Eamonn Mc Cann - Life

Life

McCann was born and has lived most of his life in Derry. He was educated at St. Columb's College in the city. He is prominently featured in the documentary film The Boys of St. Columb’s. He later attended Queen's University Belfast, where he was president of the Literary and Scientific Society, the university's debating society.

He was involved with the Irish Workers Group, a Trotskyist organisation, for a time in the 1960s.

As a young man he was one of the original organisers with Derry Housing Action Committee, a radical campaign group focusing on access to social housing. DHAC organised, in conjunction with the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) the 2nd civil rights march in Northern Ireland. This march, which took place on the 5th of October 1968, is generally seen as the birth date of the civil rights movement in the north of Ireland. McCann would go on to become one of the most prominent civil rights activists. His political contemporaries included Bernadette Devlin, for whom he served as an election agent. McCann has always been critical of other politicians in Derry, and throughout Ireland North and South, whose politics were based on cultural-identity rather than class analysis. He personally witnessed and participated in many of the key events of the early part of the Troubles, including the Battle of the Bogside in August 1969 and Bloody Sunday in January 1972.

Later, he worked as a journalist for the Sunday World newspaper and contributed to the original In Dublin magazine, among others. He currently writes for the Belfast Telegraph and the Derry Journal, and has for many years written a column for the Dublin-based Hot Press magazine. He is a frequent commentator on the BBC, RTÉ and other broadcast media.

A Trotskyist and outspoken atheist, he is a prominent member of the Socialist Workers Party in Ireland, and in recent Northern Ireland elections has stood as a candidate for the Socialist Environmental Alliance. Previously he stood unsuccessfully as a Labour Party candidate in the 1970s. He is also Chair of his local branch of the National Union of Journalists, and Vice-Chair of Derry Trades Council.

As a political activist, he has lent his support and considerable oratorical skills to many causes, including campaigns in support of abortion rights, immigrants and gay marriage. Much of his journalistic work reflects what he himself describes as a "shuddering fascination" with religion which, when coupled with his profound scepticism, has made it a topic to which he has often returned.

In the 2002 film, Bloody Sunday, McCann's character is played by the Irish actor Gerard Crossan.

In March 2008, McCann spoke with National Public Radio in the U.S. about the solidarity between the Catholic civil rights movement in Northern Ireland and the Black civil rights movement in the U.S.

McCann was tried in Belfast in May–June 2008 for his actions as one of the Raytheon 9, a group who attacked and damaged the Raytheon factory in Derry. The jury unanimously acquitted McCann, and all the other defendants, of charges of criminal damage to property belonging to multinational arms company, Raytheon. The judge dismissed charges of affray after hearing the prosecution evidence. However, McCann was found guilty of the theft of two computer discs. For this he received a 12 month conditional discharge.

In a statement outside the court McCann said:

McCann now writes a column for the Sunday edition of the Derry Journal. He is also a supporter of Derry City FC