>From the Irish News, October 9 http://www.irishnews.com Derry republican remembered ======================= By Aeneas Bonner SEVERAL hundred people attended the unveiling of a memorial in Derry's Bogside yesterday to veteran republican Sean Keenan, who died in 1993. Republican Sinn Fein president Ruairi O'Bradaigh described him as a "dedicated revolutionary" - who he said would have rejected the Good Friday agreement and a "new-look" RUC. An 8ft limestone memorial was unveiled at St Columb's Well, under Derry's walls, by the late Mr Keenan's daughters Roisin and Nora. A 10-member colour party, an accordion band and a piper also took part in the ceremony, which was presided over by RSF Ulster chairwoman Mary Ward. Keenan (78), a GAA referee and Irish language enthusiast, became chairman of the Derry Citizens' Defence Association on its formation in 1969. He spent 15 years in three periods of internment on the prison ships Al Rawdah and Maidstone, in jails in Derry and Belfast, and in Long Kesh. In the late 1980s he was made honorary vice-president of RSF. His wife, Nancy, an internee in Armagh jail in the early 1940s, died in 1970. His son Colm was shot dead by British troops during an IRA patrol of Derry. Mr O'Bradaigh said the bulk of yesterday's crowd was made up of Republican Sinn Fein, but there were also IRSP and Provisional Sinn Fein supporters present. He told them the memorial would "stand in eternal reproach to anyone who would seek to postpone the day of Irish freedom". ________________________________________________________________________
