Posthumous honour for Tyrone civil rights pioneer

A PROMINENT Tyrone-born political figure and civil rights trailblazer has been recognised in the latest edition of the prestigious Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford DNB).

Edendork man Austin Currie, who died in November 2021 at the age of 82, has been added to the national record that honours individuals who shaped British and Irish history.

Known for his pivotal role in the early civil rights movement in the North, Mr Currie was a towering figure in political life on both sides of the Irish border.

Driven by first-hand experience of discrimination, Mr Currie entered politics in the 1960s, serving as a Nationalist and later as a founding member of the SDLP in the Northern Irish Parliament from 1964 until its suspension in 1972.

His activism, including a high-profile housing protest in Caledon, marked him as a key architect of the civil rights campaign in the North.

In 1989, he shifted to Southern politics, becoming a Fine Gael TD for Dublin West. He served in Dáil Éireann until 2002 and held the position of Minister of State with responsibility for children’s rights.

He also contested the 1990 Irish presidential election, finishing third in a historic race won by Mary Robinson.

Mr Currie now joins around 1,000 figures with Northern Irish connections in the Oxford DNB, alongside cultural giants like CS Lewis, Seamus Heaney and George Best.

Other notable additions in the June 2025 update include Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921–2021), tech innovator Sir Clive Sinclair (1940–2021), football legends Jimmy Greaves and Ian St John, and charity fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore (1920–2021).

The Oxford DNB, considered the national record of lives that shaped British history, now features over 63,000 biographies written by more than 14,000 contributors, complete with 12,000 portrait images.

The entries cover individuals from prehistory to the year 2021.