CounterPunch: Boris Kagarlitsky Awarded 2025 Seán MacBride Peace Prize: ‘Courage endures where repression tries to break the human spirit’
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Seán MacBride
Seán MacBride was an Irish republican activist, politician, and diplomat who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff of the IRA from 1936 to 1937. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1947 to 1957.
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culture · Irish republican activist, politician, and diplomat (1904–1988) · diplomat · politician · journalist · barrister · lawyer · also Seán MacBride, Sean MacBride, MacBride
Born 26 January 1904 · Died 15 January 1988 · Q244395
39 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 1 entry
1995· 1 entry
(revised edition 2002) by Éamon Delaney in which the eponymous Mr O'Shaughnessy was, in the author's own words "partly, but quite obviously, based on the career of the colourful Seán MacBride"
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1988· 1 entry
Died 1988-01-15.
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1985· 1 entry
Supported the largely female workforce in the Dunnes Stores Strike and attended at least one of their rallies
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1984· 1 entry
MacBride was one of four well-known Irish activists, two Catholics and two Protestants, who endorsed a set of fair-employment guidelines for American investment in Northern Ireland, intended to redress a history of secta
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1983· 1 entry
MacBride voted yes to the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, enshrining the legal ban on abortion, and wrote a newspaper article two days before stating his position
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1982· 1 entry
MacBride was chairman of the International Commission to enquire into reported violations of International Law by Israel during its invasion of the Lebanon
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1980· 1 entry
This produced the controversial MacBride Report which called for policies to reduce the international dominance of the Western media
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1977· 2 entries
In the midst of the Northern Ireland Troubles, MacBride, co-operating with Desmond Boal (QC and former chairman of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party), acted as joint mediator in confidential negotiations between th
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MacBride was appointed president of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, set up by UNESCO
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1974· 3 entries
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Peace — for his efforts to secure and develop human rights throughout the world.
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Awarded Nobel Peace Prize (1974).
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The Lenin Peace Prize for 1975–1976 and the UNESCO Silver Medal for Service in 1980
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1973· 1 entry
Was elected by the UN General Assembly to the post of High Commissioner for Namibia, with the rank of Assistant Secretary-General
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1968· 1 entry
MacBride was elected chair and, in 1975, president of the International Peace Bureau in Geneva, a position he retained until 1985
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1966· 1 entry
His standing on the Commission was unsuccessfully challenged by US claims that he had been involved with a Central Intelligence Agency funding operation
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1963· 1 entry
Had helped draft the constitution of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU); following consultations on the constitutions of newly independent Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania
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1961· 1 entry
MacBride was a co-founder of Amnesty International, and he served as its International Chairman until 1975
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1954· 2 entries
Career landmark: Teachta Dála (1954–1956).
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Career landmark: substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (1954–1957).
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1951· 3 entries
MacBride ordered Noël Browne to resign as a minister over the Mother and Child Scheme after it was attacked by the Irish Catholic hierarchy and the Irish medical establishment
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Career landmark: Teachta Dála (1951–1954).
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Clann na Poblachta was reduced to two seats after the general election
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1950· 1 entry
MacBride was president of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Council of Europe, and he was vice-president of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC, later OECD) in 1948–1951
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1948· 2 entries
Career landmark: Teachta Dála (1948–1951).
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Career landmark: Minister for Foreign Affairs (Ireland) (1948–1951).
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1947· 1 entry
Career landmark: Teachta Dála (1947–1947).
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1946· 2 entries
During the inquest into the death of Seán McCaughey, MacBride embarrassed the Irish State by forcing them to admit that conditions in Portlaoise Prison were inhumane
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MacBride founded the republican socialist party Clann na Poblachta
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1937· 1 entry
MacBride was called to the bar
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1936· 1 entry
The IRA's chief of staff Moss Twomey was sent to prison for three years; he was replaced by MacBride
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1929· 1 entry
An Irish section of the League Against Imperialism was formed and MacBride served as its secretary
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1927· 2 entries
Was arrested and charged with the murder of politician Kevin O'Higgins, who had been assassinated near his home in Booterstown, County Dublin
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Where he became the IRA's Director of Intelligence, MacBride worked as a journalist in Paris and London
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1924· 1 entry
MacBride studied law at University College Dublin and resumed his IRA activities
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1919· 1 entry
Aged 15, he lied about his age to join the Irish Volunteers, which fought as part of the Irish Republican Army, and took part in the Irish War of Independence
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1916· 1 entry
When he was sent to school at Mount St Benedict's, Gorey, County Wexford in Ireland, and briefly at the Downside School
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1904· 2 entries
Born 1904-01-26.
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The son of Maud Gonne and Major John MacBride
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