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In February 2022 the family of Seamus Mallon donated a wide range of objects and documents to Newry and Mourne Museum, reflecting his career as a politician and wide range of interests. A selection of these artefacts, including his famous tweed coat, are currently on display coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Seamus Mallon was born 17 August 1936 in the county Armagh village of Markethill, about eleven miles north-west of Newry, the son of Frank and Jane Mallon. His father was a teacher in a primary school in Mullaghbrack.
After leaving primary school, Seamus was educated at the Abbey Christian Brothers Grammar School in Newry and then at St. Patrick’s Grammar School in Armagh. During these years he excelled at Gaelic, playing for local teams including Crossmaglen Rangers and Keady Dwyers, and also at county level. He also played Gaelic for the Queen’s University team when he went to study at St. Joseph’s Teacher Training College in Belfast.
Seamus returned to Newry to teach at St. Joseph’s Boys’ High School where one of his pupils was Pat Jennings, the Northern Ireland footballer. He then succeeded his father as principal of Mullaghbrack primary school. These years also saw Seamus becoming involved in local drama groups such as Newpoint Players in Newry and in the setting up of the Armagh Theatre Group. Among the highlights were productions of Oklahoma and West Side Story with St. Catherine’s College in Armagh and a production of his own play, Adam’s Children, which won an all-Ireland award. Seamus’ production of Our Town for Newpoint Players also won several awards, including the Esso trophy at the All-Ireland Drama Festival in 1962.
During the 1960s Seamus Mallon entered the political arena; he took part in Civil Rights marches and was one of the first members of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). He was elected as a councillor in Armagh District Council in 1973, where he remained for sixteen years. In the same year, he was elected to the ill-fated power-sharing assembly at Stormont established as part of the Sunningdale Agreement.
Seamus unsuccessfully contested Westminster parliamentary elections in 1974, 1979 and, in 1983. He worked as an unpaid SDLP spokesman and became Deputy Leader of the party in 1979 when John Hume took over the leadership from Gerry Fitt. Seamus left teaching in 1982 and was eventually elected to Westminster as the Member for Newry and Armagh in 1986 after the resignation of the sitting Unionist MP, Jim Nicholson, in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Seamus Mallon held this seat until his resignation in 2005.
Seamus played a vital role in negotiations leading to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. After the referendum on the Agreement in May 1998, Seamus became Deputy First Minister with David Trimble, Unionist MP for Upper Bann, as First Minister of the new Northern Ireland Assembly. The new Assembly was increasingly unstable and eventually collapsed in 2002. Seamus retired from politics in 2005.
Throughout his life Seamus Mallon continued to live in Markethill. In 1964, he married Gertrude Cush, who he had known as a teenager, and had one daughter, Orla. Away from politics, and in addition to amateur drama, his wide interests included fishing, golf and gardening. His wife, Gertrude, died in 2016, and Seamus died on 24th January 2020.
by Ken Abraham and Declan Carroll
The Museum is currently offering free tours of the exhibition galleries on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 2.00 pm. These must be booked in advance by calling our Education Officer at 0330 137 4422.
Newry and Mourne Museum is open Tuesday – Saturday 10.00 am – 4.30 pm. Please call 0330 137 4422 or email museums@nmandd.org for further information.
Visit the Museum website at www.visitmournemountains.co.uk
