SDLP Assembly Member for Newry and Armagh Justin McNulty MLA has welcomed the findings of the Ballymurphy Inquest which have vindicated the decades long campaign for truth by the families of the victims.
Mr McNulty said, ‘This week’s findings of the Ballymurphy Inquest are a long awaited vindication of the long and determined campaign for truth that these families have waged over fifty years. They have stood against attempts to blacken the names of their loved ones and against attempts to deny the truth and rewrite the past. They can stand proudly in the knowledge that their friends and family were entirely innocent of wrongdoing and the whole world now knows it.’
‘The events that led to the murder of innocent people in Ballymurphy fifty years ago was heart-breaking. The finding that there was ‘basic inhumanity’ in the treatment of people in West Belfast during those three days is stark but hardly surprising when victims shot by British Army soldiers were left to suffer critical wounds without medical assistance. Inhumane and barbaric are the words….
‘This long awaited truth should shame the British establishment knowing that they forced innocent people to fight for so long and knowing that they made that journey so difficult. And, in the days since the findings, the British Government have continued to add to the pain and anguish of the families. Boris Johnston needs to step up and show real leadership. He must apologise, sending out his Secretary of State to utter words without empathy was wrong. His cowardly behaviour stands in stark contrast to the dignified way in which the families have conducted their campaign over the last 50 years. They deserve a public apology from the head of the British Government.’
ENDS
CLANRYE NEWS 