Fógraí bháis: Maureen Campbell

Maureen Campbell with Martin McGuinness

The Republican Movement in Derry lost a great friend with the death of Maureen Campbell on Saturday 1 August. Born in 1920 into a large republican family of 14 she grew up in the Waterside area of Derry City.  Her uncle left Derry at the start of the Tan War and travelled to Cork at the age of 17 to join the
IRA. He was shot dead by the Black and Tans in Cork city in 1920.
Maureen’s brother Paddy was also an active republican who was interned in Frongoch Internment Camp in Wales.  Maureen grew up witnessing the brutality and inequality of the Unionist state. In the 1920’s her family were forced from their home at gunpoint by a Unionist mob.
 She took a militant stand in the 40s and joined Cumann na mBan and along with Nancy Keenan, wife of the late Seán Keenan, became actively involved.  They transported guns and documents from across the border to IRA units in the city.  She participated in the disruption campaign against the showing of British War Propaganda films. Along with Nancy Keenan and her sister Nora Ward they used smoke bombs to disrupt and force the evacuation of the cinemas.  They also participated in the burning down of the Opera House in Derry when it closed its doors to the public on a Sunday and showed films to entertain the British troops.  
It was during this period while visiting her brother Paddy in Crumlin Road prison that she met and befriended the family of Tom Williams and on the morning Tom was hanged she travelled to Belfast and knelt with others outside the jail and prayed for his soul.  This had a profound effect on her throughout her life. She was later to attend the re-interment of Tom’s remains from Crumlin Road Jail to Milltown Cemetery.
Maureen was also actively involved in the recent campaign, moving weapons and providing a safe haven for volunteers. Maureen never wavered in her support for the Republican Movement. Whatever was asked of her was done without question. From the ‘40s to the ‘90s Maureen was visiting prisons in the North, beginning with her brother in the ‘40s through the Border Campaign and then her sons from the beginning of the present phase of struggle right up to the release of prisoners following the negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement.
Maureen will be sadly missed by the republican family in Derry and further afield. To the Campbell family we express our sincere sorrow on the loss of their mother.