Born to the struggle

Bridget and Eoin McCaughey pictured at their east Tyrone home

On Saturday night 19 June, republicans from across the country and from further afield will gather in the Citywest Hotel in Dublin to honour five republicans who have made lifelong contributions to the republican struggle. Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams will give the keynote address at the Le Chéile event, which will include dinner, music and dancing. The Ulster nominee is Eoin McCaughey, a native of Cappagh, County Tyrone. BARRY McELDUFF spoke to Eoin about his life and his political beliefs.

Eoin McCaughey is a man who uses words sparingly. If Eoin agrees with you, he might say "the very thing" or "certainly so", in order to amplify the point. Wearing a cloth cap, Eoin surveys all in front of him from the kitchen window of his bungalow home in the townland of Altaglushan, near Cappagh in County Tyrone.

A lifelong republican, Eoin has seen many British raiding parties and British Army helicopters land in the adjacent fields. The 'lonan' (laneway) leading to Eoin's home is long and meandering and it has recently been concreted to provide a smooth surface.

There are horses on either side of the lane and a busy engineering plant in full swing at the foot of the lane. When I arrived the gate was open, because Eoin was expecting me.

We reminisced about Eoin's life and about his views on the world, a privilege afforded only to the fortunate few.

ALWAYS FOR A UNITED IRELAND

Eoin is very proud of his family's republican pedigree. "I was born in 1917. My granduncle Eoin was the leader of the IRB in Clonavaddy. He drilled in that top field. I have always been for a United Ireland and anybody who ever came about this house in that line, I did all in my power to help them."

Eoin, now 87, remembers putting up Irish National Flags in the 1940s, including the very night that "Forbes, the RUC man was shot in Dungannon". He has a clear memory of cycling to Clones for republican gatherings on Easter Mondays in his youth.

There was great animosity between the Hibernians and the Sinn Féiners when Eoin was growing up. Often there were fights. "Green Orangemen, all for England" was how Eoin described some of them, while remarking that their younger offspring have changed, are "all into" the story of Martin Hurson (local Tyrone republican who died during the 1981 Hunger Strike) and are voting Sinn Féin nowadays.

PROUD OF TYRONE AND HIS PLACE

Eoin's family is steeped in republicanism. The son of Peter and Sarah, he was one of six children who were brought up in Clonavaddy. A 'well-learned man', Eoin attended Aughnagar National School between the ages of six and 14. He loved school and concedes to being a good scholar who was sometimes left in charge of his peers when Miss Sheridan or Master McDermott, himself a great republican, stepped out of the class.

Eoin worked on the farm all his life and at one point earned five shillings a week. There wasn't much food around in the 1930s. Everyone survived on a staple diet of potatoes and raw eggs, enjoying beef perhaps at Christmas. Today, Eoin is partial to a Guinness or two in the house.

Eoin married Bridget Nugent in 1947 and she crossed the river and joined Eoin to live in Altaglushan.

In modern times, the McCaughey family endured countless raids on their farm and home, checkpoints at the foot of the lane, British Army helicopter intrusions and house searches. Bridget would pass tea out the window to the neighbours who might arrive in support.

It was commonplace for Eoin and the neighbours to set off searching for hidden surveillance cameras in the hedgerows. On occasions, they were successful.

Eoin knows his locality like the back of his hand and he is content that it has always been 'to the fore.

Immensely proud of Tyrone and his place, Eoin reckons that "the cream of good men, the top brass of the IRA", were killed at Loughgall in May 1987. Tyrone was hit very hard and Eoin knows this only too well, since many young men who frequented his home gave their lives for Irish freedom. Many of them came from the Galbally/Cappagh area, including their own son, Martin, and Bridget's nephew, Malcolm Nugent.

DID NOT STAND IN MARTIN'S WAY

Like his parents and grandparents before him, Martin McCaughey was "a republican and that's that", says Eoin. A former Tyrone Minor Gaelic Footballer, a Sinn Féin Councillor and a great social mixer, Martin was shot dead on IRA active service alongside fellow Volunteer Dessie Grew on 9 October 1990 near Loughgall.

Some time before this, Martin was famously involved in an intense gun battle with the SAS in Cappagh. The IRA killed two SAS operatives and Martin sustained serious injuries, which necessitated him staying in the 26 Counties for a while. In his 23 years, Martin found himself in Gough and Castlereagh Interrogation Centres a dozen times.

Eoin recalls working in the bog with his son when Martin suggested that he might join the IRA. Eoin would not hinder him, would not stand against him if he was content. Martin asked Eoin if he could show him the ways of a shotgun and an air rifle. "Certainly so."

Bridget was afraid for Martin and was "very vexed", says Eoin, when he was killed, as you would expect from a grieving mother. But Martin was a republican to the backbone, they would tell you. They are hugely proud of him, and of Peter and Sally, their other children. Eoin and Bridget are blessed with grandchildren now.

Only last week, dozens of republicans took part and many more spectated at the annual clay pigeon shooting competition held in Martin's honour, a sign of the ongoing respect in the area for a fabled freedom fighter.

There is a beautiful pencil drawing of Martin in the kitchen of the McCaughey home, which Eoin sees every time he reaches for the barrel of turf. Eoin is a great man for turf, very close to nature and the land.

QUIET BUT PHILOSOPHICAL

Eoin McCaughey has a rich turn of phrase, which undoubtedly comes from the idiom of the Irish language. A highly intelligent man, he belongs both to the old Ireland and to the new. Trust is of utmost importance in Eoin's world, as this quiet but philosophical republican leader goes about his daily business. Those who know him would tell you that Eoin "measures twice and cuts once".

Having encountered his quiet spoken but steely commitment, founded in a politics embedded in family and locality, you come away with a renewed belief in the achievement of the Irish Republic.