Kevin McKenna
Born: June 25th, 1945
Died: June 25th, 2019
Kevin McKenna, who has died in Cavan Regional Hospital, was the longest-standing chief of staff of the IRA, holding the position from 1983 to 1997. He oversaw some of the bloodiest episodes of the IRA’s campaign, and was instrumental in ending it, by overseeing the delivery of support of the IRA army council for the peace process.
His preparation was key to the IRA’s 1997 Army Convention supporting the ceasefire and the peace process. At that convention, he ensured a key ally was chair. The vote went against those who went on to become the Real IRA.
After his tenure as chief of staff, he became quartermaster and secured the organisation’s dumps to ensure those who wished to fight on could not access IRA weaponry.
McKenna consciously kept a low profile. He was little known outside IRA circles. As far as is known, there is only one photograph of him dating from his IRA days.
He was not considered particularly ideological, but seen to be guided by a loyalty to the IRA. He left political policy to be developed by others. However, he understood IRA internal politics and could act decisively.
He purged the IRA’s West Fermanagh Brigade in the late 1980s after it carried out a series of blatantly sectarian killings. He also oversaw the importation of arms from Libya for the organisation.
Civil rights marches
McKenna was born in the Brantry in 1945, a hilly and predominantly Catholic area of southeast Tyrone, away from main roads. He was one of five children to Patrick McKenna and his wife Mary (née Stuart). The family were farmers.
He was educated at the local primary school. In the mid-1960s he joined the IRA. He participated in some early civil rights marches, then moved to Canada for a couple of years. He worked as a labourer in oilfields in the north. It was heavy work in tough conditions.
When internment was introduced in 1971, he came home and joined the Provisional IRA, which had emerged from the IRA split of 1969. The Provisional IRA in Tyrone mixed teenagers who wanted to fight but didn’t know how with ageing veterans of past campaigns who were known to the security forces. McKenna bridged those generations.
From Canada, he brought enough money to buy a car. He was single, with time to move about. He was not known to the security forces and helped pull the poorly organised Tyrone IRA together.
Because it was close to the Border, the Brantry was a staging post for men and weapons. McKenna showed he was more than another IRA fighter, and had logistical abilities. He became known as a “safe pair of hands”.
Hunger strike
It took almost 18 months for the northern security forces to realise his importance to the organisation and intern him. He was held in Long Kesh internment camp for almost two years. On release, he moved to Monaghan. There, he was again imprisoned for IRA membership. In 1975, he spent 48 days on hunger strike, first in Portlaoise prison, then in the Curragh Military Hospital, seeking better prison conditions.
He became chief of staff in 1983 when the IRA was facing major difficulties. His predecessor had been imprisoned on the word of a “supergrass” who was adjutant of the IRA’s Belfast brigade. When appointed, McKenna was seen as a bridge between the Belfast IRA and the country units.
Opponents accept he never used the IRA to enrich himself or forge a political career. For much of his life, he lived very modestly. In later life, he ran a country pub in Co Monaghan.
He was described as quiet and paradoxically liked the poetry of Tyrone Presbyterian minister WF Marshall, who was fiercely unionist and wrote of the country people from whom McKenna sprang.
He is survived by his wife Marcella, daughter Gráinne, sons Ciaran and Pádraig and grandchildren.