Three terrorist brothers

On 6 December 1975 two IRA terrorists from the South Armagh Brigade were killed when a land mine they were working on exploded prematurely at Kelly's Road, Killeen.  The terrorists were Sean Campbell (20) and James Lochrie (19).

However Sean was not the only terrorist in the family.  Two of his brothers, Liam and Michael, refused to accept the IRA ceasefire and left to join the Real IRA.

Liam has been identified as one of the terrorists behind the Real IRA bomb in Omagh in 1998, which killed 29 innocent people.  The Omagh families took a civil case against against four men, one of them Liam Campbell, and a court heard that the case against Campbell was 'overwhelming'.

Meanwhile Michael Campbell has just been convicted in Lithuania of trying to purchase weapons and explosives for the Real IRA and he has been sentenced to twelve years in prison.  During the case it was revealed that he planned to use the weapons and exposives in terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

Liam and Michael are certainly in the news but their brother Sean Campbell is not forgotten.  Dromintee GAA Club has named its ground Lochrie-Campbell Park, in memory of the two IRA terrorists.  There is also a Lochrie-Campbell Memorial Cup and GAA minor teams compete for the trophy.

The conviction of Michael Campbell is to be welcomed and it may well pave the way for the extradition and conviction of Liam Campbell.  Meanwhile the fact that the Dromintee GAA ground is still named after their terrorist brother and his associate is a reminder that while some things have changed in the GAA, there is still more to be done.  The GAA speaks of 'reaching out to unionists' but any gestures in that direction are contradicted by sitiuations such as that in Dromintee.