LOVE NEVER ENDS...
PRINCE WILLIAM’S TRIBUTE TO MANCHESTER TERROR VICTIMS
THE Prime Minister spoke out in defiance against terrorism yesterday on the first anniversary of the Manchester Arena bomb.
As Theresa May joined Prince William at a moving candle-lit memorial service at Manchester Cathedral she branded Salman Abedi’s attack “an act of sickening cowardice”.
The Islamic State-inspired killer murdered 22 adults and children – the youngest Saffie-Rose Roussos aged just eight – with a suicide bomb at an Ariana Grande concert. The attack left 800 people injured.
Mrs May declared: “The targeting of the young and innocent as they enjoyed a carefree night out was an act of sickening cowardice.
“It was designed to strike at the heart of our values and our way of life, in one of our most vibrant cities, with the aim of breaking our resolve and dividing us. It failed.
“As we gather in Manchester Cathedral we join in solidarity to remember the 22 children and adults who so tragically lost their lives.
“Such appalling acts of wickedness will do nothing but strengthen our resolve to defeat such twisted ideologies and beliefs.
“The resilience and determination shown by this city in the 12 months since is testament to that.
“All of you are the very best of what this country stands for.”
Mrs May was joined at the 2pm memorial service by the Duke of Cambridge, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham.
The congregation and the city observed a minute’s silence at 2.30pm for the victims, a silence also observed by MPs in Westminster.
Prince William, fresh from his brother Harry’s Windsor wedding, was greeted with cheers by huge crowds gathered outside. During the remembrance service, Prince William gave a bible reading called The Gift of Love, which included the passage: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels but do not have love, I am but a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
“It does not insist on it’s own way. It is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
The Prince and the Prime Minister joined hundreds of others to hang tribute messages on “Trees of Hope” in the city centre. People can add their messages to the 28 Japanese maple trees until Sunday.
The service was beamed to giant city centre screens and to York Minster, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and Glasgow Cathedral. Invited guests included survivors, families, friends and first-responders. Dean of Manchester Rogers Govender told them: “We come together to remember with love those whose lives were lost and those whose lives have been changed forever.”
Rabbi Warren Elf adapted a reading from the Yizkor memorial prayer, which is said for the dead in the Jewish faith.
As images of the victims were displayed on screens, 22 candles burned on the altar, made using the wax from the thousands left at city centre memorials in their memory in the hours after the disaster. The Bishop of Manchester the Rt Rev David Walker concluded the service saying: “This cathedral is here, Manchester is here and you who were hurt or bereaved 12 months ago are forever part of Manchester.”
In the evening choirs sang in Manchester’s Albert Square, outside the Town Hall.
Paul Hodgson, stepfather of victim Olivia Campbell-Hardy, 15, said of the anniversary: “We’re going to get through it with friends and fam-
ily, the 22 families together. We remember all of them and we’re going to make them proud.
“With Manchester, you kick one of us, you kick all of us, and we’ll all get up, and we’ll all start fighting again.”
Martin Hibbert, 41, who was the closest victim to the bomb to survive, was left paralysed with a severed spinal cord.
But he defiantly declared: “There is lots to look forward to, I’m feeling a lot better now. We won’t be defeated by terrorism. They want us to stop living life and we’re proof that we don’t and we carry on.”
Attack survivor Robby Potter was hit by shrapnel as he stood in the foyer of the arena waiting for daughter Tegan.
Speaking after the service, Mr Potter said: “It brought a lot of memories back, but it was somewhere we had to come to support the families who have lost people.” Tegan said: “It was good, but I felt sorry for those who lost people, and just how lucky I am that my dad’s still here.”
Figen Murray, 57, lost her son Martyn Hett, 29. She said: “The people of Manchester are uniting to show they care, they are strong and that each and everyone of them are personally taking a stand in defiance.
“The attack was not just about the killing of innocent people. It was an attack against the people of Manchester. Losing Martyn hurts so much. I feel torn to bits inside and the pain is unbearable.
“But I will be surrounded by family and friends and together we will somehow get through the hardest day yet.”
Bomber Abedi, 22, was born in Manchester in 1994, but became radicalised by the propaganda of Isis in Syria.
AMINUTE’S silence was held yesterday on the anniversary of the Manchester Arena bombing in memory of the 22 people who lost their lives. The Duke of Cambridge and the Prime Minister attended a service of remembrance at Manchester Cathedral which was broadcast on big screens in the nearby Cathedral Gardens as well as in York Minster, Liverpool Metropolitan cathedral and Glasgow Cathedral. Three thousand singers from local choirs joined for the powerful One Voice event in Manchester’s Albert Square. Bells rang out at the moment – 10.31pm – when the attack took place.
The pop star Ariana Grande sent a message of solidarity to the city.
Theresa May spoke about the terrorist bombing as an “act of sickening cowardice” but there has been little about the day that was coloured by bitterness or hate. Even a year ago there was very much a sense of Manchester and its people pulling together in harmony and inclusiveness so as not to let the terrorists win. And underlining that has been the poignant recollections of the young victims by their families and friends, their lives cut short when they had so much to give and so much to look forward to.
Meanwhile the murder investigation continues with 100 officers on the case who have taken at least 2,000 witness statements. There has been some anger about the perceived slowness of the operation. But yesterday was not the day to address this. It was a day of which Manchester could be proud.