Danny Morrison (republican)
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Daniel Gerard Morrison, known generally as Danny Morrison (born 1953 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is an Irish republican activist and writer. At the 1981 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, he coined the phrase "a ballot paper in this hand and an Armalite in the other" to describe the proposed two-pronged strategy of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin in advancing the cause of republicanism.
Two of his sisters married British soldiers. Danny Morrison was interned in Long Kesh in 1972. He was editor of An Phoblacht from 1975, and a Sinn Féin Assembly Member for Mid Ulster from 1982-6. He also stood unsuccessfully for the European Parliament in 1984 and 1989 and for the Mid Ulster Westminster seat in 1983 and 1986.
Morrison along with Owen Carron was arrested on 21 January 1982 whilst attempting to enter the United States illegally from Canada by car. He was deported and later both men were convicted on a charge of making false and fictitious statements to American immigration officials [1].
He was director of publicity for Sinn Féin from 1979 until 1990, when he was charged with conspiracy to murder an IRA man who was working for the British, Sandy Lynch. Morrison told the court the IRA was justified in killing informers. He was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment, and released in 1995.
Since 1989, Morrison has published several novels and plays on themes relating to republicanism and Belfast. His latest play, The Wrong Man, opened in London in 2005. It is based on his 1997 book of the same name and deals with the career of an IRA man who is suspected by his colleagues of working for the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
He lives in West Belfast, with his Canadian born wife, Leslie. He has two sons from a previous relationship.
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