Obituary - Death of Cork born Christie O'Sullivan – Champion of a United Ireland

Published: 13 January 2011
by TOM FOOT

CHRISTIE O’Sullivan –  socialist, union man and champion of a united Ireland – has died. He was 81 years old.

Family and colleagues paid tribute to their “staunch friend and comrade” at Islington Crematorium on December 23.

The congregation said they could not recall a protest that failed to attract the “unwavering loyalty” of Mr O’Sullivan, characteristically holding a banner in one hand and clutching a copy of the Irish Democrat in the other.

As a founder member of the Construction Safety Campaign (CSC), he fought for better health and safety on building sites and won important concessions for workers in Camden.

CSC member Andy Higgins said: “No matter what demo you were on, you would be surprised not to see Chris O’Sullivan with a banner.”

He said his last memory of Mr O’Sullivan was of him crossing Camden Road in December “to get his copy of the Morning Star”.

The son of a dock worker, Mr O’Sullivan was born in Cork in 1929. His mother died young and Mr O’Sullivan came to Camden in the 1960s, where he met his wife, Pegeen. The couple lived in Rossendale Way, St Pancras. Mr O’Sullivan worked in Camden Council’s building department for most of his life.

Colleague Ian McDeson remembered how he fought for a 35-hour week and that he “believed nothing was too good for us as workers”.

Friend Nicola Seyd recalled his work as a Kilburn Transport and General Workers Union delegate for more than 20 years and how in 1994, on behalf of the London Socialist Film Co-op, Mr O’Sullivan and others “risked their necks” to climb on the roof of Conway Hall to “put blackout panels against the outside of the vertical skylight windows”. Ms Seyd added: “I think he would have been the first to stop anything like that on a building site as being contrary to all safety regs.”

George Binette, chairman of Camden Trades Council, said: “He was blunt and to the point, but quiet and a gentle man. He would be pleased and proud to find the Trades Council was currently engaged as a leading force in Camden.”

Mr O’Sullivan supported the campaigns to free the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four and to vindicate the victims of Bloody Sunday. He had celebrated the government’s recent apology in the Camden Irish Centre in Camden Square.

As a prominent member of the Connolly Association, founded in Doughty Street in 1938, he spent his life devoted to a united Ireland free from British rule and his coffin was draped with the Irish tricolour and a Irish republican flag.

Charlie Cunningham, from the Connolly Association, described Mr O’Sullivan as a “quiet man from Cork City who did not have an accent”, adding: “Not many people know that in early life he suffered from stammering. He would force himself to speak slowly. I’d say dependability was his greatest asset attribute. He was an example to us all.” Mr Cunningham recalled his generous donations to causes and how he struck up a friendship with the socialist historian EP Thompson after a visit to Nottingham.

Sheila O’Connor, from the Wolf Tone Society, an organisation offering support for Irish republicans, said Mr O’Sullivan’s soul-mate would be the trade union hero James Larkin, paraphrasing the ballad song about him by Irish writer Donagh McDonagh: “He was a mighty man with a mighty tongue. His motto was: ‘We will rise again’.”