FULLERTON FAMILY’S 30 YEAR CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE BY ROY GREENSLADE Justice, to paraphrase William Butler Yeats, comes dropping slow. And especially slow for republicans. All too often, it does not come at all. That, sadly, has been the reality for the family of Eddie Fullerton, a Sinn Féin councillor in Donegal shot dead by a UDA gang 30 years ago. Now, his family are marking the anniversary of his death by going on the offensive. Eddie’s 81-year-old widow has instigated a legal action against the British state to hold its officials and its police force to account for colluding in his murder. It was in May 1991 when Eddie was gunned down inside his home. He was, by all accounts, a special man. Born on a small farm in Buncrana in March 1935, he was the eldest of 20 children born to John and Mary Fullerton. He was unable to continue his schooling beyond the aged 12, despite winning plaudits from his teachers, because his father needed him to work on the farm. Aged 18, he went to Scotland to find work, eventually moving south to Birmingham. There, he fell in love with Diana Peach, started a construction business anphoblacht UIMHIR EISIÚNA 1 - 2021 - ISSUE NUMBER 1
(employing many men from Donegal), raised a family of six, and became intensely interested in Irish politics. By the time he returned to Buncrana in 1975, he was a committed republican. Four years later, Eddie became the first Sinn Féin member in the modern era to be elected to Donegal County Council, where he topped the poll. Two of his comrades, the party’s former Vice President, Pat Doherty, and Liam McElhinney, both described him as “a larger-than-life character.” They spoke of his hard work on behalf of the people of Donegal and the efforts he made to promote the party. According to Gerry Adams, he was renowned for being the largest seller of An Phoblacht by touring Inishowen every weekend, visiting scores of pubs and standing outside masses in Buncrana, Clonmany, and Carndonagh. “He was a pioneer, a driving force,” said Doherty. “He was outspoken, dedicated, and a relentless campaigner with a talent for organisation.” There is an enduring memorial to his most successful campaign over the course of 12 years; the construction of a dam in order to create a reservoir above Buncrana. Completed six years after his death, it is now known officially as the Eddie Fullerton Dam and immortalised in a poem by Martin McGuinness.
Eddie became the first Sinn Féin member in the modern era to be elected to Donegal County Council, where he topped the poll
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