Martin Galvin serves as National Freedom-for-all-Ireland Chairman and has been a prominent American advocate of Irish national freedom for more than four decades.
In 1979 as H-Block protests in Long Kesh were moving to a crisis, he was named National Publicity Director of Irish Northern Aid, and led nationwide American support for the Blanketmen and then Hunger Strikers, arranging speakers and coordinating demonstrations which were a major contribution to the victory of the Hunger Strikers. He also became the editor of the IRISH PEOPLE weekly newspaper in 1979, the “Voice of Irish Republicanism in America” now online at Indiana University and archived at New York University. He held both positions for 15 years.
He is frequently invited to give major speeches in Ireland, including Bodenstown, Easter Commemorations in Derry, Tyrone, and Donegal, Ballymurphy Martyrs Commemoration and Internment Day rallies Belfast, the Liam Ryan commemoration in Tyrone, Crossbarry Commemoration in Cork, Brendan Hughes lecture and the George McBrearty Commemoration in Derry.
He testified as an expert witness on the MacBride Principles and other Irish issues in Congress and State Legislatures of New York, Illinois, Connecticut, and New Jersey, as well as many city councils.
He became a frequent panelist for Irish Candidates Forums and as a panelist for the Irish American Presidential Forum in 1992, he asked then candidate Clinton the groundbreaking question about granting a visa to Gerry Adams and ending visa censorship against Irish Republicans.
He has been a featured guest on ABC’s “Nightline”, NBC’s “Today”, CNN, PBS as well as Irish, and British television networks. People magazine called Mr. Galvin the foremost advocate for the Irish Republican cause in America. The British government banned him from the six counties in 1984. When Mr. Galvin was called to address a peaceful rally in Belfast, by Gerry Adams, British forces brutally murdered one man – John Downes, and injured scores more.
RTE journalists went on a 48-hour strike to protest government refusal to allow an interview with him, after Mr. Galvin defied the ban to carry a coffin alongside Martin McGuinness in 1985. In 1989 Mr. Galvin walked through Derry publicly with Martin McGuinness, was arrested by British crown forces and flown to England, briefly imprisoned then shipped back on a military plane to the United States. Britain then withdrew the ban.
As an attorney Mr. Galvin fought immigration court battles for, former Irish Republican prisoners now in the United States with their American wives and children, and won the ruling that AOH member and former political prisoner Brian Pearson could not be deported because the IRA was engaged in a legitimate struggle against British rule not terrorism. This verdict helped secure a settlement of the cases against several of the Irish Political Deportees. He has also campaigned for recently deported AOH member Malachy McAllister.
Mr. Galvin was a leader of the GERRY McGEOUGH FAMILY CAMPAIGN, attending Belfast Court proceedings by which the British in February 2011 jailed the Tyrone Republican and former Tyrone County AOH President, for a 1981 incident, in retaliation for his election campaign. In 2015 his selection as Aide to the Grand Marshal Cardinal Dolan of the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade is credited with forcing the unwanted British PSNI Constabulary to withdraw from the parade.
From 2015,through 2018,Mr. Galvin co-hosted RADIO FREE EIREANN, a weekly Irish political program heard noon Saturdays in New York on station WBAI 99.5fm which was heard across the country and in Ireland through live-streaming on WBAI.ORG.
He is currently Bronx County President, former Bronx Division 5 President and current New York State FFAI Chairman.
FFAI Report – Jan/Feb/Mar 2025
Labour And British Legacy Cover-Up
It is remarkable that the British Labour Party regime has so thoroughly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on legacy justice, by adopting the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery Commission left behind by Conservatives. Labour merely had to honor its “repeal and replace” pledge, to secure the good will of victims, six county political parties and the Irish government. Instead, Labour embraced the ICRIR, the centerpiece of the Conservative Legacy Act, and with it the blame for decisions like denying Sean Brown’s widow the public inquiry ordered by the Court.
It was fitting that the Legacy Act featured in a Queen’s Speech, the same day as the Ballymurphy Massacre Inquest verdict. That inquest exemplified what Conservatives wanted ended. Why should Britain allow former British troopers to be summoned to a Belfast courtroom, merely because 10 Irish victims, including a Catholic priest and a grandmother, had been shot down without justification? Why allow inquests, Ombudsman Reports and civil lawsuits to ‘perniciously counter’ rose-colored British versions of events with findings of collusive behavior or unjustified killings?
So before leaving office, the Conservatives shut down mechanisms that were drip-feeding justice. The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act took away inquests and ombudsman reports, granted an Amnesty with British troopers in mind, sidelined solicitors and human rights groups and funneled everything into an ICRIR Commission confidently expected to deliver better results for Britain.
Victims’ families slammed the measure. The north’s political parties united in opposition. The Irish government filed a European Court challenge. Labour, meanwhile, was congratulated for its manifesto pledge to “repeal” the act not least of all by American Congressmen and the AOH.
The word ‘repeal’ means to revoke or annul a law. We had every reason to expect after Keir Starmer’s election last July, that his appointed Secretary for the north, Hilary Benn, would present a bill to revoke or annul the Legacy Act, restore what had been taken away, and begin talks with the Irish government on an agreed way forward.
Instead, Labour speaks of repeal and replace but means to retain and repair the irreparable ICRIR commission created by the ousted Conservatives on their way out. Already the Belfast High Court and Court of Appeals have struck down key provisions of the Legacy Act and said that it does not comply with European Law on victims’ representation or disclosure. In order to keep the ICRIR, Hilary Benn must fight these decisions.
The latest example is the case of Sean Brown. On May 12, 1997, Sean Brown, the chairman of Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAA Club, was locking the gates to the training ground when he was ambushed by loyalist paramilitaries. He was abducted, beaten, and shot six times in the head. His body was found next to his burning car the following day. More than 25 British state agents were involved in the murder. The inquest judge ordered that the Brown family were entitled to a Public Inquiry.
Hilary Benn lamented that the Brown family had waited so long for the truth. He then refused a public inquiry, which will mean more heartbreaking delays and new court battles for the Brown family. More cases like Sean Brown’s will inevitably follow. Labour Party Secretary Hilary Benn has become the public face of the Conservative Party’s legacy cover-up.