Pioneer Northern human rights' lawyer

(First published in Irish Times January 11th 2014)

by Anton McCabe

Eamon McMenamin – born October 8^th 1959, died December 22^nd 2013

Eamon McMenamin, who has died in his adopted home of Belfast, was a pioneer of civil litigation on human rights issues in the North. In the late 80s and early 90s McMenamin was the specialist lawyer in litigation against the security forces. He secured damages for dozens of plaintiffs injured by plastic bullets. One of his most high-profile cases was that of Sean Downes, an unarmed civilian from Belfast. Television cameras filmed Downes’ death in 1984, at the hands of a policeman who fired a plastic bullet at close range. McMenamin successfully represented the family.

He settled some of the first cases involving victims of collusion, such as persons targeted by Brian Nelson, a British army agent and intelligence chief of the UDA. He won settlements for persons falsely arrested by the security forces. While some of his clients were prominent Republicans, most were ordinary civilians.

The nature of this work placed him under threat. He was a partner in the firm of Madden and Finucane when the UDA murdered Pat Finucane, one of its principals, in February 1989.

Not all his cases were linked to the Troubles. He represented some victims of the 1989 Kegworth air disaster, when 47 passengers were killed in the crash of a London-Belfast plane.

In all he did, McMenamin was driven and perfectionist. He was known to work right through the night on cases. Despite many of his cases being controversial, opposing lawyers respected him. They found him reasonable to work with.

Eamon Patrick McMenamin was born in Dublin in October 1959, second of four children to Paddy McMenamin and his wife Kay (née McKenna), both natives of Co Tyrone. He was educated at the Marian College in Ballsbridge: then, when the family moved to Castlederg, Co Tyrone, at the Christian Brothers’ Grammar School in Omagh. Afterwards he studied law at University College, Dublin.

As well as studying law, he boxed and won an Irish Universities’ championship. He was a useful Gaelic footballer, and moved on to being a referee.

From the late 80s he became a knowledgeable art dealer and collector. Mostly, he collected emerging Northern Irish artists, while dealing in the works of deceased Irish artists.

Pat Finucane’s murder deeply effected McMenamin. Tragically, chronic ill-health forced him to cease work as a solicitor some years ago, when he still had a huge contribution to make.

He is survived by his father Paddy: partner Val (Pattie): children Kathleen, Dermot and Sean: their mother Aileen: sister Bernie: and brothers Brendan and Colm. He was predeceased by his mother, Kay.

Co Armagh woman was leading neuroscientist

(First published in the Irish Times January 25th 2014)

by Anton McCabe

Marie Filbin – born October 25^th 1955, died January 15^th 2014

The work of Dr Marie Filbin from Lurgan, Co Armagh , who has died after a long illness, is crucial to understanding paralysis due to spinal cord injury and Multiple Sclerosis, and to developing drugs that may someday reverse the conditions.

Filbin spent most of her of career in the United States. At the time of her death, she was distinguished Professor and Director of the Specialized Neuroscience Research Program at Hunter College in the City University of New York. She made several breakthroughs into enabling nerves of the spinal cord to re-grow after injury. Among the honours bestowed on her were being joint winner of the Ameritec Prize for significant accomplishment towards a cure for paralysis: and being inducted into the Researchers’ Hall of Fame of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Filbin could have taken a professorship in an elite institution, but was committed to Hunter College and her students. Many came from poor backgrounds, and she helped them improve their lives. She took her research out of the university to speak to spinal injury victims and MS sufferers. .

Filbin always wore her learning lightly. She never lost her accent, moderating it slightly to facilitate communication.

As a person, she was warm. A few years ago she flew family and close friends from Ireland to New York for an extended party. She explained this was because she had never given them a wedding.

Marie Theresa Filbin was born in October 1955 in Lurgan, youngest of three daughters to John Filbin, who owned his family’s old-established bakery, and his wife Maureen (née McWilliams), noted as a lover of opera.

She was educated at Tannaghmore Primary School and St Michael’s Grammar School, Lurgan. Her adolescence coincided with the height of the Troubles. Once an IRA man dragged her to safety from the middle of a gun battle. Such experiences made her decide to leave the North.

She graduated from the University of Bath with a BSc and then Doctorate in biochemistry. At the end of her third year as an undergraduate she showed such promise she was chosen to work in the State Technical Laboratories in Finland, a world leading institution. In 1982 she moved to the US, working first in the University of Maryland, then John Hopkins University

Illness blighted her last few years, leaving her confined to a wheelchair. Committed to her family, she travelled back to Ireland last month for the wedding of her only niece. Unfortunately, she was not to return to New York.

She is survived by her sister Elizabeth; brother-in-law Liam Glover; niece; and five nephews. She was predeceased by her sister Jane

Leading specialist in respiratory medicine

(first published in the Irish Times February 15th 2014)

by Anton McCabe

Roger Clark Lowry - born September 20^th 1933, died January 30^th 2014-02-11

Roger Lowry, who has died after a long illness, was one of the North’s leading specialists in respiratory medicine. For more than a generation he was central to the work of the Chest, Heart and Stroke Association, being Chairman for almost 30 years.

Medicine was not his first calling. He graduated in economics from Queen’s University, Belfast, then worked for a year in his father’s accountancy firm. Accountancy was not for him, though, and he returned to Queen’s to study medicine.

Roger Clark Lowry was born in Belfast in September 1933, third of four sons to Harry Lowry, an accountant, scout for several English First Division football teams, and former manager of Glentoran and Bangor football teams: and his wife Evelyn (née Blair), a primary teacher. The parents raised their sons in an atmosphere of tolerance. Methodism was central to all their lives.

Because of German bomber raids on Belfast, the Lowrys moved to the Co Down countryside, between Killyleagh and Crossgar. There, Lowry attended the tiny Ballytrim Public Elementary School, then Down High School in Downpatrick, before completing secondary education at Campbell College on the family’s return to Belfast.

From those early years, he excelled in cricket, tennis, squash, and golf, even taking up horse-riding for a period. His hand-eye coordination was excellent.

Lowry was also adventurous. While a student he worked as a bell-boy for a summer in a hotel in Alberta, Canada. Afterwards he hitch-hiked over 5,000 kilometres to southern Florida, where a brother was working. He found d the best way to get lifts was to be well-dressed and carry a rolled-up umbrella.

Shortly after qualifying as a doctor, he met and married Joan Smith, a nurse from Monaghan: then undertook postgraduate studies in London and the United States, before setting up home in Newtownards. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of both England and Ireland. He ended a distinguished career as head of the Respiratory Investigation Centre at Belfast City Hospital. Lowry had been a smoker, but grasped the dangers of smoking early in his career. This understanding made him an evangelist for non-smoking, firstly and successfully preaching that gospel to his brothers.

Despite his achievements, he did not take self seriously. Lowry will be remembered as gregarious man. This was despite developing Parkinson’s Disease soon after retiring. At Lowry’s funeral in Knock Methodist Church, his friend Rev David Cooper summed up his life with the line from Seamus Heaney: “Steady under strain and strong through tension.”

He is survived by his wife, Joan: daughter Julie: sons Kevin, Michael, Peter, and Alan: brothers John, Sidney and Eric: and grandchildren.