Ballymurphy 1971 – Still seeking the truth 45 years on

THE CALL for justice for the dead of Ballymurphy’s Internment Week Massacre, carried out by British paratroopers in August 1971, was supported at the weekend by more than a thousand people and numerous bands in the campaign group’s annual “March for Truth”.

Amongst the crowd on Sunday was the eminent international human rights campaigning lawyer, Michael Mansfield QC (pictured). 

Mansfield – whose cases have included the Bloody Sunday Inquiry and the Hillsborough Football Stadium Disaster – was in Belfast as a guest of Féile an Phobail to deliver the annual P. J. McGrory Memorial Lecture on Saturday to a packed hall in St Mary’s College on the Falls Road.

Also at the march were representatives of campaign groups such as the Loughinisland families, elated at the recent ground-breaking Police Ombudsman’s report that exposed the collusion between the Royal Ulster Constabulary police and the unionist paramilitary killers who attacked the Heights Bar in the County Down village in June 1994, killing six men watching the World Cup soccer game between Ireland and Italy.

As usual, there was a strong contingent of Sinn Féin representatives, including West Belfast MP Paul Maskey and Pat Sheehan, who represents the Ballymurphy area in the Assembly.

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