Hedley Wright:HEDLEY WRIGHT, who has died aged 86, was a former member of both the IRA and B Specials who joined a troupe of travelling players in the 1940s, eventually settling in Bray, Co Wicklow, where he lived for 60 years.
In 2003 he received Gradam an Bhéil Bhinn for his work promoting the Irish language in the area. Presenting the award, Diarmuid Breathnach said: “Hedley has done more than anyone else I remember, and without profit for himself, to help and encourage Bray people take up Irish again.”
Born in Dungannon in 1922, he attended the Royal School, where his father was a teacher. From a moderate unionist background, he got a job in Mackies engineering works in Belfast “through nepotism”. But he disliked the sectarianism that prevailed in the city and objected to the strict regime at Mackies.
He became friendly with a group of republicans, among them Joe Cahill, and was inducted into the IRA. Acting on orders, he joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary B Specials to spy on the organisation. The Special Constabulary was a reserve force of the RUC whose membership overlapped some loyalist paramilitary organisations and whose members had a reputation for anti-Catholic thuggery.
For a short time, he patrolled the Falls Road with a legally held loaded Webley revolver in his pocket. However, in 1942 he was detained on suspicion of being about to act against the state. He believed that a fellow IRA member revealed his paramilitary allegiance under interrogation.
Imprisoned in Derry and Belfast for three years, he took part in two hunger strikes. His mother visited him a few times; his father stayed away. He took comfort in the study of Irish.
Released in 1945, he found work hard to come by. A job with a farmer yielded starvation wages and a half-pound of butter for his mother. He next took his chances with a smuggler but eventually joined a travelling show, which included the future chart-topping television star Val Doonican.
After touring the country for five years, he arrived in Bray, Co Wicklow, where the players performed on a platform opposite the Esplanade Hotel. He liked the town and decided to stay. He set up as a photographer, and later drove a taxi and worked as a security man at Ardmore Studios. Later still, he did a stint as Santa Claus in a shopping centre.
He threw himself into the cultural and political life of north Wicklow. While continuing to identify himself as a socialist republican in time he came to admire John Hume. A member of the Labour Party, he was active in the North Wicklow branch. He also was a delegate to Bray Trades Council.
He is survived by his wife Esther and daughter Stephanie.
Desmond Hedley Wright (Deasún Mac an tSaoir): born August 20th, 1922; died March 1st, 2009