Ivan Barrwho has died aged 70, was an independent-minded traditional-style socialist who from an early age was influenced by the writings and actions of James Connolly. His interest was in people rather than emotive causes.
A Sinn Féin member of Strabane Council and an Official IRA member in the early 1970s, it was a measure of the even-handedness and wide appeal of Ivan Barr that republicans, nationalists and unionists mingled at his funeral in Strabane last Monday.
His chief focus, particularly since he entered the local council in 1985, was to improve conditions and help stimulate job opportunities in Strabane, for so long the employment blackspot of the Northern Ireland.
It was much earlier in England, to where he emigrated to find work in the 1950s, that he developed his social and political consciousness. As a painter and decorator he was heavily involved in the trade union movement in London. During the 1956-62 IRA Border campaign he took up with Sinn Féin in the city.
It was also in London that he met his beloved wife Judy. They returned to Strabane in the 1960s to raise a family of nine children. He gained work as a painter, continued his trade union activities, and also found time for his fly-fishing passion on the local Mourne, Finn and Foyle rivers.
He was active in the civil rights movements in the late 1960s, for a period chairing the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association before his internment on the Maidstone prison ship in 1971.
In the Provisional-Official split he sided with the Cathal Goulding official wing of republicanism. "He was more of an ideological socialist than an emotional republican, whose main interest was in improving the lot of the working class," a friend explained.
When he was released he was involved with what ultimately transmuted into the Workers' Party. In the mid to late-1970s he became disillusioned with politics, a disenchantment compounded by the death of his young daughter Karen in a house fire in Strabane.
But in 1980 and 1981 he was galvanised to engage in the hunger strike protests of that period. He switched to Provisional Sinn Féin and was elected to Strabane Council with friends Charlie McHugh and Tommy McNamee in 1985. He built Sinn Féin popularity in the town and strength on the council through dedicated, hard work for the people of the area, at one stage going out on a limb to expose what he believed was serious sleaze and malpractice on the council.
He welcomed the political pro-gress of the past 10 years but had a somewhat jaundiced view about what he viewed as ersatz opportunistic republicans jumping on the Sinn Féin bandwagon. While loyal to the party he was never shy of criticising the leadership. He surprised some by his willingness to join the local district policing partnership to help seal Sinn Féin support for policing in Strabane.
He enjoyed cordial relations across the political divide and even made friends with some old sparring partners such as former Ulster Unionist councillor Edward Turner, who was at his funeral. As his republican friend, Liam McElhinney, said: "He was the sort of man who had no room in his heart for rancour."
Ivan Barr: born 1938; died May 9th, 2008