Ballymurphy 11
JUSTICE FOR THE BALLYMURPHY 11
As part of International Women’s Week.
a MEETING has been arranged.
Date: Saturday 7th March 2009 @ 1 pm
Place: The Four Provinces
19 Allesley Old Road, Coventry, CV5 8BU.
(Free light buffet)
Guest Speakers: Briege Voyle and Alice Harper,
Members of “Relatives for Justice”, Belfast.
With the process of transition from conflict to peace now underway they demand:
- An independent international investigation examining all of the circumstances surrounding all of the deaths.
- The British government to issue a statement of innocence of the victims and a public apology.
Background
On 9th of August 1971 the British Government introduced Interment without Trial to Northern Inland. Between the 9th and 11th August eleven unarmed civilians were killed in the Ballymurphy district of Belfast. As mother of eight, Joan Connolly, went to the aid of a wounded young man she was fired upon. As Danny Teggart, father of 13, went to help Joan, he was shot 14 times. Parish priest Fr. Hugh Mullan waved a white cloth of peace as he attempted to administer the last rights to a wounded man – he was shot where he knelt.
Others who died through shooting were Frank Quinn, Noel Philips, Joseph Murphy, Eddie Doherty, John Laverty, Joseph Corr, Paddy McCarthy, and John McKerr.
There has been no criminal investigation. The only investigation has been by the Royal Military Police and no one in the British Army has been held to account.
PRESS RELEASE
To commemorate International Women’s Week, Briege Voyle and Alice Harper from Belfast will be visiting Coventry to publicise their demands for justice for the eleven unarmed civilians, who were killed in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast by the British Army, one of whom was a parish priest. There has been no proper investigation and no one has been held to account. They will be speaking at The Four Provinces on 19 Allesley Old Road at 1 pm on Saturday 7 March.
Last year Sergio Requena-Rueda, a political refugee from Chile living in Coventry since 1980 attended the "West Belfast Festival" as a delegate of the Coventry Trades Union Council. He stated: “I was reminded of my experience in Chile when many innocent people were indiscriminately killed by the armed forces and only in recent years has there been any serious attempt to bring to justice those who were responsible for the killings and disappearance of many civilians. It was on this basis that I suggested that the CTUC invite the "Relatives for Justice" to Coventry.”
Sergio stressed that in the light of the many other conflicts such as Chile and the ending of apartheid in South Africa that “Without truth and justice there cannot be peace and reconciliation.”
END
For further details, please contact:
Paul Shevlin President of Coventry Trades Union Council “CTUC” Tel024 7659 9192
Sergio Requena-Rueda Executive member of CTUC Tel. 024 76776 5700