Language activist joined by arresting Garda 30 years on – for 90th birthday

There wasn’t a squad car in sight on Saturday last when writer, artist and Irish language activist Brian Ó Baoill celebrated his 90th birthday at Tigh Chualáin in Indréabhán.

Almost 30 years ago, though, a younger Brian was being brought away in the back of one to serve a two-month sentence in Mountjoy Prison for refusal to pay the Television Licence – protesting the lack of Irish language programming on RTÉ.

And the man who arrested him on that day – his neighbour and friend – Pat O’Connor, a now retired Garda, was there to celebrate with him.

Pat, who lived on the same boreen as Brian at An Teach Mór, Indréabhán, decided in June 1985 that if his neighbour was to be transported to prison, then it was him that had to do it.

If fact Pat was on holidays and came back especially as he didn’t want Brian to be handled and transported by other Garda strangers – a kind gesture that both men remembered fondly as Brian marked his milestone birthday.

Brian would eventually spend a week in prison; the first few days in Mountjoy, before being transferred to Loughan House open prison in Co Cavan, where he received a welcoming party from a number of other Connemara men who were at the same facility.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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