Government’s legacy funds delay an ‘utter disgrace’: SF
SINN Fein president Mary Lou McDonald has said the Government’s delay in releasing funding for legacy inquests in Northern Ireland is “a disgrace”.
Ms McDonald was speaking as she attended the inquest into the Ballymurphy massacre alongside her deputy Michelle O’Neill.
They attended the hearing at Laganside Courts yesterday to offer their support to the families of those who lost their lives during the August 1971 shootings.
Ten people were shot dead including a priest trying to aid one of the wounded and a mother of eight. Another man later died of heart failure.
The Sinn Fein leaders yesterday confirmed that Ms O’Neill has written again to Secretary of State Karen Bradley on the issue of legacy inquest funding for all cases.
Ms McDonald said: “We regard it as a matter of utter disgrace that families have been left for decades without the basic democratic entitlement of an inquest. We regard it as a disgrace that Theresa May and her government continue to withhold funding for legacy inquests.
“We have said to Karen Bradley that no leader, nobody who claims any regard for the upholding of the law or value of democracy could stand over such a situation, where families are left for decades without the right of an inquest.”
Ms McDonald continued: “This shouldn’t be regarded as a punishment to political parties for not reaching agreement or indeed as an enticement back around the negotiating table.
“These are basic fundamental rights and if the British Prime Minister considers herself to have any interest in upholding the rule of law and democratic values then she will immediately move to release that funding with absolutely no strings attached or pre-conditions.
“The brave Ballymurphy fam- ilies have consistently argued their own case for justice but in doing that they argue the case for everybody. This isn’t a green and orange issue but a human rights and justice issue.”
In 2016 the Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan had sought additional funding to complete 54 inquests into 94 deaths within five years. He proposed setting up a legacy inquest unit with its own staff and resourcing to deal with Troubles related inquests.
However, the funding was blocked — a decision deemed unlawful and flawed by a High Court judge earlier this year.
Ms O’Neill said families should not have to fight for the right to a proper inquest.
“It should not be something that is denied to any grieving family for a single day — let alone almost 50 years. But families are still being denied that right,” she said.
Ms O’Neill added: “We have again written to the British Secretary of State making it clear that this situation is unacceptable.
“A business case for the LCJ Legacy plan was submitted to the NIO two months ago and it is long past time that Karen Bradley approved this, and ended the stalling because justice delayed is justice denied.”
The long-awaited inquests into the deaths of those killed during shooting incidents involving the Army in the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast began last week.
Yesterday the presiding coroner Mrs Justice Siobhan Keegan heard preliminary evidence about two of the shootings.
Statements were read by barrister David Heraghty surrounding the deaths of Frank Quinn (19) and Fr Hugh Mullan (38), who were shot in an area of open ground behind Springfield Park in the city.
They included witness accounts, originally made at the first inquests held in 1972, from members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), ambulance and medical personnel who collected and identified the remains of the two men.
The inquest continues.