RIP 'Cormac' – Brian Moore – cartoonist with An Phoblacht/Republican News

BRIAN MOORE, the political and social cartoonist better known to and loved by readers of Republican News and An Phoblacht/Republican News as ‘Cormac’, passed away on Saturday night.

Brian was a republican and a socialist. He supported the struggle for freedom and the Peace Process.

His cartoons were incisive and funny. And for many readers the back page was the first they read to see what gem ‘Notes by Cormac’ held for them.

In the 1970s he published political comics such as Resistance Comics and he contributed to other publications, including the British weekly Socialist Challenge and Fortnight magazine.

Brian was also a song-writer and performer. He founded and was a singer with ‘The People of No Property’.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD has expressed his deep sadness at the death of Brian and he has extended his condolences to Brian’s partner Máire and their son Cormac, to Máire’s son Conor and Brian’s  brothers Gerry and Danny and his sister Maura, and his family circle and friends.

Gerry Adams said:

Brian will be best known to most republicans as the irrepressible and politically perceptive cartoonist Cormac who for many years was a regular feature in Republican News and then in An Phoblacht/Republican News after the papers merged.

His weekly contribution to the paper touched on the big issues of the time: the war, repression, sectarianism, collusion and much more. His cartoons lampooned the British Army and RUC, the British Government and media. If he witnessed injustice he turned his satirist’s pen loose.

His death is a huge loss for his family but also to the wider republican community.

Go ndeanfaidh Dia trocaire air.

October 2003