A Bitter Harvest: The Good Life and Unresolved Murder of Derry GAA Man Seán Brown Author: Garbhán Downey ISBN-13: 9781914009563 Publisher: Colmcille Press Guideline Price: £15Bridie Brown is 88 years old and, with her family, has tried to find the truth behind the murder of her husband Sean almost 30 years ago in Co Derry. To put this in context, their wait for justice is one year older than the Belfast Agreement that brought an end to the Troubles in the North.Sean Brown was chairman of Bellaghy GAA club when he was abducted from its grounds and murdered by the LVF, which claimed responsibility. However, his family always described it as a British state-sponsored killing, and called for a public inquiry to reveal what happened. Garbhán Downey has produced an important, forensic work, highlighting not only the sinister murkiness of the murder once more, but also documenting the failings in its investigation and the family’s long fight against official obfuscation in determining the facts. Downey also shows the kind of man Sean Brown was and why people from the place he was born and bred admired him immensely. You can tell from these pages that he was a decent man and someone committed to Irish culture and his community. As the author says: “If the (British) state can assassinate one of its finest citizens and then use the law to shield itself from liability - who among us is safe?” A Bitter Harvest documents the labyrinthine legal process of trying to find answers. The Brown family has been to court on 60 occasions and a large chunk of the book consists of court transcripts and archive material. Details and documents are still being withheld by the British state on the murder. There are five Public Interest Immunity certificates in place from different security agencies, including the Ministry of Defence, MI5 and the old RUC police force.The Browns belong to the fabric of “Heaney Country” in Co Derry and they knew the poet well. He wrote these words in The Irish News upon hearing of Sean’s death in 1997: “He represented something better than we have grown used to.” This forceful book shows that the Browns, who had no politics and rejected sectarianism, and like all families who have questions as to why their innocent relatives were murdered during the Troubles, deserve better from the British state. They deserve truth and justice.