Martin O'Brien

A privilege to have worked with Rev Harold Good and Red Stripe Press/Orpen on this exciting revealing book.

youtube.com/watch?v=6kN3So… My Conversation with Bishop Alan McGuckian SJ @DownandConnor at The Saint Patrick Centre, Downpatrick making front page headlines in the latest edition of The Irish Catholic @IrishCathNews out today. @MichaelPTKelly #TheSaintPatrickCentre

Looking forward to my Conversation with @mikenesbittni our Health Minister, Strangord MLA & former @uuponline leader (and former @bbcradioulster @BBCnireland colleague) Thursday next the Saint Patrick Centre Downpatrick 7.30 pm.

This is the obituary I wrote of Joe Byrne, (pictured below) my precious and dearly missed friend from @QUBelfast days in Lives Remembered in @irish_news on Saturday last February 14. A SELFLESS SERVANT OF THE PUBLIC, A QUIET PATRIOT AND LOYAL FRIEND Joe Byrne, from Killyclogher, just outside Omagh, was a selfless public servant and educationalist, devoted husband and father, quiet patriot, loyal friend and person of deep faith. Having been elected to the Northern Ireland Forum for West Tyrone, he was a member of the SDLP team that negotiated the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and went on to serve in the Assembly for two terms and as a founder member of the Policing Board. Before his election to Stormont, Joe had already made his mark in local government. He was elected to Omagh District Council for two consecutive terms, serving as vice-chair in 1994-95 and chair in 1997-98. Joe was one of my dearest friends for more than 50 years, ever since we met as fresher members of Queen’s University GFC in November 1973. He was always there for me throughout all the ups and downs, we were frequently on the phone and met up often, and his death leaves a terrible emptiness, not to mention the heartbreaking loss felt by Ursula, his wife of 41 years, his daughters Aoife, a GP, Emer, an orthodontist, and son Eoin, a doctor abroad, and other close family including his brother PJ and sister Geraldine. Mark Joseph Byrne (always known as Joe) was born in Garvagh, Aghyaran parish near Castlederg, Co Tyrone in 1953, the eldest of three children of Patsy Byrne, a confectionery salesman, and his wife Mary Alice (née McNamee). He was educated at Laght primary school, St Eugene’s secondary in Castlederg and Christian Brothers grammar, Omagh before graduating in economics from Queen’s University, subsequently qualifying as a teacher from St Joseph’s Training College, Belfast. Joe secured his first teaching post at St Colman’s secondary in Strabane, the town to where his family had moved in the early 1970s. He was appointed to a lectureship in economics in Omagh Tech in 1979, where he met his future wife, Ursula O’Reilly from Lisnaskea, on their first day as teachers there. Joe was keenly interested in current affairs, and politics especially, from his early teens and read The Irish Times and The Irish News daily. Always eschewing a violent course, he was encouraged by Ivan Cooper to join the SDLP in the mid-1980s, becoming active in the Omagh branch as he and Ursula had made their home nearby. He served the SDLP ably, diligently and loyally in various positions, including councillor, MLA, Policing Board member, party executive member and chair, for more than a quarter of a century, a loyalty that perhaps could have been more fully reciprocated. In the 1997 Westminster election, Joe came within 1,161 votes of unseating the UUP in West Tyrone but did not contest again in 2001. Within months of his election to the first post-GFA Assembly he witnessed the horror of the Omagh bomb, an outrage that shocked and angered him to the core, telling the Assembly: “As a public representative of the people of Omagh, I have to ask ‘What kind of patriotism is this? What kind of humanity allows the bombing of a crowded civilian shopping scene, such as Market Street, Omagh?’” In 2011, by dint of incredible hard work and, as Joe put it, “wearing out shoe leather” on the canvass, he defied political gravity by regaining for the SDLP the Assembly seat he had lost in 2003, that setback due mainly to the phenomenal amount of time he was devoting to the Policing Board in his passion to deliver a police service all could embrace. Joe was a passionate GAA man and Tyrone supporter all his life, showing early signs of his outstanding leadership qualities when, as a second year, he coached Queen’s Freshers to their historic All-Ireland football league and championship double in 1976, serving also as a highly capable club treasurer. And shortly after Queen’s, as a founder member of the modern Strabane Sigersons, he was coaching the full range of youth teams as well as a succession of teams at Omagh Tech. Fr Kevin McElhennon said in his funeral homily: “What mattered more to Joe than medals or results was how sport was played… as a place of formation as much as competition – a place where discipline, teamwork, fairness and respect are learned.” He recalled that Joe said the Prayer to St Joseph every day, adding: “His faith didn’t remove struggle from his life, but it gave him the courage to live with integrity and to endure without bitterness.” Joe Byrne died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease in Altnagelvin Hospital, Derry on December 30 at the age of 72. May his gentle soul rest in peace. Martin O’Brien

Just to say you may like to read my obituary of Joe Byrne RIP, 🙏🕯my beloved friend of 52 years, in Lives Remembered in @irish_news tomorrrow ( Saturday February 14).

"Almost 40 years after he served a total of nearly five years as taoiseach, in two periods – June 1981 to March 1982 and December 1982 to March 1987 – it can be shown that Garret FitzGerald's impact was of historic significance and his influence on our political arrangements continues today and will do so into the foreseeable future." A century after the birth of Garret FitzGerald to revolutionary parents from Belfast and London, Martin O’Brien writes that his greatest legacy is the Anglo-Irish Agreement and its enduring impact 40 years on. Read more: tinyurl.com/c29vxjr9

I’ve rarely met anyone with a family history to that of Harold and his wife Clodagh both of whose families were from the ROI. They had more than a brush with the political forces of the day dating back to the Pre-Treaty and Post - Treaty era. Harold in turn as a clergyman ended up face to face with Republican & Loyalist elements as far back as the mid Sixties. @sharon_scoop @SiobhanMc80 @williamcrawley @HughGillanders @harrycullen @ErvineLinda @BBCGarethG @Robinson_Linds @SorchaEastwood

Catch in @irish_news today my article marking the centenary of the birth of Dr Garret FitzGerald former Taoiseach @GovIE @dfatirl @FineGael

Yes, @MichaelPTKelly, so well said. John RIP was a Titan and unrivaled. Fondest memories of our encounters, especially in my @BBCNI days. Deepest sympathy to Elise and all his sorrowing friends and colleagues. 🙏🙏🕯🕯

@MichaelPTKelly RIP Fr Adrian 🙏🕯

It’s 25 years today since my friend Fr Adrian Porter was killed in a road accident. He was only 28, had been ordained less than a year and ended up being buried in his ordination vestments. May he intercede for us from Heaven.

A week has passed since we bade farewell to Joe Byrne, R.I.P. my beloved friend of 52 years. That was on Saturday last , January 3, following his death in Altnagelvin Hospital, Derry on December 30. [See my tribute in an earlier post with a slightly longer version on my Facebook page. ]. I am still struggling to come to terms with his loss. But I recall with a sense of thanksgiving that the large congregation who had braved the wintry weather to attend Joe's Requiem Mass in Saint Mary's Church Killyclogher outside Omagh heard Fr Kevin McElhennon P.P. Cappagh Parish @TheDerryDiocese deliver a powerful homily that did justice to Joe and provide some comfort to Ursula, his wife of 41 years, daughters Aoife and Emer, son Eoin, sister Geraldine, brother PJ, other family members and friends. A recording can be viewed via the Saint Mary's Killyclgher Cappagh Parish webcam. I felt deeply honoured and privileged to be asked by Ursula to read from Scripture at the Requiem Mass alongside Joe's nephew, Bernard. The attendance included the Leader of the Opposition at Stormont, Matthew O'Toole MLA @MatthewOToole2; Daniel McCrossan MLA, a one-time aide to Joe; former SDLP leaders Mark Durkan @markdurkan and Alasdair McDonnell @AlMcDonnellSB; former NI Policing Board Vice-Chairman Denis Bradley and many of Joe's fellow past members of Queen's University Gaelic Football Club @QueensGAA. In his homily (full text below) Fr McElhennan described Joe as "a man of integrity - thoughtful, capable and kind." Joe had entered public life at a time " when division came easily, when mistrust hardened quickly, when complex problems were often reduced to sharp word, fixed positions, and hardened signs. Joe chose another way " Joe had met Ursula at the then Omagh Tech where they had joined the staff on the same day and where he was "an engaging and committed teacher, but more than that he was an encourager, he wanted the best for his students." Fr Kevin recalled Joe's service as a Gaelic football coach at both Queen's University Belfast and the Sigerson's Club in Strabane. "...sport was never separate from the rest of Joe's life. It was another place where he practiced the same values - commitment, fairness, patience, encouragement". "At the heart of Joe's life was faith, not showy, not loud but real.He practiced our the faithfully in his parish until illness made it difficult for him...His faithdidn't remove struggle from his life, but it gave him the courageto live with integrity and to endure without bitterness." Homily delivered by Fr Kevin McElhennon PP at the Requiem Mass for JOE BYRNE R.I.P. Saturday 3 January 2026 "From the moment you met Joe, you sensed there was substance about him. He was a man of integrity – thoughtful, capable and kind. Someone who made the world around him steadier and better simply by the way he lived within it. · If we say that the measure of a person’s life is not in what they keep, but in what they give, then Joe’s life was rich and full, marked by generosity, wisdom, and an unwavering belief in others. As we heard in that Second Reading from the Second Letter of Saint Paul to Timothy read by Martin [O'Brien] Saint Paul says: I have fought the good fight. That line is often quoted, but it is rarely reflected upon. And it matters that Paul doesn’t say, I have fought many fights, or even I have fought hard. He says, I have fought the ‘good fight’. Not every fight is a ‘good fight’. Some fights are driven by anger. Some by pride. Some by fear. Some by the need to win at any cost. A ‘good fight’ is different. A good fight is worth fighting because it serves something larger than ourselves. It is shaped as much by restraint as by conviction. It requires patience, endurance, and the willingness to stay engaged, even when walking away or hardening ourselves against our opponent would be easier. A good fight is fought without hatred, without the need to humiliate, without closing the door to possibility or the future. Only at the end of a life lived in faith, virtue, and integrity can someone look back and honestly say: this was a ‘good fight’. Joe Byrne fought that kind of fight. And perhaps we need to reflect anew on what it means to fight the good fight – especially today, as our world and global politics too often descends perilously into vulgarity, spite, cruelty, personal attack and division. Joe entered public life in the north of Ireland during years when there were many fights, and not all of them were good ones. These were years when division came easily, when mistrust hardened quickly, when complex problems were often reduced to sharp words, fixed positions, and hardened sides. Joe chose another way. From an early age, he had a hunger to understand the world and to understand people. As a young boy, before getting on the bus each day to travel to the Christian Brothers Grammar School in Omagh, he would stop to buy a copy of The Irish Times. This tells us something important about Joe. As a young boy, and later as an adult, he was curious, attentive, serious about ideas, and serious about responsibility. That hunger to learn, to understand, to know more, carried him to Queen’s University Belfast to study Economics – not as an abstract discipline or a career path to personal advancement or possible riches, but as a way of understanding how society works, how opportunity is shaped, and how justice or injustice takes root in real lives. It shaped him as a teacher at Omagh Tech, as it was then known. Joe was an engaging and committed teacher. But more than that, he was an encourager. He wanted the best for his students. He believed in their potential. He took genuine pleasure in seeing others do well and move forward in life. That instinct, to build up rather than diminish, stayed with him throughout his life. It was at Omagh Tech that Joe met Ursula. They joined the staff on the same day, and from that shared beginning grew a marriage of 41 years. Joe was a devoted and faithful husband, a loving father to Aoife, Emer and Eoin, and a caring brother to Geraldine and PJ. Whatever else he became – teacher, councillor, politician – this is who he was first and foremost. Behind Joe’s public life stood a marriage of loyalty, partnership and shared faith. A marriage that endured not only the pressures of public responsibility but the long demanding road of illness. That same character was evident in Joe’s involvement in sport, particularly Gaelic football. As a young man, Joe was deeply involved with Sigersons Club in Strabane and Queen’s University GAA Club, and many will remember him coaching the Queen’s Freshers team to an historic All-Ireland League and Championship double in 1976. But what mattered more to Joe than medals or results was how sport was played. He understood sport as a place of formation as much as competition – a place where discipline, teamwork, fairness and respect are learned. As coach, he encouraged without belittling, demanded standards without humiliating, and knew that character is built, strengthened and tested under pressure. In that sense, sport was never separate from the rest of Joe’s life. It was another place where he practiced the same values – commitment, fairness, patience, encouragement. Another way he invested in and encouraged people. Another expression of the ‘good fight’. When Joe entered politics, he did so because he believed it mattered, and because he believed it could be done with integrity. Elected to Omagh District Council in 1993, later serving as chairman, then to the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996, and to the Assembly as MLA for West Tyrone, Joe served during some of the most difficult and formative years in our recent history. He played a significant and important part in the slow, demanding work that led to peace – work that required patience and openness rather than digging in, listening rather than shouting, perseverance rather than triumphalism. As a member and Chairperson of the SDLP, and through his work on the Policing Board, Joe played his part in advancing dialogue and building trust. He believed that politics should serve people, not dominate them. He stood for workers’ rights, equal rights, and social justice. He spoke for rural communities, for education, for agriculture, and for those who felt overlooked. Joe had a strong sense of fairness. He believed the right thing mattered and had to be done, even when it was inconvenient or costly. It mattered to him that communities thrived, whether through local businesses, education, or projects like the Boys and Girls Club here in Omagh. He wanted people, especially the young, to have a future. When it came to giving people a future, Joe believed that people should not be imprisoned forever by their past, by their mistakes, or by their worst moments. He didn’t bear grudges. He believed in moving forward, moving on to a better place and better relationships. In a divided society, that is a considerable achievement – a moral one. Joe’s later years revealed the depth of his character. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease fifteen years ago, he endured its effects with determination and dignity. He didn’t complain. He adapted. He continued for as long as he could. Yes, illness limited what he could do, but it didn’t empty his life of meaning. When Pope Francis came to Ireland in 2018, despite the physical cost to him, Joe was determined to be there. Parking far away from the Phoenix Park, struggling to walk, he pressed on. As they say, ‘once the hand is laid to the plough’. That was Joe. It wasn’t stubbornness. It was fidelity. At the heart of Joe’s life was faith, not showy, not loud, but real. He practiced our faith faithfully in this parish until illness made it difficult for him. He was a man of prayer – community, personal and family prayer. He said the Prayer to Saint Joseph every day. His faith didn’t remove struggle from his life, but it gave him the courage to live with integrity and to endure without bitterness. The Gospel today [Matt. 25:31-46] brings everything into focus. Jesus does not judge by office held or influence exercised. He judges by how power is used, by care of the hungry, the stranger, the sick, the prisoner, and the vulnerable. For anyone involved in politics, this Gospel is surely demanding. It insists that public life is not measured merely by success, but even more by service; not by victory, but by care for the human person. It calls for politicians who advance human dignity at every stage of life – born and unborn, young and old, healthy and infirm. It calls for politicians with a moral compass and a consistent moral vision – guided by conscience and the Gospel rather than convenience. It calls for politicians who don’t simply shift with the winds of circumstance, popularity, or the fashions of the day. For fashions pass and trends fade, leaving the person who embraced them out of touch tomorrow, when new winds blow – as they surely, and always, will !!! As William Ralph Inge wisely said: whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next. Joe understood this. His political life was principled, patient, and focused on the common good. That is what makes it a ‘good fight’. Today, we give thanks to God for Joe Byrne, for the man he was, for the integrity with which he lived, for the faith that sustained him, and for the legacy he leaves in family, community and public life. May Joe rest in peace. May he see God face to face. And may his life continue to challenge and encourage us all.

At a personal level I am afraid it is a very sad end to 2025.share   a very sad end to 2025.  I am deeply  grieved by the death late last night  of my very  close friend of more than fifty years, Joe Byrne RIP.  A loyal and dear friend, a person of unimpeachable integrity, who loved his God and his neighbour, Joe has now passed to his eternal reward. I offer my heartfelt condolences to  Ursula, his wife, and their daughters Aoife and Emer and son, Eoin, and to Joe’s sister Geraldine, brother PJ and all their family and friends. Joe had been fighting Parkinson’s for around fifteen years. And the courage he displayed after that diagnosis  while still serving as an indefatigable [SDLP]   MLA for West Tyrone   until his retirement from public life,  and in more recent years  right up to his final illness this autumn past,   was an inspiration. It was a privilege to be able to spend very precious time with him  and Ursula at home and in hospital in the last  weeks and months of his life   and especially with my wife Katie at his bedside  in the hours  very shortly before his death in the Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry  at the cruelly premature age of 72. There will be other occasions I am sure when Joe’s outstanding record of public service as  inter alia a GAA youth coach, a District Councillor, MLA, founding member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, etc  will be properly chronicled,  not to mention his gifts as an educationalist exemplified  in his  years as a  lecturer in economics at  Omagh FE College. But I will not be the only Queen’s Seventies alumnus to dwell in particular on his achievement in coaching Queen’s GFC  Freshers to an historic All-Ireland League and Championship Double in the spring of 1976, ably assisted by  Paul Cooper and Gavin Boyd.   Joe and I  first got to know  each other as fellow Freshers and members of Queen’s Gaelic Football Club in the autumn of 1973 and  we have been deep friends ever since, chatting  on the phone several times a week, often daily, and experiencing, enjoying and enduring the ups and downs that life inevitably brings over five decades and more.  Frequent catchups over lunch, and especially during the holidays in Mullaghmore were as stimulating as they were precious.  In recent years, not least during the lockdowns,  Joe was a constant supportive presence from his Killyclogher fastness during the writing of Rev Harold Good’s memoir “In Good Time” and I will always treasure and be grateful for  how he fought frailty to attend its launch by Dr Mary McAleese that evening in the Great Hall in Queen’s  over a year ago.   When Ursula told me the heartbreaking yet inevitable news of his death shortly after he peacefully  breathed his last  I prayed for the repose of Joe’s soul and gave thanks for the gift of his life  by reading The Office of The Dead  from The Divine Office. As it was now very early morning I chose the Office from Morning Prayer where the Scripture Reading is as powerful as it is short. It is from 1 Thess 4:14 :- “We believe that Jesus died and rose again; so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have died believing in him.” How fitting. May Joe rest in peace and see God face to face.

@JP_Biz John, it was a privilege to be there & although I didn't have the pleasure of knowing Fiona RIP I felt I did having heard your beautiful tender eulogy and the touching words of Deacon Pat in his homily.🙏🕯

Thank you to everyone who attended Fiona’s memorial today & the many people who have contacted me & Max in recent days. This was Fiona on 20th December last year at our annual Christmas lunch.

@skydavidblevins Enjoy your break David. What an exciting time to be in DC ! . Will be following your always authoriative reports intently in coming year.

Stick the kettle on in County Armagh. I'll be back in Washington to do it all over again in 2026, but for now, the green isle is calling. What a year. Yes, it's been a whole year! 🛫🏠🎄

Congratulations dear friend .Richly deserved. Always feel privileged you asked me to co-write your Memoir "In Good Time" Red Stripe Press @OrpenPress .Now in third reprint! A great socking filler available where books are sold or by clicking Amazon #AislingAwards #InGoodTime

Warmest congratulations to my old friend from @QUBelfast days, Co. Down native Jim McElroy. And thanks to @IEAmbLisbon & @LitIreland for supporting him.

Looking forward to my Conversation with Miami Showband survivor Des Lee in #TheSaintPatrickCentre Downpatrick on Thurs Nov 27 at 7.30pm. Des will sign copies of his gripping memoir "My Saxaphone Saved My Life" Red Stripe Press @OrpenPress Tickets from the Centre. All welcome.

For and Against a United Ireland reviewed by @hayward_katy for The Irish Times: "O’Toole and McBride set out to demonstrate a core principle of liberal democracy: that free and reasoned deliberation can help ensure good quality, consensual outcomes." irishtimes.com/culture/books/…

Looking forward very much to my Conversation with renowned advocate and provider for the homeless, Fr Peter McVerry S.J. in The Saint Patrick Centre Downpatrick on Thursday October 23rd at 7.30 pm. Join me if you can. Ticket details below. #saintpatrickcentre

Rev Harold Good & I offer BIG THANK YOU to Retired Teachers Association NI who invited us to discuss Harold's pageturner Memoir @OrpenPress Red Stripe Press at their AGM in Glenavon Hotel Cookstown y'day. What a large welcoming audience ! Thanks to TP Sheehy Bookseller C'town for selling so many #InGoodTime.

Delighted to see such a large crowd attend Rev Harold Good discuss his memoir "In Good Time" he co-wrote with me Red Stripe Press @OrpenPress with @MarkHennessy @IrishTimes in Rathgar Methodist Church last night. Our book now in THIRD reprint. There will be a 4th soon if sales like last night are repeated. More events to follow soon in Cookstown & Rostrevor. #InGoodTime