Lucy Bhreatnach

Lucy Bhreatnach (8 October 1924 – 1 October 2007) was a Basque-Irish language activist, and co-founder of the first gaelscoil in Ireland, Scoil Lorcáin.

Life Lucy Bhreatnach was born Maria de la Piedad Lucila Hellman de Menchaca on 8 October 1924 in Algorta, Bizkaia, in the Basque Country. Her parents were Lucila de Menchaca Dilis and Franz Heinrich Hellman, a German businessman. She had two brothers. The family fled Spain during the civil war, but returned later. She met Deasún Breatnach in Madrid, and they married on 31 July 1947, after which she was known as Lucy Bhreatnach.

Alongside her husband, Bhreatnach was an advocate for human rights globally, particularly opposed the authoritarian regimes in South America. She supported women's rights, and was a founding member of the local branch of Amnesty International in Dún Laoghaire. Both of them supported their son, Osgur, throughout a long battle to exonerate him from a conviction relating a train robbery. He was a founding member of Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP).