Ballymurphy meeting 'worthwhile'

Published Friday, 18 February 2011
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The families of those killed by the British Army in Ballymurphy 40 years ago have described their first meeting with the first minister as a "worthwhile experience".

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The families, who are calling for an independent international investigation into the deaths, met with Peter Robinson on Friday.

Eleven people lost their lives including a mother-of-eight and a local priest in the 1971 shootings, which were carried out by the same British Army Parachute Regiment that six months later would killed 13 innocent civilians on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry.

Families of those killed are also calling for an apology from the Government.

John Teggart, whose father Danny shot dead, said: "We were able to go into details about exactly how they were murdered and how it affected the families afterwards with him, especially as First Minister and leader of the DUP, it was important for someone like him to understand that the state is responsible."

"It was worthwhile. He did give us some pointers and indicated we could look at civil prosecution, that in itself is worthwhile", he added.

The meeting lasted just over an hour. Speaking afterwards, Peter Robinson said he had "listened carefully" to the families.

"Today I met with and listened carefully to the views expressed by the people from Ballymurphy," he said.

"To lose a loved one is a painful experience. The way in which we deal with the past requires sensitivity. The DUP is of the view that a further raft of open-ended, costly inquiries is not beneficial."

© UTV News
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23 Comments
henry in north belfast wrote (456 days ago):
@billy. so what your saying is that because the IRA came from the catholic side of the fence means it was ok to kill anyone from the catholic side because they all must be sheilding the IRA and dont kill any protestants because protestants arent killing members of the ruc/army they are just killing catholics, well seeing as the ruc/udr/were 99.99% protestants am sure the IRA found it very hard to tell who werent members of the uda,uff,uvf, and got sheilding from the protestant community, and btw billy the first ruc man shot in the last bout of the troubles was shot by loyalist, just love the way you people go into a huff when it comes to the truth about murders and the lies that followed em
Billy in Lisburn wrote (456 days ago):
@ Mouncey - Upwards of 100,000 "innocent Catholics" marched behind the coffin of convicted PIRA criminal Bobby Sands and by doing so these 100,000 "innocent Catholics" sent a message to the Protestant communtiy that they supported the murder of innocent Protestants. By marching behind Sands coffin these "innocent Catholics" clearly identified themselves as PIRA sympathisers. What is there to argue about this point?
seamas in belfast wrote (456 days ago):
This thread isn’t about the IRA. It’s about innocent people, UK citizens ,being murdered by their own government. They and their relatives are entitled to have the truth uncovered. What loyalists or the IRA did is irrelevant.
Billy in Lisburn wrote (457 days ago):
@ Henry - no they didn't because the Protestant community wasn't sheilding the organisations that massacred security force personnel and innocent Protetants in the name of Ireland. Loyalist paramilitaries were and are evil scum but the PIRA outshone them in terms of sheer brutality and sectarianism.
Mouncey in Belfast wrote (457 days ago):
Well done Billy. Keep churning out the Loyalist paramilitary excuse that the murder of innocent Catholics was justified as they were all IRA sympathisers.
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