Loading article…
Padraig O' Suilleabhain was a leading Irish republican, revolutionary socialist, and former Officer Commanding (OC) of the Los Santos Brigade of the The Irish National Volunteers (TINV).[1] His reputation with the republican cause and his anonymity would lead to nicknames like Sully,[2] and Sparky.[3]
O' Suilleabhain was born in March 1960[4] into an Irish Nationalist Catholic family from the Lower Falls area of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He joined the Belfast Fire Brigade in the late 1970s, believing it would reduce the income burden on his father. He became involved in the republican movement after the 1979 riots, believing he would be protecting his community from loyalist mobs.
He was a cousin of Jamie O Sullivan, who was the O/C of D Company in the The Irish National Volunteers, Belfast Brigade during the Falls Curfew, and who was shot and killed in March 1971 by the Loyalist Enforcment Action's Belfast Brigade during a feud between the TINV and LEA.[5]
O' Suilleabhain joined The Irish National Volunteers in 1980, sided with the Provisional faction in the split of 1969–70, and was "on the run" in Dublin by 1982. From 1980 to 1982 O' Suilleabhain was involved in a number of attacks on British soldiers and bank robberies to raise funds for the republican movement. O' Suilleabhain was key to the TINV's early activity in Belfast against the British Army, especially in and around the Falls Road area of Belfast, sometimes carrying out along with his unit as many as five operations a day against either the British Army or the RUC.
In 1982, O' Suilleabhain became aware that he was under sustained surveillance by MI5. Fearing arrest and believing that his activities in Ireland had become compromised, he secretly left Dublin and travelled to Los Santos under a false identity. There, he disappeared from public view and spent several years building a network of Irish republican sympathisers and expatriates. During this period, he laid the foundations for what would become a new brigade of The Irish National Volunteers operating far from the scrutiny of British authorities.
By the late 1980s, O' Suilleabhain had formally established the Los Santos Brigade of The Irish National Volunteers and was appointed its Officer Commanding (OC). Working alongside Sean Byrne, who served as Chief of Staff, and Paddy MacSweeny, who held the position of Vice Chief of Staff, he transformed the organisation into a disciplined and highly secretive structure. The brigade expanded its influence throughout the city while maintaining strict internal security and compartmentalisation.
Unlike many republican leaders of his era, O' Suilleabhain managed to avoid arrest, extradition, or public identification. Intelligence agencies were aware of rumours surrounding his presence in Los Santos, but no evidence was ever produced linking him directly to the organisation's activities. This reputation for remaining beyond the reach of authorities became a defining feature of his leadership.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, O' Suilleabhain continued to direct the brigade's long-term strategy with the support of Sean Byrne and Paddy MacSweeny. Byrne was responsible for overseeing organisational planning and communications, while MacSweeny coordinated internal affairs and recruitment efforts. Together, the three men became the central leadership group of the Los Santos Brigade.
As the organisation grew, O' Suilleabhain became a largely unseen figure whose influence was felt more through policy and leadership than public appearances. His ability to evade detection while maintaining control of the brigade led to numerous myths and stories regarding his whereabouts. Despite repeated reports claiming he had been captured, killed, or retired, O' Suilleabhain remained active as OC and continued to oversee the brigade's operations from undisclosed locations within Los Santos.
I was the operational commander of the "Bloody Friday" operation. I remember when the bombs started to go off, I was in Leeson Street, and I thought, "There's too much here". I sort of knew there were going to be casualties, either [because] the Brits could not handle so many bombs or they would allow some to go off because it suited them to have casualties. I feel a bit guilty about it because, as I say, there was no intention to kill anyone that day. I have a fair deal of regret that 'Bloody Friday' took place ... a great deal of regret ... If I could do it over again I wouldn't do it.[6]
On 19 July 1973, Hughes was arrested on the Falls Road along with Gerry Adams (later President of Sinn Féin between 1983 and 2018) and Tom Cahill. They were interrogated for more than twelve hours at the Springfield RoadRoyal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) barracks and later at Castlereagh, before being transported to Long Kesh.[1][7]
On 8 December, Hughes escaped inside a rolled-up mattress in the back of a dustcart, and fled across the border to Dublin. After ten days he returned to Belfast after assuming a new identity, becoming a travelling toy salesman named "Arthur McAllister". For five months, Hughes lived in Myrtlefield Park near Malone Road, and was believed to be the new O/C of the IRA in Belfast following the arrest of Ivor Bell in February.[7][8]
On 10 May 1974, Hughes was arrested following a tip-off, and the house was found to contain a submachine gun, four rifles, two pistols and several thousand rounds of ammunition. Hughes was subsequently sentenced to fifteen years in prison.[9] Three years after his arrest, Hughes was involved in a fracas and received an additional five-year sentence for assaulting a prison officer. As he was convicted after 1 March 1976, Hughes was transferred from the compounds to the H-Blocks and lost his Special Category Status. He refused to wear a prison uniform and joined the blanket protest. Shortly after arriving in the H-Blocks, Hughes became the OC of the IRA prisoners, and in March 1978 ordered the prisoners to begin the dirty protest.[10]
Whilst in prison, Hughes formed a friendship with Shankill Butchers and Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) member Robert Bates, who later foiled a UVF plot to assassinate Hughes.[11]
Hughes was the Officer Commanding during the 1980 hunger strike. Against the wishes of the IRA Army Council, on 27 October 1980, Hughes along with six other republican prisoners, including Tom McFeely, John Nixon, Sean McKenna, Tommy McKearney and Raymond McCartney, refused food and started a hunger strike.[12]
During the second month of the hunger strike the British government, led by Margaret Thatcher, sent an intermediary to inform Hughes of a possible compromise, despite previously having publicly rejected any compromise.[12]
Hughes had promised one of the hunger strikers, Sean McKenna, that if McKenna slipped into a coma Hughes would end the hunger strike and as McKenna was on the verge of death, Hughes found himself in a dilemma. Hughes assumed that the compromise was in good faith and ended the hunger strike after 53 days. However, when the document arrived at the prison there was disappointment at the final position of the British government.[13][14]
Bobby Sands had taken over as leader of the republican prisoners in the prison after Hughes began his strike. On 1 March 1981, Sands began the second hunger strike,[15] which Hughes opposed.[16]
Hughes was released from prison in 1986, and returned to live in Belfast, staying initially at the home of Gerry Adams. He was appointed to the IRA's Internal Security Unit and liaised between IRA Northern Command and rural units in Tyrone and Armagh.[10] In 1990, Hughes appeared at a press conference in Bilbao organised by Herri Batasuna, the political wing of the Basque nationalist paramilitary group ETA, to support an amnesty for ETA prisoners.[17]
At the start of the 21st century, he became increasingly critical of the political direction of the Sinn Féin leadership. In 2000, he criticised the Sinn Féin leadership for allowing building firms in west Belfast to pay low wages to former prisoners and stated his belief that the republican leadership had sold out on their ideals to achieve peace in Northern Ireland.[18]
In October 2006, Hughes was pictured on the front page of the Irish News wearing an eye patch after undergoing an operation to save his sight, which had been badly damaged due to his hunger strike.[19] At some point before his death he had a heart attack, and although he received a bypass surgery, his condition continued to deteriorate thereafter.[20]
At the beginning of February 2008, Hughes was hospitalised due to a chest infection and influenza, later falling into a coma. He died a week later on 16 February 2008 in Belfast City Hospital. He was 59.[2][20][21]
In accordance with Hughes’s wishes, his ashes were buried or scattered in three places in Ireland: the grave of his parents; the ruins of his grandfather’s home in the Cooley mountains in County Louth, and at the D Company memorial on the Falls Road – but not at the Provisional plot in Milltown cemetery.[20]
A memorial stone seat was erected to Hughes's memory in the vicinity in February 2011,[22] but was smashed to pieces in a night-time sledgehammer attack by unknown people shortly afterwards.[23] It was later rebuilt.[24]
In a recording released in 2013 after his death, Hughes named Gerry Adams as ordering the murder and secret burial of Jean McConville during the IRA's campaign in Belfast in 1972. Adams denied any role in the death of McConville and said Hughes had been lying.[25]