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Klaus Mewes – 1944-2009

12/03/09

Friends, family and comrades gathered in Newtownbutler, County Fermanagh recently to say a final farewell to long-time socialist republican activist Klaus Mewes.

Klaus was born in Hannover, Germany in 1944 and, as a child, found himself in the British-controlled zone of occupation when the country was divided up between the major world powers.

He became politically aware as a student and was a dedicated left-wing activist during the tumultuous period of the late 1960s and ’70s. Klaus brought the same commitment with him when he moved to Ireland in 1980.

He came to Ports in Newtownbutler in November 1980, where he set up a small B&B with his partner Maria on the banks of Lough Erne. This was also a traumatic period in Irish history, and Klaus quickly identified with the republican struggle.

He was known as a scholar in the area, which he put to good use in his campaigning and activism. He was also known by his friends as a keen linguist and musician, having studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew and music in school and later at the University of Tübingen, and also as a handyman about the house.

Klaus was always an activist at heart, and was to be seen at protests and demonstrations right up until his untimely death on February 23.

Klaus was a founding member of éirígí in Fermanagh. He was inspired by the words of Fintan Lalor that “somewhere and somehow, and by somebody, a beginning must be made”.

Klaus made that beginning in Fermanagh, and he will be missed by his friends and comrades there and further afield.

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