» Peadar Whelan
The families of ten nationalist civilians shot and killed by the British army in Ballymurphy in August 1971 welcomed the findings of coroner Mrs Justice Siobhan Keegan who declared all of the dead innocent and found that the British army used disproportionate force when killing their loved ones in a series of shootings known as the Ballymurphy Massacre.
However their elation was “stolen” from them by the refusal of British Prime Minster Boris Johnston to apologise directly to the families for the actions of the British state and the British army.
A statement released by 10 Downing Street on Wednesday 12 May, after a meeting involving Michelle O’Neill and Arlene Foster, stated that Johnston had apologised during the meeting, a claim rejected by Sinn Féin.
• Gerard Keenan whose parents Sarah and Edward Keenan were killed in the McGurk’s bombing
» Peadar Whelan
As family members of people killed in the McGurk s Bar bombing gathered on Friday December 4 to mark the 49
th anniversary of the massacre campaigners again challenged the PSNI chief constable over the RUC s disinformation strategy in the aftermath of the explosion, particularly their claim that “two of those killed were known IRA members”.
Relatives of the 15 people killed in the bombing in Belfast s New Lodge area in 1971 are demanding that PSNI chief constable Simon Byrne prove these claims and disclose the source of this false information.