The Ard Chomhairle, Sinn Féin Poblachtach, extends deepest sympathy to the family, especially his sons, Michael and Brendan, and friends of Brendan McLaughlin, Derry, Blanketman and Hunger Striker, who died on December 8.

Brendan joined the Republican Movement in 1969. He was a very active Volunteer who went on the run in the early 1970s. He served a prison sentence in Portlaoise jail in 1974. In 1976 he was arrested in Greysteel, Co Derry along with two comrades and after nine months on remand in Crumlin Road jail was sentenced to 12 years and sent to the H-Blocks of Long Kesh where he immediately went on the Blanket.

He was in H5 in an adjoining cell to Joe Mc Donnell. In May 1981 he was selected to replace Francis Hughes, who died on May 15, 1981, on the hunger strike. Within a week Brendan developed a stomach ulcer and was moved to the prison hospital where Ray McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara were dying. He was subsequently removed to the military wing of Musgrave Park prison hospital in Belfast. He was forced to come off the hunger strike after 14 days after being given 24 hours to live. After spending some months under armed guard, he was returned to the H-Blocks after the conclusion of the hunger strike.

Brendan never took a visit when he was in prison. He was released on November 5, 1984. Five months after his release he lost his brother Michael and he started a band in his honour – the Michael McLaughlin Flute Band.

Following the 1986 Ard-Fheis Brendan stayed with Sinn Féin Poblachtach and has remained a faithful Republican since. Former comrades were greedy for money and power and sacrificed the struggle with little thought for all the young men and women lying in their early graves.

Brendan suffered a stroke in April 1999 and has remained in a wheelchair since but he attended Easter commemorations in Derry every year. He was a well-known sight at the annual H-Block Armagh commemoration in Bundoran, Co Donegal every August, including this year. He was the 2007 Cabhair honoree for Ulster.

I measc laochra na bhFíníní go raibh sé.

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