Mr. Michael O'Hare:

I thank the Chair and the committee for their time and presence today. It is very kind of them to hear our stories. I will introduce the story of my sister, Majella, for those who have not caught up with it yet. It was 14 August 1976. It was a splendid, lovely day. She was going to confession with a few friends. She walked through a checkpoint and suddenly she was shot in the back by three machine gun bullets from a paratrooper lying at the outset of a vehicle checkpoint. My father was working very close by at the school where he was the caretaker. He knew something had happened because he heard the commotion among the other children. He rushed to the scene and found Majella mortally wounded. What happened after that is that they were quite abusive to my father as he claimed to be the child's father. He was abused verbally and told that he was nothing only an old grass cutter. He said, "There is more to it than that. This is my daughter". She was then taken in a helicopter to Daisy Hill Hospital but the damage was done; it was much too late.

Majella had already died. In the aftermath, an inquiry was concocted to cover up their actions which was all lies. The police sergeant from the local station came to me in the evening and said the police were not happy with story they were being told and that they wanted to take it further. Our house was in total chaos at that stage. Mum and Dad were devastated. The rest of the family were on their way back.

They went on to investigate the circumstances and after a few weeks of interviewing people in the immediate area who were working in fields and within earshot of what happened, they were able to confirm to the police that only one shot was fired. There was no crossfire situation. No third party was involved and they were not telling the truth. It ended up going to court on a manslaughter charge because before we arrived at that stage, they came to me and said that if they went for a murder charge they were unlikely to even get it into court. The fellow who was investigating said if we went for a lesser charge that at least there might be some chance of a reprimand given that the army did not give any account to the police force at the time. It was all in-house and the police were not even able to interview the soldier involved. It went to court on a manslaughter charge and was thrown out immediately by the judge sitting in a Diplock situation who had no interest in defending the victim, but was more interested in leaving the path clear for the security forces. I know we are not mentioning names here so I will not mention names but I know the people involved. It was a terrible time for us as a family. We have still not recovered.

Dad died ten years later of a broken heart but Mum survived until she was 96 and she was a power of strength to the family. In respect of that story, horrific as it is, I do not want to take up too much time because it is difficult for me to relate it to the committee. I assert that the Bill that is being proposed now is absolutely despicable because it leaves Majella's killer to walk free, which he has done for the past 40 years. We must use every available angle possible to object and stop this Bill going through because it is not right. People who kill are subject to the law, or they should be. It is important that victims are listened to. It is simply wrong that the UK Government is ignoring the opposition to these plans.

I thank the committee for listening but I sincerely hope that the Irish Government will do everything in its power to challenge this Bill at every opportunity. I will finish on that note.