Wednesday, 7 March, 2001
Sunday, 11 March, 2001 Thursday, 15 March, 2001Rosemary Nelson Memorial Lecture
Rosemary Nelson and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Common Ground in the Ongoing Struggle for Human Dignity
By Edmund Lynch JD
Delivered at the Lecture Hall, Law Society, 98 Victoria St, Belfast on Wednesday 7th March 2001
Ed Lynch is a lawyer from New Jersey. He is a prominent member of the organisation Lawyers Alliance for Human Rights. He worked with Rosemary Nelson on her complaints about death threats from the RUC. He also raised his concerns about Rosemary's safety with a number of prominent individuals - including British Home Secretary, Jack Straw and RUC Chief Constable, Ronnie Flanagan. In this first Rosemary Nelson Memorial Lecture, Ed Lynch spoke about his work with Rosemary Nelson and draw on the similarity between her work and that of Dr Martin Luther King.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please let me express my sincere thanks to the members of the Rosemary Nelson Campaign for the kind invitation you have extended to me to deliver the first Rosemary Nelson Memorial Lecture.
I particularly wish to extend my sincere regards to Rosemary's husband, Paul and her three children, Gavin, Christopher and Sarah. And to Rosemary's sisters Bernie, Caitlin, and Lucille and her brothers Eunan and Tony. And I particularly a respect to Rosemary's parents Mr. and Mrs. Magee.
I come before you in profound humility and awe.
My humility stems from the recognition that very few lawyers can expect to approach the level of professional excellence and personal courage exhibited by Rosemary Nelson. I am in awe of Rosemary's tenacity and persistence in her campaign for justice for those some might consider the least members of society but to whom Rosemary rendered service often time reserved to the privileged classes.
I express profound admiration to members of Rosemary's family and members of the campaign who have not let the passing time diminish their ardor for the full truth behind the abuse and collusion which led to Rosemary's death. They believe, as do I, that this search for truth will benefit the entire human rights community and the people of Ireland so that the rallying cry of many abused peoples "Never Again" will apply with equal force to Ireland.
Let me say finally by way of introduction that although honored to speak tonight in Belfast, I am saddened that these remarks concern the sorrow of one more Irish family in this magnificent yet conflicted land. Belfast was the home of my mother's family, Kathryn McCarron. Her father left Belfast as a young man from the New Lodge, unable to find work as a joiner. He landed in Philadelphia and was promptly employed by Dixon Builders, a firm with origins in the North of Ireland. The irony that it was acceptable for this firm to employ him in Philadelphia, but not Belfast, did not escape Jack McCarron. I am sure that he, and my mother Kathryn endorse my remarks tonight.
In the true sense my address is not a memorial to Rosemary but rather a tribute to the perseverance of her spirit and her gifts to the people of Ireland. I think back to the days following the first Good Friday when the bereaved family and demoralized followers of a champion of human rights sought to comprehend the meaning of his life and death. Then too, justice seemed a fraud. The hopes and dreams of dedicated followers had been cast into the abyss as a result of unjust treatment and ultimately assassination. That earlier seeker of justice was vilified by leaders of the nation and abused and humiliated by the security forces. His cruel and inexplicable death had shaken the faith of many. The road of reconciliation, kindness to strangers, and charity to persecutors seemed a dead end. But we cannot forget what transpired a few days after that first Good Friday.
As Luke explains, two disciples travelling on the road to Emmaus, were discussing all that had happened in Jerusalem. When a stranger joined them on the road and inquired as to their conversation, Cleopas responded in amazement that this stranger must be the only resident of Jerusalem who did not know that Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet powerful in word and deed in the eyes of God and all of the people, had been delivered up to a cruel death by the chief priests and leaders. Cleopas and the other disciples were hoping that he was the one to set Israel free. Now, this was not to happen and the disciples were further disturbed by reports of the women that the body had disappeared and there was talk of a vision of angels.
Then, to their surprise, this seemingly ignorant stranger explained the significance of all of these events. Cleopas and the other disciples prevailed upon the traveler to share an evening meal. After the blessing of bread, "their eyes opened and they recognized him; where upon he vanished from their sight." Cleopas exclaimed, "Were not our hearts burning inside us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?"
So, this evening, in some small sense, I see a parallel to the situation we face in Belfast, Lurgan, Portadown, Derry and all of Ireland. A courageous and inspiring individual to whom we looked for leadership and hope has passed from our immediate view. We must continue on the lonely and threatening road to justice in Ireland and elsewhere. We cannot turn and see Rosemary at our side when we confront the bigotry so evident at Gough Barracks, Lurgan RUC Headquarters and the streets of Portadown, Belfast and Killwilkie. But we know that Rosemary is with us as fully and strongly as we could hold her hand and seek her opinion as each new challenge is presented to the people she loved and served so well. "Are not our hearts similarly burning" as we go forward to confront the daily challenges to human dignity presented by the Northern Ireland state and those who serve the state.
Let me now turn to my knowledge of Rosemary and her work. When a friend is gone, we often think back to our last encounter. In some cases that may be with regret if a harsh or unkind word was the last to pass between us. Or we think of the missed opportunity to tell that person of our love and respect. With Rosemary, I think of our last meeting and a quiet smile comes to me.
I was present in Paul and Rosemary's home when Rosemary was presented with an urgent petition for equitable relief by her very articulate and persuasive son, Gavin. It seems Gavin had let his exuberance get the best of him and fractured an arm during the course of a rather adventuresome bicycle adventure. Now Gavin had concluded, in his wisdom, he was sufficiently healed to take on further acrobatic bicycle challenges. Rosemary presided in a very solemn but understanding fashion, and ultimately decided to reserve decision and continue hearing at a future date. Rosemary later remarked to me that she knew the petition should have been denied outright but she could not bring herself to crush the hopes of the litigant and thus a continuance was in order. She then concluded "if only I could find a few like minded judges in this jurisdiction we would not have to wear out the courts of an appeal."
I first came to know Rosemary Nelson professionally in the court proceedings arising over the unjust prosecution of Colin Duffy of Lurgan. As I am sure most of you know, members of the security forces, particularly the RUC establishment in Lurgan, considered Mr. Duffy to be an enemy of the state. Thus whatever was necessary to eliminate Mr. Duffy from the scene was considered justified. Evidence to support this assertion first became evident in March of 1990. You will recall that Sam Marshall, Tony McCaughey and Colin Duffy were on bail at the time and were required to report twice a week to the Lurgan RUC station. Information about the dates and times of their required visits to the police station was highly sensitive since, because of their notoriety, they were obvious targets for loyalist terrorists. The details of the reporting requirements were known only to the three men, their solicitor and Lurgan RUC officers.
As is further well known, after the men reported to the RUC station in Lurgan as condition of their bail on March 7th, 1990, they were kept under surveillance by the occupants of two red motor vehicles, one a Maestro and the other a Rover. Duffy, McCaughey and Marshall were shortly thereafter set upon by armed attackers who killed Marshall and pursued and unsuccessfully attempted to kill Duffy and McCaughey. Despite the attack occurring within 600 yards of the Lurgan RUC station, no help was forthcoming from those premises. Thus a reasonable conclusion was reached by many residences of Lurgan that the RUC had set up the assassination of Sam Marshall and attempted assassination of Colin Duffy and Tony McCaughey.
When this attempt failed, the RUC successfully undertook a false prosecution of Duffy and obtained his conviction on murder charges involving an off duty UDR officer, John Lyness, on June 24, 1993. The key witness produced in court by the RUC against Duffy was a gentlemen identified by the RUC as a public spirited citizen. This person claimed to be an eye witness who placed Duffy at the scene of the killing. It was only later that this disinterested public citizen was identified in Scotland as Lindsay Robb, arrested as part of a loyalist gun buying operation.
All of this information damaging to the self promoted image of the RUC was brought out in legal proceedings in which Rosemary Nelson served as Mr. Duffy's solicitor. One need not be particularly imaginative, to understand that the animosity of the RUC now included not only Colin Duffy but also his solicitor.
In June of 1997, two RUC officers, were killed in Lurgan. Without foundation, Colin Duffy was arrested as a suspect. He identified his solicitor as Rosemary Nelson. Duffy was interrogated by a detective whose name is known. Duffy stated under oath in subsequent investigations that his RUC interrogators refused his request for assistance of counsel. He specifically identified that same Detective Constable as the person who put the proposition to him that his solicitor Rosemary Nelson "would be proud" of Duffy having killed the two RUC officers.
Thus, we can see that the poison of hatred by certain members of the RUC toward Rosemary Nelson, because of her performance of her sworn duty as an attorney, begins to boil over in June of 1997. It is interesting to note that this same detective had been part of the previous prosecution of Duffy for the alleged murder of UDR Sargent Lynes. Duffy further identified a detective Constable and a detective inspector who were present when he was assaulted by a member of the RUC. No bonifide investigation of the assault appears to have been undertaken by the RUC.
Another courageous individual, whose name I will not use at present, gave a signed statement on June 11, 1997. This individual had no prior criminal involvement. In March 1997 he and his girlfriend were arrested by the RUC on flimsy charges. He was taken to Gough Barracks. He was held for two days and then released without charge. He identified his solicitor as Rosemary Nelson. Members of the CID referred to her as a terrorist and used obscene and sick language to spew out their hatred of a courageous solicitor. Apparently they could not tolerate the fact that a woman solicitor followed the law, presented evidence and demonstrated the incompetence and dishonesty of cases presented by the RUC.
A third individual gave a signed statement on October 27, 1997.
He was arrested on February 2, 1997 and taken to Gough Barracks. Two RUC officers interviewed him. One was identified as Officer X (name known). According to the statement of this individual, once he identified Rosemary Nelson as his solicitor, his interrogators commenced firing abuse at him concerning Ms. Nelson referring to her as a "money grabbing bitch." She was "only in it for the money." She was "a Provo bastard." She was "a Provo solicitor" The only people who requested Rosemary Nelson were "the provies."
According to this statement, these officers continued with obscene and demeaning language directed to Rosemary Nelson. But the heart of their grievance was revealed in their accusation that "she got him off" referring to Colin Duffy. To my knowledge, Office X and the other officer identified by this credible witness remain good standing members of the RUC.
Further statements were given by two brothers concerning events of February 11, 1997. Their home was searched and wrecked by the RUC and they were arrested. This all took place in the early morning hours to the consternation of the two brothers, their little sister and two little brothers and parents. Nothing unusual here as far as RUC conduct in the North of Ireland. Later, two separate photos of the brothers were found missing from the home.
During the course of three days of interviews at Gough Barracks, the interrogating officers confirmed their animosity to Colin Duffy, Tony McCaughy and others who they indicated would be dealt with by the UVF. They referred to Rosemary Nelson as a friend of the Provos and Colin Duffy. They stated "she's not that good, she won't get you off."
The other brother, a youth aged 19, gave an independent but reliable statement concerning the events of February 11, 1997. After a break of interrogation at Gough Barracks, during which this individual consulted with Rosemary Nelson, the RUC interrogators demanded to know "what's Rosemary telling you?" They stated that Rosemary had shot a rocket, had "touted." They stated that this individual was "going to be shot and, the RUC will "shoot all of you." They further advised this individual, "tell Rosemary she is going to die too." The officers suggested that the individual ask Rosemary "about explosives."
Two Special Branch men offered the individual a car, a flat and even a boat. Nothing was impossible when motivated by hatred of Rosemary Nelson. One could easily understand that a lawyer subject to such abuse and threats would retreat from representation of unpopular clients. But Rosemary Nelson was a special person who chose to fulfill her sworn duty as an advocate for individuals confronted by the power of the State regardless of the misconduct of agents of the State who had abandoned all respect for the law they had sworn to uphold.
When residents of the Garvaghy Road enclave in Portadown were under siege in their homes and neighborhood at the hands of unwanted intruders, they turned to Rosemary for legal support. Of course she did not let them down. As Rosemary testified before the United States Congress, she presented legal petitions within the system established by the British government to voice the objections of citizens to the violation of their right of privacy in their own homes and streets.
In 1997 Rosemary was personally on the front line of this confrontation as well as in the British courts seeking judicial relief. During the early morning hours of July 5th, as you well know, the RUC forced the unwanted intruders down the Garvaghy Road, assaulting all those peaceful demonstrators who stood in the way of the violent onslaught. When Rosemary sought to speak to the officer in charge, she was assaulted, subjected to sectarian verbal abuse and rebuffed in obscene language, which unfortunately has become the typical matter of communication of certain members of this force.
As of the date of Rosemary's testimony before the United State's Congress on September 29, 1998, her complaints to the RUC concerning their riotous conduct and their assault and abuse of her in July of 1997 remained unanswered. In her testimony in Washington, Rosemary acknowledged the conduct of the RUC, death threats, threatening telephone calls and letters had all caused her concern, not only for herself, but for her family and her staff. She noted that no lawyer in Northern Ireland could forget the fate of Patrick Finucane, who similarly had challenged state abuse, particularly that carried out by the RUC. In her testimony in Washington in September of 1998, Rosemary called for an independent international inquiry of Mr. Finucane's murder. Almost 2 ½ years have passed since that date, and yet the British government has failed to move forward with a credible international inquiry into evidence of collusion between members of the security forces and the individuals who carried out the actual assassination of Patrick Finucane. Certainly one must conclude that Rosemary's killers were embolded by the lack of action by the British government took in the Finucane case.
Let me pause here to remark upon the striking comparisons between Rosemary's life and that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. When Dr. King received his doctorate in theology from Boston University in 1955, he had several attractive offers to teach in universities or minister in prosperous churches in Massachusetts, New York, and Michigan. The alternative was an opportunity to serve as Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Church in Montgomery, AL, a hot bed of racism and bigotry. Dr. King wrote of his thoughts at that time as follows:
"The thing that we need in the world today, is a group of men and women who will stand up for right and be opposed to wrong wherever it is. A group of people who have come to see that somethings are wrong whether they are never caught up with. Some things are right, whether no body sees you doing them or not. All I'm trying to say is that, our world is contingent on moral foundations. God has made it so. * God has made the universe to be based on a moral law**. The universe hinges on moral foundation. There is something in this universe that justifies Carlyle in saying, "no lie can live forever." There is something in this universe that justifies William Cullen Bryant in saying, "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." There is something in this universe that justifies James Russell Lowell in saying, "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne."
Thus, Martin Luther King, chose to pursue the truth of human dignity, as opposed to material comfort. Some thirty years later, Rosemary Nelson would make that same choice. Dr. King did not have to wait long to be put to the test. On December 1, 1955 Mrs. Rosa Parks refused the order of a bus driver to vacate her seat so that a white man could sit in her place on a crowded bus. Her refusal, and the subsequent year long Montgomery Bus boycott was a first blow for dignity in the modern struggle by Black Americans for civil and human rights.
Dr. King was invited to leave the security of the parish house and address the boycott organizers. May I invite your attention to those words of Dr. King of December 1955 which ring true today:
"We are here this evening for serious business. We are here in a general sense because first and foremost we are American citizens and we are determined to apply our citizenship to the fullness of its meaning. We are here also because of our love for democracy, because of our deep-seated belief that democracy transformed from thin paper to thick action is the greatest form of government on earth.
You know, my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life's July, and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.
And we are not wrong. We are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God
Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to earth. And we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I want to say that in all of our actions we must stick together. Unity is the great need of the hour, and if we are united we can get many of the things that we not only desire but which we justly deserve. And don't let anybody frighten you. We are not afraid of what we are doing, because we are doing it within the law. There is never a time in our American democracy that we must ever think we're wrong when we protest. We reserve that right.
We, the disinherited of this land, we who have been oppressed so long, are tired of going through the long night of captivity. And now we are reaching out for the daybreak of freedom and justice and equality. May I say to you, my friends, as I come to a close. We must keep. .. God in the forefront. Let us be Christian in all of our actions. But I want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love. Love is one of the pivotal points of the Christian faith. There is another side called justice.
Standing beside love is always justice and we are only using the tools of justice. Not only are we using the tools of persuasion but we've come to see that we've got to use the tools of coercion. Not only is this thing a process of education but it is also a process of legislation.
As we stand and sit here this evening and as we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead, let us go out with a grim and bold determination that we are going to stick together. We are going to work together. Right here in Montgomery, when the history books are written in the future, somebody will have to say, - there lived a race of people, a black people, 'fleecy locks and black complexion, a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights.
And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization.
Thus, Rosemary Nelson chose, as did her predecessor, Dr. King, to speak out and fight for justice. After consultation with a trusted barrister, and consultation with family and colleagues, Rosemary decided to go public with her demand that members of the RUC treat her and her clients with the dignity due them under the law of Ireland and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Rosemary asked me, and members of our group of American lawyers to assist in her efforts to expose and punish the rottenness pervading the RUC. Commencing on March 13, 1997 and continuing through February 27, 1999, I, and colleagues from America petitioned leaders of the British and Northern Ireland governments and security forces to investigate misconduct by members of the RUC directed against Rosemary Nelson and to protect Rosemary from foreseeable harm. It is with a pervasive sense of sadness that I must report that the British and Northern Ireland governments abjectly failed in the most basic obligation of government, i.e. protection of the life one of its citizens.
My printed remarks contained the full chronology of communications by me and members of the Lawyers Alliance for Justice in Ireland to representatives of the British and Northern Ireland governments on behalf of Rosemary Nelson. These communications included more then twenty letters and submissions; several phone calls, and at least 2 personal meetings with representatives of the British government security establishment. I note the following partial example of these communications: ( a detailed chronology will be avaialble on site at a later date. Ed.)
By early 1999 the situation had become very worrying. Despite Rosemary's efforts to obtain action, and involvement by numerous parties, including a United States Senator and the British government had taken no responsible action to protect Rosemary or ferret out the miscreants within the RUC who were acting with impunity against a lawyer who simply was carrying out her duty to uphold the law. On February 27, 1999 I, and five colleagues, including a retired American Chief of Police, and Chairman of the Congressional Committee on Human Rights, met with the Chief Constable of the RUC, Mr. Ronnie Flanagan. We raised the issue of the threats against Ms. Nelson by members of the RUC. The response forthcoming from the Chief Constable was that the matter was "under investigation."
Sixteen days later, on March 15, 1999, Rosemary Nelson was assassinated.
On that afternoon, in anguish and anger I telephoned Chief Constable Flanagan, who was unavailable. Sometime later on that same date I received a reply message from the Chief Constable that "no stone would be left unturned" in pursuing the investigation of those who perpetrated the assassination of Ms. Nelson. On March 17, 1999 I wrote to Chief Constable Flanagan and to Commander Mulvihill of the London Metropolitan Police, who it was claimed was conducting an independent investigation of the threats against Rosemary. I advised these gentlemen as follows:
"I received Chief Flanagan's assurance that no stone would be left unturned in pursuing the killers of Rosemary Nelson. We will hold you to that promise. You might start by upturning the rocks at Gough Barracks. RUC detectives stationed there were the source of death threats, insults, and intimidation of Ms. Nelson. Each miscreat who has been identified to Commander Mulvihill should be arrested. Those in command who did nothing despite the repeated warnings should be sacked. My question is why the British government did not protect Ms. Nelson despite the well documented threats to her life by its own servants."
That question remains unanswered almost two years after it was presented to Chief Flanagan and Commander Mulvihill. Thus, tonight, as we reflect upon this tragic event, we must confront the same despair and confusion that faced those travelers on the road to Emmaus so many years ago. We see that the British government has rebuffed the call for an independent and transparent investigation by a recognized international legal tribunal of clear evidence of abuse and collusion by the security force leading to the death of a leading human rights lawyer, Rosemary Nelson.
We must acknowledge that the security forces in this jurisdiction have yet to recognize their duty to treat all citizens equally. Threats and intimidation, sectarian abuse, violence and blind bigotry continue unabated. Details of individuals maintained by the security forces mysteriously turn up in the lodges and gathering places of hate filled men of violence. The perpetrators of a wave of bombings, beatings and shootings appear to be beyond the powers of apprehension by members of the a very highly paid police force.
But the final page of this story has not been written. I am confident that each person in this hall, and numerous others in Ireland, Britain, the United States and elsewhere will not rest until all of the ugly rocks at Gough Barracks, Lurgan, RUC station and, yes, RUC Headquarters on Knock Road are dug from the earth at the truth exposed and the wrongdoers punished.
That however will not be the final chapter in the life of Rosemary Nelson. So long as there is a law student, lawyer, police officer, judge or citizen who cares enough about justice in Ireland to step forward when even the least citizen is abused, Rosemary Nelson will be present with us.
Let me close by recalling the final days of Dr. Martin Luther King. Some may say that Dr. King left us on April 4, 1968. I disagree. You will recall that in the early months of 1968, America was in turmoil. The war in Vietnam had intensified. Young men, black and white, mostly poor, were returning in caskets to their cities, towns, and villages from a far off land of little interest to the average citizen. Los Angeles, Detroit, Newark and other cities still exhibited the scars of police brutality, race riots, and urban conflagration. Soon, Robert Kennedy would be shot down just as his campaign for the Presidency was surging forward to likely victory.
Dr. King was called to Memphis, TN to rally the campaign of striking sanitation workers. Their simple request was that the city provide a living wage for those who hauled away the garbage that others would not touch. Many warned Dr. King that he should not travel to Memphis at that time because of the boiling caldron of hatred and racism directed against the sanitation workers and Blacks in Memphis.
When Dr. King left Atlanta to travel to Memphis, his plane was delayed because of a bomb threat. He was not deterred and went forward to Memphis and what turned out to be his final speech, on April 3, 1968. In hindsight, it almost seems as if Dr. King foresaw the tragic events of the next day, April 4th, at the Loraine Hotel. Let me repeat those words of Dr. King and ask you cannot we not say the same of Rosemary Nelson?
"And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats or talk about the threats that were out, or what would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers. Well, I don't know what will happen now; we've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life-longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Every now and then I guess we all think realistically about that day when we will be victimized with what is life's final common denominator - that something we call death. We all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own funeral. And I don't think of it in a morbid sense. Every now and then I ask myself; "What is it that I would want said?" And I leave the word to you this morning.
I'd like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King, ]r., tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day, that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry.
And I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try, in my life, to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and to serve humanity. Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major .for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that's all I wanted to say. If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, then my living 1vill not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a Christian ought, if I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as the master taught, then my living will not be in vain."
Rosemary Nelson - a woman of many qualities
By Anne Cadwallader, Ireland on Sunday
THIS THURSDAY will be the second anniversary of Rosemary Nelson's murder. No one has yet been charged with killing her although rumours are flying that there's a prime suspect. For her family, Thursday will be a day of intense pain despite all attempts by friends and supporters to console them. For most of us who were lucky enough to know her, she was a valued friend whose advice was invariably positive and who would take up any cause she believed in, no matter how overworked she was. Selfishly, we took it for granted that she would be with us for the rest of our lives, bright and cheerful always.
She never ceased to amaze me with her indomitable determination and boundless energy. How she managed to do all that work, care for her family AND always be perfectly turned out is beyond me. I shall always remember Rosemary dressed smartly, her hair perfectly groomed, a gold necklace or bangle setting off her dark lawyer's clothes but with a jaunty "click-clacking of the high heeled shoe" (to quote Van Morrison). These may seem trivial, even sexist, memories - after all she was a professional lawyer who was murdered by Loyalists. So what's the relevance of how she looked?
I cling to those memories, however, to remind myself that Rosemary was a human being first and a lawyer and valued friend to many in her professional capacity only second. The more I think about all the warnings, remonstrations, letters, phone calls and meetings at which concerns were raised about her safety with British ministers and RUC officers, the angrier I get. To them, she was just a woman, just an irritant, just a fly in the ointment. That's the kindest way of putting it. Others would say that the official, wilful neglect of Rosemary's safety was deliberate and malevolent.
Rosemary knowingly placed herself in danger by acting as legal adviser
for the family of murdered Portadown Catholic Robert Hamill, broadcaster
Sean McPhilemy and the Garvaghy Road residents. She knew what could lie
ahead. She was acutely aware of what lay behind Pat Finucane's murder
and, living in mid-Ulster, she understood the dark forces and shadowy powers
circulating in the "Murder Triangle".
I keep on telling myself that its wrong to talk about her as though
she was the patron saint of good causes, but when I try to think about
any faults she had, I just can't summon up any.
Copyright © 2001 Ireland on Sunday
International Commemerations
Below is a list of events organised so far to mark the 2nd anniversary of the murder of Rosemary Nelson. Please take part in any events in your area if you can make it. For further information visit the campaign website at www.rosemarynelsoncampaign.comIreland:
March 15th· Portadown: Memorial service at Drumcree Community Centre, Ashgrove Road, 8:30pm· Belfast: Memorial service at Clonard Monastery, Clonard Gardens, 7.30 pm
United States:
New York: Anniversary Mass for Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, St Francis of Assisi Church, 131 West 31st St. NYC on Thursday march 15th 2001 at 6pm. Reception to follow at O Reilly's 54 West 31st NYC ( between Broadway and 6th Ave ). Speakers Peter Madden, Susan Mc Kay and Dr. Robbie McVeigh.· British Consulate Candlelight Vigil, 845 Third Ave. 3rd Avenue, St Patrick Day 17th, 6pm
Australia:
March 15th· South Melbourne: Memorial Service at St. Peter and St. Paul's Catholic Church, 6:00pm. The speaker will be Chris Maxwell QC, President of Victorian Council for Civil Liberties. The memorial service is also being held to call on Australian governments and parliamentarians to support the establishment of the independent, international inquiry into Rosemary's murder.
England:
Black Flag Vigil in memory of Rosemary in Birmingham City Centre (New Street) on Saturday 17th March from 12 - 2pm. We will be giving out leaflets and asking people to sign the petition calling for a Public Inquiry into her murder. Organised by the Troops Out Movement.· There will be an RNC vigil at Downing Street, London at 6.00pm on the 15th of March.