Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Tá mé an-bhuíoch don Cheann Comhairle mar thug sé seans dom caint ar an ábhar tábhachtach stairiúil seo.

The families of the 11 victims of the British Parachute Regiment, who were shot and killed in the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast in the three days after the introduction of internment in 1971, are looking to the Irish Government for solidarity and active political support in their campaign for justice. Few in this Dáil can imagine the terror and the trauma that families in Nationalist areas of the North endured when internment was introduced. Thousands of homes were raided and ransacked, prisoners were tortured and working class areas were under military occupation by the British Army. Fewer still can understand the horror which 11 families in Ballymurphy suffered as they discovered that their loved ones had been shot and killed by British soldiers, or the torment, frustration and anger they experienced as the British state moved to ensure that the legal and judicial system covered up what had happened.

Of the 11 who died, ten were men, including a local priest, and the eleventh was a mother of eight. I am from Ballymurphy. These citizens were my neighbours. Fr. Hugh Mullan was my priest. These killings left 46 children without a parent. Many of these children were evacuated to this part of the island, mostly to military camps as refugees. Briege Foyle and her sister were in Waterford when an RTE television news bulletin informed them that their mother had been buried that day. Briege described it thus.

[It was] like a nightmare. We couldn't grasp it...We stayed with relatives but cried to go home. We imagined home would be like it always had been but it wasn't. It was an empty shell without our mummy. We had already been through a terrible ordeal but it didn't stop there. The paratroopers continued to torture us. They used to sing "where's your mama gone" outside our door and you couldn't walk down the street without them taunting you. We were all so terrified.

None of the dead was connected with or in any way part of any armed group. They were all unarmed citizens. The success of the British State in covering this up meant that Ballymurphy became a forgotten massacre. Now, as adults, the children and surviving siblings of those killed want the names of their loved ones cleared, and they want the Minister's help and that of the Government to do this.

The news yesterday that the North's Attorney General has ordered new inquests in ten of the 11 cases is to be welcomed. This is a landmark legal judgement that provides the families with an opportunity to get to the truth of the killing of their loved ones. The decision by the Attorney General is also evidence of the importance of having policing and justice powers transferred from London to Ireland. However, the families believe that the role of the British State and its armed forces warrants a full, thorough international investigation and an apology from the British Government which recognises their innocence. Will the Government support them and join them in demanding this investigation?

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I thank Deputy Adams for raising this, which is one of the darkest episodes in the history of the Troubles. It occurred on 9, 10 and 11 August 1971 in Ballymurphy, West Belfast. Eleven people were shot dead, as the Deputy has said, by British security forces over these terrible three days, and the trauma of this continues to be felt by the families of the victims. In a very real way, the people of Ballymurphy and Springfield continue to live with the legacy of those three days and struggle to this day to come to terms with such a devastating loss of life within their community - indeed, within the Deputy's own community. I would like to take this opportunity to put on record an expression of deep sympathy to the families of the victims and to their neighbours and friends who continue to grieve for their lost loved ones.

The families, friends and neighbours of the 11 victims have come together to create the Ballymurphy Massacre Campaign to co-ordinate their efforts to seek justice. In November of last year, members of the campaign travelled to London to petition MPs on behalf of the campaign. On 16 March this year another family member testified in Washington before the US Helsinki Commission, which monitors compliance with the Helsinki Final Act and other OSCE commitments, and this provided the campaign with an opportunity to highlight its quest internationally. The campaign has not been easy, and despite the 40-year anniversary of the killings this August, the families have yet to achieve the closure they justly deserve.

The Government has sought to assist the Ballymurphy Massacre Campaign in its quest for justice. Officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade maintain frequent contact with the campaign and its legal representatives, and they have met on a number of occasions this year. On 23 March 2011, shortly after assuming office, the Taoiseach made clear that he was prepared to meet with the families of the victims. A meeting between officials from the Department of the Taoiseach and the Ballymurphy Massacre Campaign was held in June to prepare for this meeting with the Taoiseach.

At present, the killings in Ballymurphy are being investigated by the historical inquiries team, HET, which was established in September 2005 by the then PSNI Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, with the aim of reviewing each of the deaths that occurred in the North during the Troubles. While I understand that the families have some misgivings about the HET process in its current format, I hope some good comes from these reports. More positive has been the announcement today that the Attorney General for Northern Ireland has ordered the reopening of ten coronial inquests into the events at Ballymurphy. I hope these reopened inquests can help to uncover more details and provide some measure of closure. The Government remains committed to assisting the Ballymurphy Massacre Campaign in its search for justice and will continue to support it.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for her commitment to assist the campaign and continue to support the families. I know I have very little time, but I want to read this into the Dáil record. The failure to expose this massacre at the time it occurred meant that the same regiment left Ballymurphy, went to Derry and killed 14 innocent civilians there. They then came back to Belfast, killed a 14 year old boy in Lenadoon, a 17 year old in Clonard, a student teacher in Divis and two men on the Shankill Road. In 1972, six months after Derry's Bloody Sunday, they shot five people in Springhill, which is the area adjacent to Ballymurphy, including another Catholic priest. Of the four others killed, three were teenagers and the last was a father of six. In 1973 they killed five people, one a 12 year old boy, in north Belfast, while in south Armagh a 12 year old schoolgirl was shot dead.

The pattern is clear. This was the British Army doing what the British Army does and what all armies do in these situations. All of these people were innocent civilians, and their deaths were part of a planned counter-insurgency strategy by the British Government to pacify the population. These are heartland republican areas. The British soldiers had carte blanche to kill, torture and terrorise with legal and judicial impunity.

This matter cannot be ignored any longer. The Ballymurphy families want a full, thorough international investigation. They have rejected the HET process and I support them in that rejection. I will repeat what I have said before: the needs of all victims of the conflict must be dealt with. As well as victims of the British State and of Unionism, there are victims of the IRA, including victims in this part of the island. We saw this being raised during the recent presidential election. All of these victims need to have closure and be part of a healing process. Sinn Féin has proposed that the Irish and British Governments invite a reputable and independent international body to establish an independent international truth commission as part of a viable truth recovery process.

I would like, if I may, to read into the record the names of those killed in Ballymurphy: Fr. Hugh Mullan, who was 38 years old; Frank Quinn, 19, a father of two; Joan Connolly, 50, a mother of eight; Daniel Teggart, 44, a father of 13; Joseph Murphy, 41, a father of 12; Noel Phillips, who was 18; Eddie Doherty, 28, a father of four; John Laverty, who was 20; Joe Corr, 43, a father of six; John McKerr, 49, a father of two; and Paddy McCarthy, who was 44 years old. I once again implore the Government to assist and support the families' campaign and their demand for a full independent investigation.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I reiterate the Government's support for the Ballymurphy families in their search for justice and truth. The officials are in constant contact with the families and their legal representatives and the Taoiseach has indicated his willingness to meet them as well. There is ongoing work, as the Deputy knows, within Northern Ireland and by the British and Irish Governments with the aim of getting at the truth of what has happened in the past. We will continue to focus on ensuring that this work is as effective as possible. I thank the Deputy again for raising this issue.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The British Government is not assisting in this process.