Nationalist lives still don’t matter

SIR – Martin Luther King once remarked that the colour of a man’s skin should be of no more significance than the colour of his eyes. Unfortunately, as we have seen in the case of George Floyd and others, this is not the case.

On Saturday, June 6th, hundreds of protesters gathered at the US embassy in Dublin and around the world in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in the aftermath of the death of Mr Floyd. Charges have already been filed by US authorities against those police officers involved in this horrific incident.

In August 1971, members of the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment stationed in Ballymurphy in west Belfast randomly shot and killed eleven innocent people in hugely controversial circumstances. All those killed were Catholic nationalists.

It took 45 years for Sir Declan Morgan, the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, to recommend an inquest into the killings be held.Almost half a century after these killings, the families of the victims are still being denied justice.

As part of his general election manifesto in 2019, British prime minister Boris Johnson pledged to amend the law to protect former British soldiers from legal actions, including those relating to killings of the Troubles. Under the proposals the British Conservative government, if returned, would amend the Human Rights Act in the UK.

Mr Johnson said, ‘If I’m elected, I want the message from my government to our armed forces to be louder and clearer than ever: we salute you and we will always support you.’  Mr Johnson’s Tory Party was returned to power with a huge mandate from the British people.

It seems that Catholic / nationalist lives still don’t matter.

Tom Cooper,

Oifigeach Cumarsáide,

Irish National Congress,

Aras an Phiarsaigh,

27, Pearse Street,

Dublin 2.