The wrong
city
I have had the pleasure of attending concerts
by the excellent Christy Moore on several occasions over the years and he never
lets his fans down. From thoughtful ballads like ‘the City of Chicago’ to banging tunes such as ‘Viva La Quinta Brigada,’ Christy has a real gift for leading an
audience through the full range of emotions during his concerts. A few years
back he sang a song I hadn’t heard before. It was called, ‘Does this train stop on Merseyside’ and is a thoughtful journey
through some important historical moments in the life of that fine city on the
Mersey. Part of the lyric says…
‘Yorkshire
Police chat with folded arms while people try to save their fellow fans…’
It’s quite clear that the lyric is referring to
the awful events at Hillsborough Stadium in 1989. Not only is it becoming
abundantly clear that the official version of events as portrayed in the media
and in the initial reports into the disaster were deeply flawed, it is also
clear that there were huge failings in the response of the emergency services to
the disaster. I have written elsewhere about the bitter-sweet pride I felt when
Celtic invited Liverpool FC north to play their first match in the aftermath of
the events at Hillsborough and perhaps take the first faltering steps towards
healing. Of course the wounds of Hillsborough would remain raw for years as
justice and truth were denied to the survivors and families of those lost.
Just as the city of Derry refused to swallow
the travesty of justice which was the Widgery Report into the Bloody Sunday
massacre of 1972, so too did the gutsy people of Liverpool refuse to accept the
official version of events which in retrospect seemed to be more about passing
blame onto the supporters in order to deflect attention from the appalling
actions and inaction of the Police and other officials that day and in the
days following those lamentable events.
The late Anne Williams who lost her 15 year
old son, Kevin, that day refused to be cowed by officials stonewalling her and
dedicated years of her life to the search for truth. Her long held view that
the medical evidence given at the inquests was flawed has since been
vindicated. Crucially the Sheffield coroner, Dr Stefan Popper, ruled at the
time that all the victims were dead or could not have been revived by 3.15pm on
the day of the disaster. His evidence meant that no evidence was heard at the
inquests about the chaotic and failed response from the police and ambulance
service. Anne Williams refused to accept this version of events and with
relatives of other victims fought a long and at times bitter campaign for
justice. She finally saw the evidence of Dr Popper overturned as unsound. It
has now been established that many of the victims were alive after 3.15pm and
that prompt medical help may have saved up to 58 of them. Anne said after being
vindicated that…
‘I have
known all these years that the inquest evidence was wrong and Kevin could have
been saved.’
With heart breaking poignancy Special Police
Constable, Debra Martin stated at the new inquiry that Kevin had died in her
arms at 4pm and that the last word he mumbled was, ‘Mum.’ Martin also spoke of being ‘pressurised’ to change her statement of the time so that it
concurred with the ‘official’ version of events. This creation of cover story
to disguise the failings of the Police that day added huge insult to the pain
being endured by the Hillsborough families. The disgraceful stories they
peddled to a compliant gutter press which sought to shift blame onto supporters
remains a shameful episode in the history Policing in these islands. So too, was
the establishment closing ranks and denying justice to those so painfully
wronged for over two decades.
Anne Williams and the families of those lost
fought on with that determination and spirit Liverpool is known for and their determination
to see justice done was recognised by one newspaper which commented…
‘It is now
accepted that the families fought this battle, with no glimpse of vindication
for so long, only out of love for their relatives. So, at the end of her life, Anne
Williams, with other Hillsborough families, was recognised not as part of some
Liverpool rabble but as a shining example: an everyday person embodying the
extraordinary power and depth of human love.’
Anne lost her fight with cancer in 2013 but
two days before she left us, this remarkable woman defied her doctors to attend
the Hillsborough memorial service. She heard Everton Chairman, Bill Kenwright
pay tribute to the families and particularly the mothers of victims. He spoke
movingly of their struggle with the establishment for justice and said that if
they thought the families were going to give up or go away…
"They
picked on the wrong city – and they picked on the wrong mums."
At long last the truth is emerging about what
actually occurred on that day in April 1989. The ‘missing’ video tapes, deleted
evidence, amended police notes, negligence, mistakes, lies and human frailties
which compounded the fatal error of judgement made by the match commander are
now a matter of public record. ‘Integrity,’
said CS Lewis, ‘is doing the right thing
even when no one is looking.’ There was precious little integrity on
display that day from those public servants we are meant to trust implicitly.
There can never be closure for the families
affected as the loss of a loved one is a daily reality for them. Glasgow felt
this pain too in 1971 with the dreadful events at Ibrox Stadium and perhaps
that experience helped the folk on the Clyde to empathise more closely with
their counterparts on Merseyside. That game at Celtic Park on the last day of
April 1989 is one I shall always remember. It showed that solidarity between real
football supporters transcends petty rivalries when such traumatic events
occur. What are all the prizes in football worth when compared to a single
human life? Bill Shankly once said that football was more important than life or
death. For once the great man was wrong.
I hope the families of those lost at
Hillsborough see justice done to the fullest extent. Anne Williams is typical
of many who fought a long, hard battle to expose the truth. As she said when
she was vindicated after her long struggle…
"This
is what I fought for. I was never going to give up."
No comments:
Post a Comment