OMAGH VICTIMS' GROUP CHAIRMAN BACKS KENNEDY
Omagh victims' group chairman backs Kennedy
DEAGLAN DE BREADUN
IN BELFAST
Chairman of the Omagh Bomb Victims Group Michael Gallagher has declared his support for the Independent Human Rights candidate in West Belfast, Prof Liam Kennedy, who is standing on a platform of opposition to paramilitary violence.
Attending the launch of Prof Kennedy's campaign in Belfast yesterday, Mr Gallagher said: "We have not seen any political party that has been willing to stand up and raise the issues that affect victims. We are delighted that Liam Kennedy has created a platform for people, so that those who have been affected have an opportunity to stand up and be counted."
Prof Kennedy, who teaches at Queen's University but comes originally from Borrisoleigh, Co Tipperary, said: "I have long been appalled by the terror exercised by paramilitary organisations -the IRA and its various splinter groups, the UVF, the UDA, the LVF - over working-class communities in Northern Ireland.
"The great bulk of human rights violations are carried out by paramilitary organisations."
He challenged Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party to a public debate during the campaign on the issue of the human rights abuses committed by the IRA and the UVF in the seven years since the Belfast Agreement.
His question was: "Why the yawning gap between the fancy rhetoric and the brutal reality at street level?" He said his supporters also included Margaret McKinney of the Families of the Disappeared and Victor Barker who lost a son in the Omagh Michael Gallagher: delighted Prof Kennedy is standing
bombing. Leading Presbyterian clergyman the Rev Brian Ken-naway attended the launch.
Mr Gallagher also criticised Mr Adams for failing to urge republicans to help the investigation into the 1998 bomb attack at Omagh. "We have not had one single word from Gerry Adams or Sinn Fein since we met him back in 2000," he said.
"Parties like Sinn Fein and those linked to loyalism say they have accepted democratic rules, but they also have to accept law and order and justice.
"As far as I am concerned they have not lived up to democratic principles and yet have reaped all of the benefits of participation in the democratic process."
Among those who also endorsed Prof Kennedy's candidacy was Raymond McCord, whose 22-year-old son Raymond jnr was killed by the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1997. Mr McCord said the needs of victims' families were being ignored by all the main parties in Northern Ireland and by the government during the election campaign.
Additional reporting: PA
DEAGLAN DE BREADUN
IN BELFAST
Chairman of the Omagh Bomb Victims Group Michael Gallagher has declared his support for the Independent Human Rights candidate in West Belfast, Prof Liam Kennedy, who is standing on a platform of opposition to paramilitary violence.
Attending the launch of Prof Kennedy's campaign in Belfast yesterday, Mr Gallagher said: "We have not seen any political party that has been willing to stand up and raise the issues that affect victims. We are delighted that Liam Kennedy has created a platform for people, so that those who have been affected have an opportunity to stand up and be counted."
Prof Kennedy, who teaches at Queen's University but comes originally from Borrisoleigh, Co Tipperary, said: "I have long been appalled by the terror exercised by paramilitary organisations -the IRA and its various splinter groups, the UVF, the UDA, the LVF - over working-class communities in Northern Ireland.
"The great bulk of human rights violations are carried out by paramilitary organisations."
He challenged Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party to a public debate during the campaign on the issue of the human rights abuses committed by the IRA and the UVF in the seven years since the Belfast Agreement.
His question was: "Why the yawning gap between the fancy rhetoric and the brutal reality at street level?" He said his supporters also included Margaret McKinney of the Families of the Disappeared and Victor Barker who lost a son in the Omagh Michael Gallagher: delighted Prof Kennedy is standing
bombing. Leading Presbyterian clergyman the Rev Brian Ken-naway attended the launch.
Mr Gallagher also criticised Mr Adams for failing to urge republicans to help the investigation into the 1998 bomb attack at Omagh. "We have not had one single word from Gerry Adams or Sinn Fein since we met him back in 2000," he said.
"Parties like Sinn Fein and those linked to loyalism say they have accepted democratic rules, but they also have to accept law and order and justice.
"As far as I am concerned they have not lived up to democratic principles and yet have reaped all of the benefits of participation in the democratic process."
Among those who also endorsed Prof Kennedy's candidacy was Raymond McCord, whose 22-year-old son Raymond jnr was killed by the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1997. Mr McCord said the needs of victims' families were being ignored by all the main parties in Northern Ireland and by the government during the election campaign.
Additional reporting: PA
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH TIMES
Ref: IT/414
Published Date: 20-Apr-05
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