SEAN MACBRIDE, WON NOBEL PRIZE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM; AT
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Author: Associated Press

Date: Saturday, January 16, 1988
Page: 19
Section: OBITUARY

Mr. MacBride, who died of pneumonia at his home, was an Irish Republican Army guerrilla leader in his teens and went on to become a cofounder of the human rights group Amnesty International.

The nuclear disarmament advocate and one-time assistant secretary general of the United Nations also was one of Ireland's most noted constitutional and
criminal lawyers. He returned to his Dublin law practice in 1979 after a 20- year hiatus, during which he expounded on worldwide issues.

"He was a statesman of international status," said Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey.

In 1974, he shared the Nobel Prize with Eisaku Sato, former prime minister of Japan. Mr. MacBride was cited for his many years of human rights work with Amnesty International and the International Jurist Commission.

Three years later, the Soviet Union awarded him the Lenin International Prize for Peace for his work in South-West Africa, or Namibia. He was among only a handful of Westerners to be given the award from a Soviet government- approved committee.

Amnesty International, which he cofounded in 1961, won the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize for its campaign on behalf of political prisoners around the world.

Mr. MacBride remained active into old age. He was the chief sponsor of a 1984 antidiscrimination code known as the MacBride Principles, designed to force US companies operating in Northern Ireland to ensure equal employment opportunities for Roman Catholics.

Born in Paris, where his parents were living in exile, Mr. MacBride grew up among European intellectuals and nationalists in Paris, London and Dublin.

His father, Maj. John MacBride, was a leader of the ill-fated 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. John MacBride was executed, along with his brother, Joseph, by the British.

His mother, Maud Gonne MacBride, rebel daughter of an English army colonel, was repeatedly jailed for her nationalist activities. Her legendary beauty inspired the poetry of William Butler Yeats, a devoted admirer who educated MacBride and treated him like a son.

Mr. MacBride lied about his age and joined the IRA to fight against the British. He was leading his own unit when he was 16 and became a trusted lieutenant of IRA military commander Michael Collins.

When civil war broke out between IRA factions over the 1921 peace treaty that divided Ireland, Mr. MacBride fought with a militant IRA faction opposed to the

As a lawyer, Mr. MacBride often defended IRA suspects or fought antiterrorist legislation, but he strongly opposed the IRA's current campaign of violence.

During the Vietnam War, he won disfavor in Washington when he carried a message from Pope Paul VI to Hanoi and denounced the US bombing campaign.

The distrust continued into 1979, when Mr. MacBride made an abortive attempt to break the deadlock between Iran and the United States over the holding of American hostages at the US Embassy in Tehran. The mission failed
because he insisted Washington acknowledge atrocities under Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi.

Last night, Mayor Flynn, who met Mr. MacBride twice in the last three years, said, "The people of Ireland and all people committed to peace and justice in every corner of the world have suffered a great loss with the death of Sean MacBride."

Flynn will be represented at Mr. MacBride's funeral Monday by his adviser on Irish affairs, Francis Costello.

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