Republican who made leap from IRA violence to political dialogue

Siobhán O'Hanlon: Siobhán O'Hanlon, who died after a lengthy illness on April 11th aged 43, was in several ways typical of republicans…

Siobhán O'Hanlon: Siobhán O'Hanlon, who died after a lengthy illness on April 11th aged 43, was in several ways typical of republicans who have made the transition from IRA violence to political activism.

A convicted bomber who became note-taker in the negotiations that produced the Belfast Agreement, she tried in peacetime to maintain the low profile imposed by membership of an illegal organisation.

While running an office for Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and setting up the party's offices in Westminster, O'Hanlon avoided personal publicity. On several occasions the only woman in photographs with Adams and others as Sinn Féin arrived at Stormont in May 1997, she was initially the subject of curiosity. Her characterisation as secretary and typist helped shift attention.

She evaded interviews: her experience of media attention had not been pleasant. In September 1988, as the inquest was about to begin into the SAS killing of three unarmed IRA members in Gibraltar - shot, the British government said, to prevent them detonating a nearby bomb - the Sunday Times named her as the fourth member of the IRA unit. She denied it immediately but the tag stuck, partly because she was unable to take an effective libel case but also because the Gibraltar killings began a spiral of almost unparalleled controversy. The SAS shootings eventually produced a finding by the European Court of Human Rights that the killings were unnecessary.

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The Belfast funerals of the three IRA members - Maireád Farrell, Seán Savage and Danny McCann - generated more drama when they were attacked by lone loyalist Michael Stone, who shot three mourners dead. Days later, two soldiers drove into the funeral of one of those mourners, and were seized, beaten, then shot.

The denial O'Hanlon issued through a Belfast lawyer said she had been the third person named in the media as the surviving member of the Gibraltar unit. She had not been involved in any illegal activity in Gibraltar, was not an IRA member and was taking legal advice. The Sunday Times had said she was a blonde and had recently had a baby: neither was true. On the day of the shootings, she was visiting her mother. She had been living openly in Belfast since February 1987 but her life was now in danger.

O'Hanlon's conviction as an IRA member in 1983 made it unlikely that she could bring a successful libel action. She served four years for explosives offences and was released from Armagh jail in February 1987.

Born in north Belfast into a family in part strongly republican, her involvement was perhaps predictable, though one of her sisters, Eilis, has become known as a vociferously anti-republican newspaper columnist. She told a Belfast Telegraph interviewer three years ago that she and Siobhán stayed away from each other. Their uncle was Joe Cahill, the celebrated veteran of the 1940s IRA in Belfast, convicted gun-runner and totemic figure for the Adams leadership.

O'Hanlon behaved like a professional, hard-working and inconspicuous in a career which contained cold-blooded calculation and grim drama as well as the history-making of arrival at Westminster and long hours taking notes in Stormont's Castle Building. In recent years, she also helped organise the annual West Belfast Festival.

In 2003, Adams sitting beside her, she spoke about her diagnosis of breast cancer at an event in west Belfast during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Adams paid tribute to her this week as "a kind and gentle woman, a close friend and invaluable comrade", linchpin of his office for 15 years, who had been determined not to allow her illness distract her from work.

"Easter is a poignant time for republicans," Adams said. "This Easter will be more so for all of us who knew, loved and respected Siobhán."

She is survived by her husband Pat (Sheehan) and six-year-old son Cormac.

Siobhán O'Hanlon, born 1963, died April 11th, 2006