However, as one whose roots are in west Tyrone, even though I now I represent South Antrim, I believe that it is important that I should be here to add my voice of sympathy to the comments that have already been made here. The first UDR soldier to be killed in Northern Ireland and the youngest police officer to be murdered during the Troubles were from Castlederg. Now he could come back to Northern Ireland without a stain on his character. Equally, one cannot fail to be impressed by their modesty and dignity. Technically, those are clearly matters for the PSNI; they are not matters for the Department of Justice. ", Brown was just 18 when he was murdered by an IRA sniper, only four months after he finished his UDR training. The majority of deaths in Northern Ireland were at the hands of the IRA and the republicans. It was visited, probably above all others, with the horrendous, vicious, vile, wicked, terrorism of the IRA, which was not some accidental fallout from some perception that someone somewhere was being discriminated against, but the calculated, deliberate and preconceived implementation of a terrorist campaign. Victims are not looking for storytelling. Both those state forces caused terrible hurt and pain to the people whom I represent. Sadly, that town was to be targeted by the Provisional IRA and other terrorist organisations in a pre-planned, premeditated and systematic ethnic cleansing of the Protestant and unionist population. All three had been shot in the head. Not all victims want a legal or criminal justice approach. I will never know now, will I? The Member will resume her seat. For those who are persuaded democrats in the House, I trust that it has been heard and that those who are here have not been insulted by the attempts of others to try to explain and justify the making of them as victims. Will the Member bring his remarks to a close, please? They were not fighting for justice, and they were not freedom fighters; they were cowardly terrorists. The people who killed those 29 people, planted 70 bombs and murdered the nine civilians were not victims; they were terrorists. It is my home. Nothing. Community relations were set back very badly for many years. It is their voices that deserve to be heard, and heard to the fullest extent. His hair would be grey. Let me be very clear: it was wrong, and it always will be wrong. Just 18 miles from Omagh, where the Real IRA slaughtered 29 people with its 1998 bomb, Castlederg has lost several from the vicinity. A Chinese restaurant, for God's sake — what were they going to do? "When he comes back - and I know that is what he wants to do - I will confront him. "I know he has boasted about murdering Lexie, in a place where he is safe. The IRA carried out a further 16 bomb attacks in the locality in the following two years. They are entitled to be heard and acknowledged by the House and, indeed, the wider Northern Ireland community. We will not forget it. They are looking for justice, and justice means those who made them victims being faced with their deeds in the courts of this land. As a native of the Castlederg area, I am very aware of the pain and suffering associated with the Troubles in that part of Northern Ireland. In recent times, Sinn Féin contacted the Derg Victims Voice offering to meet it or offering assistance. 5th November 2013, 7:45 pm, He habitually wore body armour - it was sewn inside a baggy sweater that he wore most days. Twenty-one people were murdered by the IRA in Castlederg and the district, and a further eight men from the area were murdered by the Provos in other parts of Northern Ireland. At least, in the House, the IRA commander and deputy First Minister said that those actions were cruel and unjustified and were "of course" carried out by the IRA. It is such equivocation that adds greatly and immensely to that hurt, which was further added to, of course, by the obscenity of 11 August, when we had the coat-trailing glorification of two terrorists setting out of their own choice and volition to bring terror to Castlederg and who met their just desserts at their own hands. Soon he will be able to boast about it to my face. We should not be here to patronise victims. Their victims did not choose to be victims. Listening to the Members opposite, an independent observer would be forgiven for believing that it was only republicans who caused loss of life and suffering in the Castlederg and Aghyaran areas. For this small community, it has been a concession too far. All deaths by terrorists are wrong, but the murder campaign that was carried out in Castlederg was a disgrace. I am glad to see some members of Derg Valley Victims Voice with us in the Public Gallery this evening. I would hate to be in the position where I had to stand in front of my maker and say that I was responsible for the death of anyone. That argument is, of course, entirely flawed, because murder is murder irrespective of when it occurs, by whom or for what cause it is carried out. For Finlay's neighbour, Shelley Gilfillan, countless sleepless nights throughout the past 30 years have been spent wondering how her late brother Kenneth's life would have turned out. Children grew up without the love and guidance of their father; sons and daughters predeceased their parents; and brothers and sisters were left to mourn the death of their siblings. He had made the mistake of taking the same route to work on two consecutive days and was shot three times in the head at point-blank range. Mr Deputy Speaker, if you will allow me, I have only more thing. 5th November 2013. Last night, through our television screens, we had the opportunity to glimpse something of the pain and horror that attended the entire episode of the disappeared. They chose to be terrorists. What we saw in Castlederg in August was a disgraceful attempt to coat-trail, to cause fear, to cause upset and to damage the community relations and whatever work was being done to try to move things forward there. How can you justify 70 bombs in a town the size of Castlederg? They were on a murder mission to bring terror and mayhem to the town of Castlederg. — with the complicity or negligence of others, and a means or recognising the enormous hurt those people continue to suffer today. His answer will be no. I rise to bring the full support of the Democratic Unionist Party behind my colleague Tom Buchanan, who has so eloquently outlined the needs of the Derg valley victims and their plight, which they should never have had to suffer. The recent republican commemoration in Castlederg was offensive and insensitive to the vast majority of victim families and, indeed, the local community. It brought shame on you. Freddie Scappaticci, who fled Belfast after being unmasked as a senior IRA commander during a terrorist trial in 1991, has consistently denied being Stakeknife. Finlay, a retired part-time sergeant in the Ulster Defence Regiment, does not believe in an eye for an eye: it is not, he says, the way of his community. I have met it on many occasions. • 9 June 1972 - Edward (Ted) Megahey (45), a member of the UDR. We are told by the unionist Members opposite that Tyrone republicans are insensitive to those who have suffered at the hands of republicans in the Castlederg area. Members now await the outcome of a police investigation into the multiple breaches of the Parades Commission determination, although more in hope than expectation, and hope that those who broke the law are made amenable for their actions. It was terrorism, and it was conducted by terrorists. The 1998 Belfast Agreement ushered in the prisoner release scheme, a controversial priority in the agreement, with arrangements for the early release of convicted criminals. That is very, very hard for anyone to take.". Some want, quite simply, the truth about why their family member was killed. You talk nonsense about peace and reconciliation. I salute the Derg Valley Victims Voice for its initiative, tenacity and persistent promotion of its cause. Now we are being asked to accept that no one is going to take on the responsibility of bringing them to justice. That is what happened in Castlederg. Of the 24 people from Castlederg murdered by the IRA whose graves spread before him, Finlay knew 22. A number of families lost more than one member to the IRA. Such were the ferocity and intensity of the bombing campaign against the commercial centre of the town that, during the 1970s, the Belfast press described Castlederg as Ulster's most bombed small town. And when I do, if I as much as slap his face, I will be the one convicted of assault. And when these killers are allowed to walk its roads with not a blemish on their records, it will make it a very hard land to live in.". A total of 29 people were murdered in Castlederg by IRA terrorism during the Troubles, but only two murder convictions have been made, and 93% of the cases remain unsolved. His grandmother took a fatal heart attack. Let me tell the House —. This weekend, they have the Real IRA's response to the package on offer: an 88lb bomb that exploded outside a London pub. What good came of that murder? It is fine to come out and make the speeches about seeking peace and seeking reconciliation and wishing to move forwards, but there is a need to acknowledge the part that your associates played in the Troubles and not merely point the finger across the Chamber, which, sadly, is what she did. 5th November 2013, 7:30 pm, Perhaps that, in part, explains the continuing division between the nationalist and unionist traditions in the town. Bombers were brought in from all over the place, and the heroes scuttled off back to their rathole. That offer still stands. Castlederg was nearly bombed out of existence. What justice is there in that?". I certainly regret that the report of the Consultative Group on the Past — the Eames/Bradley report — was rejected in its entirety because of one particular aspect relating to financial payments. They are, as the honourable Member put so well, guilty of collusion. • Michael Kearney, 20, from Belfast, who was found dead on the Concession Road in Clones, County Monaghan, just south of the border in July 1979. These were people who were prepared to murder within their community. The few murderers convicted for their crime have long since been released from prison as a result of the Belfast Agreement. She asks: "Why is there no outcry about all these people for whom there is no justice? Sorry, I must ask the Member to resume his seat, please. Eric Brown addressing more than 40 members of Castlederg Ulster Defence Association during a bus tour of Co Fermanagh. The man was murdered because he was a Protestant. The official submission handed to the archives states: “The Provisional IRA themselves have made it clear on a number [of occasions] that where they believe people within the organisation to be agents or informers, they can expect no mercy. The event itself saw republican bandsmen dressed in terrorist regalia walking the streets where IRA terrorists had brutally murdered and bombed with reckless disregard for human life. Just as republicans are willing to try to understand the unionist community's hurt and pain, so, too, must unionists understand that they and the British Government caused hurt and pain to the nationalist and republican people. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. He says, pointing to the name of Constable William Brown, killed in an IRA ambush in March 1977: "I was at school with him. It is the contention of the victims' group that it is the Government's duty to take the lead in releasing the families of victims of terrorism from the shackles of the past. The decision by Sinn Féin to relocate an annual commemorative event for IRA terrorists away from its usual venue in the republican area of Galbally to Castlederg on 11 August resulted once again in the town being thrust into the media spotlight to become the centre of the political arena.
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