Eamon Melaugh

"Melaugh" redirects here. For the Northern Ireland association footballer and physicist, see Gavin Melaugh.

Eamon Melaugh (4 July 1933 – 8 December 2025) was an Irish socialist, political campaigner and activist from Derry, Northern Ireland.

Life and career

Melaugh helped found the Derry Housing Action Committee (DHAC)^[1][2] and the Derry Unemployment Action Committee (DUAC)^[3] which campaigned for jobs and housing for Derry Catholics.

Melaugh and the DHAC became involved with the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in the late 1960s.^[4] He later contributed evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.^[5] He was an active member of the Workers' Party,^[6] and stood as a candidate for it and its predecessor, Republican Clubs/Official Sinn Féin, in the Foyle constituency.^[7][8]

In 1956, he married Mary McLaughlin; the couple had 11 children, four daughters and seven sons.^[9] One of his sons, Martin Melaugh, is an academic who curates the University of Ulster's CAIN, a collection of information and source material on "the Troubles" and politics in Northern Ireland.^[10] A nephew is writer, broadcaster, and comedian Andrew Doyle.^[11] Melaugh died on 8 December 2025, at the age of 92.^[12]