Eddie Fullerton

Who was Eddie Fullerton?

Edward "Eddie" Fullerton was a Sinn Féin councillor from County Donegal, Ireland. He was assassinated at his Buncrana home in May 1991 by members of the Ulster Defence Association.

The eldest of John and Mary Fullerton's 20 children, Eddie Fullerton emigrated to Scotland at the age of 18, and then moved to England. He became involved in Irish republicanism in Birmingham, where he also met and married his wife Diana. They returned to Ulster in 1975. He was elected to Donegal County Council for Sinn Féin in 1979, and held his seat until his assassination at age 56.

At two o'clock in the morning, on the 25 May 1991, Cllr. Fullerton and his wife were woken by the sound of their front door being knocked in with a sledgehammer. Loyalist paramilitaries shot Eddie six times from the stairs as he left the bedroom to investigate the noise of the burglary.

A month later, a documentary on British television revealed that a police file from RUC intelligence containing Fullerton's photograph and details was found in the possession of the UDA in Derry. The weapon used to kill him was recovered two years later. The perpetrators were never found. The Fullerton family has long campaigned for an independent public inquiry into the events surrounding his death.