Should the Ballymurphy families have accepted Brandon Lewis’s apology for the murder of 10, possibly 11 innocent men and women throughout the three days in August 1971 known as the Ballymurphy Massacre? No of course they shouldn’t! Not only was it second-rate to the apology from David Cameron to the Bloody Sunday families, but it was just that…an apology from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, not the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
In failing to apologise personally Boris Johnson inadvertently made a hierarchy of victims, a hierarchy of families. He showed absolutely no consideration for the fact he, as the leader of the UK and responsible for the current actions of the UK armed forces, is the person, the representative who should have been making that apology. However, saying that there have been some very conflicting and some downright shady goings on over the past couple of days regarding an apology to the Ballymurphy families but this may have been the epitome of ignorance.
Downing Street initially released a statement claiming Johnson had apologised during an online meeting with Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill, while discussing a future public investigation into how the UK’s Covid response handled the pandemic. When Downing Street released this statement, everyone, including Michelle O’Neill and Arlene Foster were completely confused as apparently they hadn’t heard so much of a sniff of an apology and according to those present if there was a semblance of an apology, it was a passing comment, a slip of the tongue. So an apology to the Ballymurphy families was something of contention from the outset. It’s almost as if Johnson didn’t want to apologise or thought so little of said apology that he couldn’t bring himself to properly apologise to the families, even when they weren’t present.
When David Cameron had read the Saville report he allegedly walked into his study, threw down the report and decided there and then he was going to apologise publicly in parliament for the murders carried out by the same Parachute Regiment Battalion on Bloody Sunday which carried out the Ballymurphy Massacre. Johnson obviously felt a pathetic murmured apology during a meeting on Covid response would suffice – if that even happened, showing his ignorance of the situation, the hurt caused and the fact he, Boris Johnson has a duty to right the wrongs the soldiers of his country have caused. Every single ‘accused’ from both Bloody Sunday in Derry and the Ballymurphy Massacre were found innocent, in fact those from Ballymurphy were found “entirely innocent” showing the extent of the misinformation being applied to 1 Para. The higher ranks obviously knew what was going on due to the agreement between the RUC and the Royal Military Police that the RMP would investigate any further deadly force killings by the paras instead of the RUC.
The families are right – they need to know why their loved ones were killed. As Briege Voyle said – “I don’t care about an apology, I want to know why our loved ones were killed”. That point, why? is more important than having cleared their loved one’s names. The truth of why they were shot, lies with those who fired those fatal rounds. I’d hazard a guess the Paras knew those they murdered were innocent, and I’d say that is why the families want Johnson to address them face to face. They want to know why the Paras shot innocent people and why elite shock troops were carrying out peacekeeping operations in the North.
Johnson didn’t so much as consult the Ballymurphy families on the contents of the apology or indeed the apology from Brandon Lewis. He hadn’t so much as spoken to them in the days leading up to the findings of the inquest being revealed. By all accounts, the findings of this inquest meant so little to Johnson that he sent his Secretary of State for ‘Northern Ireland’ out to do what a job he should have had the humility and humanity to do himself…but he didn’t. That’s a reflection of how little these murders by British troops means to Boris Johnson, but also a reflection of how little the North means to the British Government.
From start to finish Johnson’s apology for murders British troops carried out has been a complete fiasco. He initially lied about apologising in the online meeting with the First and Joint First Minister, he then sent letters to each one of the families which have been described as nothing but scraps of paper by the families and then sent his Secretary of State out to do something that even David Carmeron, at the time, knew he had to do personally.
Boris Johnson not only needs to apologise publicly to the families, he needs to apologise to an entire community, to an entire country for what the British army did here. He needs to tell the families why 1 Para targeted their loved ones and on whose orders they were operating. Until that has been clarified, any apology is just words. Perhaps now Johnson will see why an amnesty for British forces is a bad idea. They murdered innocent people, worked outside their ROEs and decided who lived and died. They colluded with Loyalist paramilitaries, antagonised and terrorised an entire people and until all of that is acknowledged there can be no talk of an amnesty worth a damn.
Boris Johnson didn’t want to apologise and the apologies he has delivered to the families over the past 24 hours have been nothing but an exercise in ignorance.
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