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Irish Women Campaign for Truth & Justice

Mary Pearson | 02.03.2009 09:45 | Birmingham

Public Meetings - Justice for the Ballymurphy 11

Birmingham Trade Union Council Thursday 5th March 7.30pm
Council House, Victoria Square, City Centre B1 1BB

Coventry Trade Union Council Saturday 7th March 1.00pm
Four Provinces Social Club 19 Allesley Old Road CV5 8BU

Ballymurphy is a housing estate in West Belfast in the north of Ireland. The Ballymurphy 11 were local residents murdered by the British Army Parachute Regiment during the first 3 days of Internment in 1971. No one has ever been brought to justice and the victims have never had the focus of the Bloody Sunday victims. Thirteen of the fourteen Bloody Sunday victims were shot dead within 30 minutes in full view of the world’s media. The Ballymurphy victims were killed over 3 days in their own area by the same regiment. If the British Government had dealt with the soldiers who murdered the Ballymurphy 11, the slaughter of 14 people on Bloody Sunday in Derry, 5 months later, could have prevented. The government always told us that the British army was peacekeeping in the north of Ireland. The families of those massacred will inform us differently and have come together to demand justice

Two daughters of the Ballymurphy 11 are in the West Midlands from Thur 5th – Sun 8th March as the guests of Coventry Trade Union Council and the Troops Out Movement for International Women’s Day events. (Contact below for more details). Alice Harper is the daughter of Daniel Teggart, father of eight, murdered on 9th August. He was shot 14 times. Briege Voyle is the daughter of Joan Connolly, who was also murdered. on the 9th August. She was the mother of eight, shot whilst helping another victim Noel Phillips aged 19. All the victims were labelled by the British Army as terrorists with guns. There is not a scrap of evidence to support this. All of the victims were unarmed civilians and the relatives want truth and justice, not vengeance
They are calling for:
• An Independent International Public Investigation
• A statement of the innocence of those killed
• A public apology from those responsible

What Can We Do to Support the Ballymurphy Families?
• Give this information sheet out as widely as possible – in Trade Unions, Political Parties, Community Groups, friends & colleagues.
• Write to Gordon Brown, Shaun Woodward and your own MP to demand a full Independent International Investigation into the Ballymurphy killings - and encourage others to do so.

Contact details
• Gordon Brown, 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA e-mail:  privateoffice@no10.x.gsi.gov.uk
• Shaun Woodward, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA e-mail:  woodwardsh@parliament.uk
• Your own MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA www.writetothem.com

Troops Out Movement ~ Campaigning for British Withdrawal from Ireland
PO Box 1032 Birmingham B12 8BZ Tel: 0121 773 8683 0r 0797 017 4167
 troopsoutmovement@btinternet.com www.troopsoutmovement.com

Mary Pearson
- e-mail: Troops Out Movement
- Homepage: http://www.troopsoutmovement.com