{"id":486758,"date":"2026-05-15T22:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486758\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T22:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:56:17","slug":"catholic-priest-says-questions-remain-about-police-and-mi5-silence-on-sean-brown-murder-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486758\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic priest says questions remain about police and MI5 silence on Sean Brown murder \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A priest who officiated at the funeral of murdered GAA official Sean Brown believes questions remain about why police Special Branch and MI5 continue to withhold information about the sectarian murder. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Monsignor Andy Dolan has broken his silence in a new book about the abduction and brutal murder of the 61-year-old as he locked up at Bellaghy GAA club on May 12, 1997.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u2018A Bitter Harvest: the good life and unresolved murder of a Derry GAA man\u2019 is penned by former Irish News journalist Garbh\u00e1n Downey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">More than 25 people have been linked by intelligence to the murder, including state agents.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/mo-chara-court-case-live-kneecap-rapper-to-find-out-if-terror-charge-will-be-thrown-out-BV3HTFOTE5AQVIFZW5E4OXBNR4\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Mo Chara court case LIVE: Kneecap rapper terror charge thrown out after &#x2018;technical error&#x2019;\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778885776_350_LS75QCFJNRDEPK5NYYT3NROWEE.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/who-is-lady-ballyedmond-former-solicitor-named-northern-irelands-richest-person-in-2026-4HEJAGS3DFASPBS3TSCM5OLAEE\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Who is Lady Ballyedmond? Former solicitor named Northern Ireland&#x2019;s richest person in 2026\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ERAT2HBHUJPINDMCUXYA7UF3DQ.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"&#x2018;A Bitter Harvest: the Good Life and unresolved murder of a Derry GAA man&#x2019; has been penned by former Irish News journalist Garbh&#xE1;n Downey\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/YBPAPKOAJRDSXALLYJOGAVDXPA.png\"  width=\"800\" height=\"527\"\/>\u2018A Bitter Harvest: the Good Life and unresolved murder of a Derry GAA man\u2019 has been penned by former Irish News journalist Garbh\u00e1n Downey <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">An inquest into Mr Brown\u2019s death was abandoned by a coroner in 2024 because of a refusal by state agencies to provide information about his murder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Monsignor Dolan officiated at Mr Brown\u2019s funeral, where he first raised concerns \u201cthe RUC investigation into Se\u00e1n\u2019s death would be fatally compromised\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Now, almost 30 years later, the highly regarded priest believes \u201cthere had to have been collusion\u201d and described the investigation into Mr Brown\u2019s death as \u201ctotal and deliberate neglect\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Monsignor Dolan highlighted the state\u2019s continued refusal to produce information about the murder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThere are so many questions to be answered about the investigation \u2013 and how that policing \u2018family\u2019 of the Special Branch and MI5 are still withholding details of what happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The cleric highlighted the role of MI5 and its control over policing in the north.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cHow can MI5 be allowed primacy over the PSNI while they continue to hide what they knew here? he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWe need to trust our guardians and for that they have to be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Monsignor Dolan said Mr Brown\u2019s case \u201cepitomises the worst of it all, which is why it is so important it is resolved\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI have to say, I am not entirely confident, however,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThey are old hands at this and have always been able to stick it out. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThey can be a bit nasty too as many other countries in the world can testify.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A priest who officiated at the funeral of murdered GAA official Sean Brown believes questions remain about why&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,212510,18479,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-486758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-sean-brown","19":"tag-the-troubles","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news","24":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116581066084895033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}