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The family of a Derry schoolboy killed by a plastic bullet more than 40 years ago say a file relating to his death is to remain closed until 2084. ....
SORRY seems to be the hardest word as well as it being the title of a song by Elton John, it could also describe the reluctance of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to formally apologise to the families of the 1971 Ballymurphy massacre. Criticism was directed at Johnson following the ruling on May 11, when Mrs Justice Keegan concluded that the victims of the shootings were “entirely innocent” and the British army was responsible. Keegan went on to criticise the lack of investigation into the tenth victim John Kerr and said she could not rule who had killed him. Yet despite this ruling laying the blame on the British army, it took until May 19 before Johnson finally did the decent thing and formally apologised to the families. ....
Paul Whitters’ coffin is carried into St Columba’s Church, Long Tower. It has been forty years since I lost my son. Paul, who was 15 years old, left home one evening to visit his girlfriend but was drawn into a small group of boys throwing stones at a bakery – tensions were high in the city as the hunger strikes continued. Without warning, a police officer shot him in the head with a plastic bullet fired from short range. Helen Whitters. Ten days later, on April 25, 1981, Paul’s life support was switched off and my son died. The forty years since have seen different chapters in how we have coped as a family and, on this journey, we’ve travelled alongside the so-called path to peace. ....