Paddy McCann, third from right

Paddy McCann

By MAXI McINTYRE

IT was with great sadness on 1 March that we received news of the sudden death of Volunteer Paddy McCann in Dundalk. He moved to Dundalk from his home town of Lurgan after years of constant harassment and torture at the hands of the RUC and British Army, culminating in direct death threats.
Like so many of his peers, Paddy joined the Republican Movement after internment was introduced in August 1971, when it exposed the full corruption of the unionist state. At that time he was in a highly-skilled precision engineering job with Abbicoil Springs Ltd in Portadown, and for a long time he was able to manage the demands of his career and his commitment to the republican struggle.
After years of service in defence of his local community, Paddy was arrested and interned in Long Kesh in January 1974 along with his brother, Eamon ‘Pope’ McCann. The following month, one of his other brothers, Ned, was lifted in the South and sentenced to a year in Portlaoise.
I was arrested in April 1974 and interned in the same cage along with Paddy and Pope, who welcomed me with open arms as I walked through the gates. As usual, protest followed protest in Long Kesh, with Paddy in the thick of it, ending up with the burning of the camp (at which he was quite adept) on 15 October 1974.
In the ruins of the Cages, when the decision was taken to organise an escape, Paddy was among the squads who worked in shifts 24 hours a day to tunnel out. On the night of the escape, 6 November, when the groups began to filter out on the outside of the perimeter fence, Paddy was actually in the tunnel, next in line to make his bolt for freedom, when the shooting started and Hugh Coney from Coalisland was shot dead. That night resulted in hand-to-hand fighting with the Brits on the outside.
Paddy was released shortly before the ending of internment in December 1975 and, despite having a wife and young son, returned immediately to the republican struggle back in his home town of Lurgan. Paddy’s return to the struggle meant he paid a severe price - constant arrest and torture in Castlereagh. He was interrogated for 21 days out of 24.
The McCann family moved to Dundalk in 1976 and made their home available to the Movement. They suffered a terrible blow with the death of his wife, Marian, at just 38 years of age in 1993.
Paddy used all the skills he had acquired to the benefit of the Movement. He always made himself available despite suffering from lung damage due to CS gas when the Kesh was burned.
Paddy never weakened in his republican beliefs. During the last Dáil general election, he broke his hip yet he still made sure he had a lift to vote for Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan.
The Movement has lost one of its most resilient and stubborn defenders in Paddy. As a friend, a comrade, and brother-in-law, I know that there are few who would ever have been as trustworthy.