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There’s no stopping ’Murph campaign
Andersonstown News 27/09/10
The Ballymurphy Massacre families took their campaign for justice to Stormont this week where they launched a new leaflet detailing events surrounding the killings. The families were joined in Parliament Buildings’ Great Hall by West Belfast MP Gerry Adams and relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday.
Members of the British army’s Parachute Regiment murdered 11 people in the Ballymurphy Massacre, including a local priest and a mother of eight children. The massacre took place over a 36-hour period during the introduction of internment without trial in August 1971.
Six months later the same regiment murdered 14 people in Derry’s Bogside area in what became known as Bloody Sunday. Six months after that they killed another five people in West Belfast’s Springhill area, including a second Catholic priest.
Speaking at the launch of the leaflet, which is entitled ‘Time for Our Truth’, Briege Voyle of the Ballymurphy Massacre families said the leaflet was a chance to spread the word about their campaign further afield.
“This leaflet tells everyone the story that our loved ones were murdered over a three-day period and that we need answers now and we need the truth to be told,” said Briege, whose mother Joan Connolly was shot four times and killed as she tried to administer aid and comfort to fatally wounded teenager Noel Phillips.
“This year alone we have got the support of the Catholic Church which was a great thing for us because really now we need to up our campaign. We have been campaigning for the last three years and we think with this new leaflet now’s the chance to bring out the campaign even more.
“From here on in we are hoping to meet with Owen Patterson (Secretary of State) in October. We have asked for a meeting with David Cameron, and we’re hoping to go Capitol Hill, Washington DC, in December.”
Briege Voyle paid tribute to the members of the Bloody Sunday campaign who travelled to Belfast to help launch the leaflet.
“I would like to thank the Bloody Sunday families for coming on board,” she said.
“They have got their apology and I think we deserve an apology as well.”
John Kelly of the Bloody Sunday families, who officially lunched the leaflet, spoke of how he got involved with the Ballymurphy families’ campaign after speaking at a Féile an Phobail event in the summer.
“After listening to their heartbreaking stories I was completely overcome by what I heard – stories of blatant murder and terrible brutality conducted by the Parachute Regiment, the same regiment who were responsible for the same murderous brutality carried out in Derry on Bloody Sunday,” said Mr Kelly, who lost his 17-year-old brother Michael in the Bloody Sunday atrocity.
“The Ballymurphy Massacre happened six months before Bloody Sunday. It and many other murders by the British army around that time, helped set the precedent that British soldiers were immune from prosecution and knew that they could, would and did get away with murder.
“We know that the agencies of the British state, from the government down through the prosecution services, helped to promote and encourage this culture of immunity.”
Mr Kelly vowed that those responsible for both massacres would not get away with it.
“Ballymurphy and Bloody Sunday stand side by side in history as massacres carried out by the British army. I can tell you that after the Saville Report they will not get away with murdering our loved ones and they hopefully will be brought to justice at long last,” he said.
“We have achieved some justice with the publication of the Saville Report, and we hope that the families here can get the same. The Bloody Sunday families will always be there to support the Ballymurphy families, and all the other victims that cry out for truth and justice.
“Hopefully this leaflet will travel the world, educating and making people aware of the type of atrocities and war crimes carried out by the British army against innocent Irish people. Hopefully it will be part of these families getting the truth and justice they deserve.”
Welcoming the Ballymurphy families to Stormont, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said: “The accounts of how the 11 died in Ballymurphy bears a striking similarity to the stories told by the Bloody Sunday families. The families have carried out substantial inquiries into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of their loved ones. They believe that not all of the facts pertaining to the shootings were made known or that the killings were properly investigated. They also have concerns about the inquests that were carried out.
“In July the Catholic Church released archive documents surrounding the events in Ballymurphy in August 1971. This included new eyewitness accounts which lend support to the families’ opinion that vital evidence was withheld.
“The demand of the families is very clear. They want truth. They are campaigning for an independent international investigation into the circumstances of the 11 deaths and a statement of innocence and apology from the British government.”
Photo: Briege Voyle speaking at a Troops Out Movement meeting in Birmingham Council House
Cameron’s Derry resolve needed to end nightmare of our families
Andersonstown News 27/09/10
Editorial
The families of the 11 Ballymurphy people mercilessly cut down on their own streets by the British army’s notorious Parachute Regiment have conducted their campaign with great dignity and restraint – they are a credit to their loved ones for whom they continue to battle so bravely and tirelessly.
The latest phase of their accelerating campaing took them and their increasing number of supporters to the steps of Stormont this week where they launched a comprehensive and very professionally produced pamphlet outlining the details of the atrocity that took place on the streets of West Belfast between August 9 and 11, 1971. Readers of this newspaper will be familiar with the details of the massacre because the families have been unceasing in their determination to keep the campaign in the news and on the agenda. But now the time has come to have their story heard by a wider audience.
The recent decision by Bishop Noel Treanor to release Church documents and to relating to the slaughter – which claimed a priest among its victims – back calls for an international investigation of the shootings was an important step forward. Equally, the publication and dissemination of this new pamphlet, which contains a wealth of information concisely and eloquently laid out, will do much to take the campaign on to the next level. And this is vital. For as long as the story of what happened that day is confined to the homes and community centres of the victim community, then the guilty will rest easy.
Importantly, the families of those cut down on the streets of Derry by the same regiment in chillingly similar circumstances just six months later were there to lend their support to the cause. Quite simply, the relatives of those shot dead in Ballymurphy in 1971 deserve exactly what was given to the families of the Bloody Sunday dead – to have the deaths of their loved ones investigated; to have the dead declared innocent after all these years; and to have an apology from the British government. They deserve it because what happened in both cases was cold-blooded, brutal slaughter denied and covered up for decades.
The British government have an important choice to make here. They can do what they did when faced with the courage, determination and resilience of the Derry families – lie and bluff and stonewall for many more years and hope that the relatives will go away. Or they can do what the lesson of history demands acknowledge that an egregious wrong was done and move quickly to that they do – the vast make amends for it. The evidence that this is possible is there – majority of the nationalist community were left genuinely surprised and impressed by the brave, committed and unambiguous way in which British Premier David Cameron moved to end the nightmare of the Derry families. If a similar commitment is shown by this government to give peace to both the living and the dead, to those whose lives were either ended or changed forever by the massacre, then London will find that the families will work with them to do what needs to be done to lance this festering wound quickly and decisively.
That very same force that gave Derry its historic day in June – courage, determination and resilience – shines in the eyes of Ballymurphy Massacre campaigners, it echoes in their every word, it deepens with every passing day.
The families are right. It’s time for our truth.
What Can We Do to Support the Ballymurphy Families?
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Distribute this information as widely as possible – in Trade Unions, Political Parties, Community Groups, friends & colleagues. Contact the address below for speakers and leaflets.
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Write to David Cameron, Owen Paterson and your own MP to demand a full Independent, International, Investigation into the Ballymurphy killings – and encourage others to do so.
Contact details
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David Cameron, 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA email:camerond@parliament.uk or on Form at
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https://email.number10.gov.uk/Contact.aspx
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Owen Paterson, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Office 11 Millbank, London SW1P 4PN Email: patersono@parliament.uk or fill in form at http://www.nio.gov.uk/index/contact-us/enquiry-form.htm
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Your own MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA www.writetothem.com
