May Eamon’s NOBLE SOUL REST IN PEACE

Posted By: November 19, 2022

May Eamon’s noble Irish soul rest in peace.

Letters to the Editor. Irish News. Belfast. Saturday, November 19, 2022.

I was deeply sorry and shocked to read about the death of the great Éamon Phoenix, God rest him.

We corresponded by email over the years. He also used to email me all his wonderful ‘On This Day’ articles in The Irish News.

On his first contact, he told me he had once taught at St Michael’s, Enniskillen – and I replied that’s how and why his great intelligence and historical consciousness had been developed and grown.

In one important email, he wrote to tell me about his research on the MacBride Principles, which the Irish National Caucus launched on November 5, 1984. He wrote: “Hi Sean, covering the State papers for the 1980s in the past couple of years I’m struck by the deep fear which your campaign for the MacBride Principles generated in the NIO and among Stormont officials. By 1985 major investors such as Ford, pension fund managers (e.g., Goldin of NY), and even the US Consul in Belfast were voicing grave concerns about discrimination, In response, the NIO dispatched a series of envoys to the US including the Supreme Knights of the Kts of Columbanus, who were deemed to have great sway with US cardinals. But you must know all this.

It’s clear that your efforts played a key role in forcing the equality agenda in the North.

Le meas mor.

Éamon.”

May his noble Irish soul and great Irish mind rest in God’s eternal peace.

FR SEAN McMANUS
President Irish National Caucus, Washington DC