The families of the Ballymurphy victims said the British Prime Minister had “ruined the moment” for them by the clumsiness of the way in which the apology was made.
The Ballymurphy families have angrily rejected a letter of apology from Boris Johnson expressing his personal sorrow for the “terrible hurt that has been caused” by the deaths of 10 innocent civilians 50 years ago.
At an emotional press conference in Belfast on Thursday, relatives of those who died said the timing and the content of the letter was “disgraceful” and challenged the Prime Minister to come to the House of Commons and “speak to the world” about what happened in Ballymurphy.
On Tuesday, coroner Mrs Justice Keegan ruled that those who died in Belfast in August 1971 were “entirely innocent”.
She found that nine of the 10 had been killed by soldiers, and that the use of lethal force was not justified.
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Alice Harper (née Teggart) at her home in west Belfast with a picture of her father Daniel Teggart. Picture by Hugh Russell
FOR some families it was a flyer they can t even remember picking up, for others a newspaper advert in The Irish News or Andersonstown News or a poster in a shop window.
The year was 1998 and there was to be a conference organised by campaign group Relatives For Justice (RFJ) about forgotten victims at St Mary s teacher training college on Belfast s Falls Road. It was during the festival, Janet Donnelly remembers now. I had already been torturing my husband for a couple of years to try and get my daddy s [Joseph Murphy] inquest papers for me, then I heard about the event in St Mary s called `The Forgotten Victims .
BBC News
By Colm Kelpie
media captionA priest and a mother of eight were among the 10 people killed at Ballymurphy
Ten people killed in west Belfast almost 50 years ago in the wake of an Army operation were entirely innocent , an inquest has found.
The inquest, which began in November 2018, examined the deaths in and around the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast in August 1971.
The shootings happened after an operation in which paramilitary suspects were detained without trial.
Victims included a priest trying to help the wounded and a mother of eight.
Nine of the 10 victims were killed by the Army, the coroner said.
BBC News
Published
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The victims were killed in the wake of an Army operation in which paramilitary suspects were detained without trial.
A coroner ruled nine of the victims were shot by the Army. It is not clear who shot the tenth.
Their families have described their relief at their loved ones being cleared of any wrongdoing.
Patsy Mullan, brother of Fr Hugh Mullan
image copyrightPA Media
Patsy Mullan s brother Fr Hugh Mullan was shot on the night of 9 August 1971.
The 38-year-old priest, who was from Portaferry in County Down, served a year in the Merchant Navy before serving in parishes in Belfast, County Antrim and County Down before coming to Ballymurphy.