the need for sensitivity in such matters.

“The Association will work on issuing guidance to clubs and counties on such events in the future.”

Sammy Heenan, 51 and from Rathfriland, lost his father William – a civilian digger driver – in an IRA gun attack in the townland of Leitrim, Co Down, in 1985, a couple of miles north-west of Castlewellan.

Last night he told the News Letter: “Hopefully common sense will prevail on the part of Castlewellan GAA club and they will refuse to facilitate such an event on their premises.

"Obviously as a club they want to promote good relations in the area, and I’m sure they don’t want to go down a route of glorifying any form of terrorism.”

Mr Heenan has spoken out many times against IRA glorification, such as in 2018 when Sinn Fein named its Castlewellan advice centre after Magorrian and fellow Provo Peter McNulty.

He was also part of a Troubles victims delegation that met with the Ulster wing of the GAA last summer to complain about “sections of fans” who continued to engage in “pro-terror chants”, as well as “clubs and trophies named after terrorists who were guilty of crimes against their own neighbours”.

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Speaking to the News Letter tonight, Mr Heenan said the GAA in general “have to get to grips” with those clubs and fans who still associate themselves with paramilitarism, saying “obviously, it causes enormous hurt”.

Ulster GAA was contacted, as was GAA headquarters in Dublin, but neither had responded at time of writing.

A Sinn Fein spokesperson said: "Everyone has the right to remember their dead with dignity and respect.”