John Teggart representing the Ballymurphy families, and Emma Rogan representing the Loughinisland families announcing the ‘March for the Truth’
By Anthony Neeson
John Finucane has called for people to come out in numbers and support the Time for Truth march which will take place in Belfast on February 25.
Mr. Finucane was speaking last weekend at the 45th anniversary commemoration of the British Army’s killing of six unarmed men in the Catholic New Lodge are of North Belfast in 1973.
The Sinn Féin man is the son of Pat Finucane, the human rights lawyer, murdered by loyalists at the family home in 1989.
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged “shocking levels of collusion” with British security services in Mr. Finucane’s murder.
John Finucane said: “As a young student solicitor, I was lucky enough to help and work on the Community Inquiry into killings by the British Army of six unarmed men in the New Lodge on the night of 3rd and 4th February 1973.
“It was truly inspirational to see the international caliber of lawyers and human rights activists gather to forensically examine the actions of the British soldiers that night.
“At the conclusion of the emotional two-day inquiry, the jurists found that the state had totally failed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the six victims and the wounding of several others."
He added: “Although the findings of the Community Inquiry clearly vindicated the six victims, to this day the British state has refused to admit their culpability or acknowledge the injustice that was committed.”
Families whose loved ones died during some of the most high profile atrocities of the Troubles – and where the British state are implicated – are urging people to attend a march to Belfast city center at the end of the month. The organizers include relatives of the Ballymurphy massacre as well as the Loughinisland massacre.
Emma Rogan, whose father Adrian was murdered in Loughinisland, said: “Myself and the other families present here today have decided to come together to march for truth on the 25th of February in Belfast.
“We feel this is the only option we have, we have exhausted all other avenues available to us through the courts and with the police, and all other avenues are being shut down and closed down at every opportunity that’s afforded. I was eight years old when my father was murdered, he was 34, not much older than I am now.
“For him, for his memory and for his legacy I require the truth, I need it for him. He was afforded no dignity in his death. He lay dying along with five other men on a pub floor in ’94 while they watched the World Cup.”
Rogan continued: “The truth costs nothing, the truth belongs to everyone; nobody should be denied the right to know what happened to their loved ones.
“All of us here believe that the British and Irish governments need to implement all the mechanisms that have already been agreed to deal with legacy and the past.
“That’s why I’m calling on everyone to come out, to put their feet on the streets. Let’s have solidarity and march together and send a strong and clear message that we deserve and we need the truth.”
