Una McCabe, a niece of Aidan McAnespie, whose murder resulted in a recent historic guilty verdict against a former British soldier after 34 years, will be making special appeals to the Irish government and U.S. Congress members on behalf of families whose hopes for justice are threatened by the pending British amnesty law.
She will do so and be joined by Fergus O’Dowd TD, chair of the Irish Committee for the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, and civil rights attorney Niall Murphy, to discuss the verdict and its meaning for legacy justice in a live webinar broadcast hosted by the Ancient Order of Hibernians on Saturday, December 10 at 11 a.m. Eastern Time, 4 p.m. Irish time.
The broadcast comes, according to a release from webinar organizers, as the British government pushes ahead with its Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill, "designed to take away legal rights to get criminal prosecutions, inquests, Ombudsman reports or civil suits in legacy killings."
Added the release: "The guilty verdict against former British Grenadier Michael Holden is considered historic because only four British soldiers have been convicted of killing Irish civilians during the entire period of the Troubles.
"No British soldier was convicted for Bloody Sunday murders or the Ballymurphy Massacre. The McAnespie verdict undercuts claims by British officials that criminal prosecutions for Troubles killings were now impossible because of the passage of time.
"Aidan McAnespie was shot in the back by British Grenadier Michael Holden, firing a machine gun. McAnespie, walking to the local Gaelic football grounds, had just been passed through the Auchnacloy British Army checkpoint, near the County Monaghan border. Holden claimed 'his hand had slipped.' His claims were rejected by trial Justice O’Hara rejected as 'a deliberately false account of what happened.'
"The British government responded to the verdict with a pledge by British Cabinet Veteran’s Affairs Minister, Johnny Mercer, of full support of the Ministry of Defense for Holden, and promise to pass amnesty legislation which is opposed by both nationalist and unionist political parties in the six counties as well as by human rights groups."
Continued the release: "Una McCabe, was seven years old when her mother’s brother Aidan said goodbye to her and began his final journey. She will talk about the toll her family’s thirty-four year campaign for justice, took on her mother Eilish, and other family members who did not live to see the verdict. She wishes to make a special appeal to the Irish government and Irish Americans for hundreds of other families, who have also been fighting for truth about the murder of loved ones, but now fear British amnesty legislation.
Fergus O’Dowd, a Fine Gael party member of Dáil Eireann from County Louth, chairs the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement Committee which includes Irish Dáil and Seanad members, plus British Parliament MPs elected from the six counties. O’Dowd, with approval from the full GFA Committee, has made formal written requests calling upon Attorney General Paul Gallagher to examine the British amnesty bill "with a view to taking an interstate case should you determine that the legislation contravenes the UK’s obligations under Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights."
"An Irish government case at the European Court would spare victims’ relatives years of legal delays spent exhausting local remedies in Crown and Appellate courts, before the European Court could consider the case," said the webinar organizers.
Participant Niall Murphy is one of the civil rights lawyers "who are being vilified for efforts to get justice in legacy cases derided as lawfare. He will talk about the British amnesty bill and why a European Court case by the Irish government or American Congressional pressure are so crucial to victims’ families hoping for justice."
Zoom registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GZaf9aX1T6aZtHPLbluhtw
-or- https://aoh.com/LegacyJusticeWebinarRegistration
Youtube: https://youtu.be/66SwdrNUwBs -or- https://aoh.com/McAnespieVerdict
