Updates on Ireland from Derry's Pat Finucane Centre
Full Release of Ombudsmans Report on Sammy
Devenny
October 4 2001
We the family of Sammy Devenny
welcome the report of the Police Ombudsman's office. They have clarified
many of the questions we have asked. They have confirmed what we,
the family, already knew happened on the night of April 19 1969.
The findings of the Drury report
have finally been made known to our family, 31 years after 12 copies
were made available to the then Chief Constable Arthur Young and
members of the Government. We are mystified as to why the RUC were
unable to furnish a copy of the Drury investigation to the Ombudsman in
the course of this investigation. That the RUC claims not to have
retained a copy of the very first investigation to be carried out by an
outside force, Scotland Yard, into serious misconduct by members of the
RUC raises questions about the willingness of the RUC to learn the
lessons of the report.
What happened to our father,
family and friends on the night of April 19 1969 was deeply traumatic
and shameful. The subsequent cover-up within the RUC, the conspiracy of
silence, added insult to injury. It is our honest belief that this
was a major contributory factor in the escalating violence of the
period.
Following the death of our father
we as a family were demonised for no other reason than the fact that
we carried the Devenny name. We were denied employment on `security
grounds' because we were the children of Sammy Devenny.
This report will not bring back
our father. The findings have come too late for our mother. Nevertheless
we are hopeful that this report will help us along the journey to
emotional closure. We believe that many families are not able to
begin that journey because they have also been denied the truth surrounding
the deaths of their loved ones.
We now call on the Chief Constable
to respond to the report of the Police Ombudsman. As the most senior
officer in the institution responsible he is duty bound to break
the conspiracy of silence which has defined the RUC response to date.
We wish to thank the Police Ombudsman
Nuala O' Loan and her staff for treating our family with compassion and
respect. We also wish to thank the staff at the Pat Finucane Centre
for their help and support throughout this process and Dr Raymond
Mc Clean who has stood by us all these years. On this special day
for our family we are keeping our mother in our thoughts.
END
Press Statement
October 4 2001
The PFC welcomes the findings
of the report of the Police Ombudsman into the case of Sammy Devenny.
Today is an emotional and highly significant day for the Devenny
family and for the wider community. The events surrounding the assault
on the Devenny household on April 19 1969 and the tragic death of
Sammy Devenny three months later cast a shadow over this family and
city. This in turn poisoned the political climate in the weeks leading
up to the Battle of the Bogside, the pogroms in Belfast and the introduction
of British=20 troops onto the streets of the North.
The subsequent treatment of the
family by the RUC compounded the sense of injustice and hurt. This
has now been officially acknowledged in a comprehensive report from
the Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan. The official silence of the past
32 years has finally been broken.
There is a positive lesson to
be learnt from this investigation and report. Acknowledgement of
the hurt caused over the past 32 years need not cause further division
if handled sensitively and with compassion. A truth process can bring about
a healing of wounds and contribute to reconciliation. Any meaningful
peace process must be accompanied by a truth process. The report
of the Victims
Commissioner, Kenneth Bloomfield,
failed miserably to acknowledge the hurt and trauma of many, many other
families who, like the Devenny family, have contacted the Pat Finucane
Centre. For these other families the search for acknowledgement continues.
Some will argue that this only `reopens old wounds'. The reality
for many is that these wounds have never healed.
There remains unfinished business.
The Chief Constable of the RUC, Ronnie Flanagan, has a responsibility to
acknowledge the findings of this report. He has been provided with
a copy as has the Secretary of State Dr John0 Reid.
End
A copy of the report will be
available online when the family release the document. www.serve.com/pfc