Funeral to be held for SDLP veteran Vincent Currie

A long-serving SDLP figure who broke new ground by becoming the first nationalist council chairman in his area to lay a remembrance wreath has died.
Vincent CurrieVincent Currie
Vincent Currie

Vincent Currie, formerly a veteran councillor in the Dungannon area, is understood to have died early on Sunday morning.

He was brother of Austin Currie, a former minister in the Irish government and member of the old Stormont Assembly.

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His funeral is to be in St Malachy’s chapel, Edendork, on the Coalisland Road to the north-east of Dungannon, at 11am on Tuesday.

He is then to be buried in Co Offaly.

Mid Ulster councillor Denise Mullen said he is to be buried next to his wife. She understands he had been unwell for some time.

She said during his council career he “went out of his way” for constituents.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said: “During his time as chairman of the local council, Vincent became the first nationalist chairman to lay a wreath at the remembrance service.

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“This act illustrated Vincent’s attitude as a public servant; open, tolerant and accepting of all parts of the community.”

The online archive of Northern Irish elections lists him as having won a seat in Dungannon Borough Council in 1993, taking a seat in several consecutive elections after that.

The most recent listing for him in the archive is when he stood, unsuccessfully, for the SDLP in Fermanagh and South Tyrone in the 2007 Assembly election.