Gareth & Nuala

The first speaker today was Gareth Pierce, who defended the Birmingham 6 and the Guilford 4. These 10 men were arrested, thrown in jail and tortured in 1975 after IRA bombings in English pubs. Their convictions, based on confessions gained through torture, were overturned in 1991 and 1989, respectively.

Pierce said the 1998 Good Friday Agreement made her feel hopeful: "I would have assumed that the British state would have confronted its mindset, colonial attitudes, and political imperatives in light of what it had been forced to learn by 1998.” Instead she listed a litany of human rights abuses, ranging from Guantanamo to the hostile environment faced by refugees and asylum seekers.
"It is extraordinary to come here and be reminded of what we should have learned. We shouldn’t settle for what we have now.”
Nuala O’Loan, Northern Ireland's first Police Ombudsman between 1999 and 2007, struck a similar theme. She said the British government has done nothing but frustrate attempts by families to learn why their loved ones died or who was responsible. Just one case she cited: Sam Devenney. During a night of rioting in the Bogside, a group of youths ran into Devenney’s house. Most ran out the back into the yard. Police came in after the lads and found Sam, father of nine, and some of his children in the front room of the house, including a daughter recuperating from abdominal surgery. They proceeded to beat Sam bloody in front of his children, and beat his children if they tried to protect their dad. He died of a heart attack a few months later, age 42. Two police reports were undertaken. The results were not shared with the family. RUC members beat the family, but they closed ranks and the men who beat Devenney were never identified. This happened over and over again.
Either Nuala or Gareth said that a mature, confident state could look at its most grotesque failings and admit them, offering healing to those with lingering wounds (like nine children who saw their father in a puddle of blood in their house). But we are instead moving away from a human rights culture by withdrawing from the EU and persecuting immigrants.

It was a tough weekend but all of the speakers were inspiring and thoughtful and wise. I learned a great deal about things that happened in Derry shortly before I arrived there--but were not discussed in polite company, either at school or at home.

Here’s a photo from a civil rights rally in front of the Guildhall yesterday:

And here’s Feargal Keene speaking yesterday while Pat Hume looked on. I forgot that when I first got to Derry I saw a documentary about John Hume’s life. Very well done and a great way to tee up a weekend of speakers continuing his legacy.

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