25 people including state agents linked to sectarian murder

By Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent
April 13, 2026 at 5:01pm BST
c.young@irishnews.com

THE daughter of murdered GAA official Sean Brown has said her family believes he was identified as a loyalist murder target at a local level.

Clare Loughran revealed her family’s suspicions during a briefing with a delegation from the US branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians on Monday.

Members of the order travelled to Bellaghy in Co Derry to meet the Brown family at the Wolf Tones GAA club yesterday.

Those in attendance included Mr Brown’s 88-year-old widow Bridie and his brother Chris, who is well known in GAA circles across Ireland.

A former Bellaghy GAC chairman, Mr Brown was attacked and beaten as he locked the gates at the club before being abducted and later shot dead by members of the Loyalist Volunteer Force near Randalstown, Co Antrim, on May 12, 1997.

It has long been suspected that the murder gang, which is believed to have included LVF members from outside the south Derry area, also had help from local loyalists.

It is known that an RUC surveillance operation on Mark ‘Swinger’ Fulton, a notorious Mid Ulster LVF member, was halted the night before the murder and picked up again the following morning.

Addressing the 43-strong AOH delegation, Ms Loughran spoke of local involvement.

“We are quite a small rural community, we really keep ourselves to ourselves…. the people that did this are not from this local area directly, they are from quite far away,” she said.

“So, we think there has to have been somebody local here that identified him as a target because, why else would they have come to Bellaghy?”

Earlier yesterday, another of Mr Brown’s daughters, Siobhan Brown, accompanied the delegation along the route believed to have been used by the LVF murder squad after her father was abducted.

Members of Sean Brown’s family meet with a delegation of the AOH under the Páirc Seán de Brún arch at the GAA pitch named after the father-of-six and GAA stalwart, inset, who was was abducted from the club in Bellaghy and murdered by the Loyalist Volunteer Force in 1997.

More than 25 people have been linked by intelligence to the murder, including several state agents.

An abandoned 2024 inquest revealed that a murder suspect was believed to be a serving member of the Royal Irish Regiment, while another held a personal protection weapon and was regularly visited by a police officer at his home.

To date, five high court judges, including one acting as a coroner, have supported calls by the Brown family for a public inquiry.

Secretary of State Hilary Benn has refused to grant a public inquiry and is challenging previous legal rulings at the Supreme Court in London.

AOH delegates, which included US legal figures, were joined by members of the GAA and political representatives as Ms Loughran told how one file provided by British authorities during the abandoned inquest contained 58 completely redacted pages.

“We are still left with the case of my mother, now in her 89th year, is going to be dragged to the Supreme Court,” she said.

“This case is crucial, not only because of the issue of legacy justice for all families is crucial, but if they can’t give a gist of the truth to the family of Sean Brown, a GAA official who was murdered because he is an outstanding representative of the Irish community in Bellaghy…then no-one is going to get the truth,” AOH spokesman Martin Galvin said.

“We are going to put as much pressure as we can to say that to the British, to say that in Congress, to say that across the country as many times as it takes.”

Alan Brecknell from the Pat Finucane Centre, which has supported the Brown family, also addressed the delegation along with Sinn Féin MP Cathal Mallaghan and SDLP councillor Denise Johnston.

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