British Government Commitment to public inquiry into Pat Finucane’s murder
he Irish American Unity Conference welcomes, with caution, the announcement by Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, that Britain has ordered a public inquiry into the 1989 killing of civil rights lawyer Pat Finucane.
Mr. Finucane was shot dead in his Belfast home in front of his family by the UDA in collusion with British state operatives.
Geraldine Finucane has waged a courageous, exhausting 35-year campaign demanding that the British Government conduct an objective public inquiry into her husband’s killing. In announcing the inquiry, Secretary Benn acknowledged that the UK has resisted holding an inquiry for decades, stating “The plain fact is that for two decades that commitment has been unfulfilled.”
In consideration of the UK’s long shameful history of not fulfilling its commitments regarding legacy investigations, it will be important to closely monitor Britain’s implementation of this directive.
Peter C. Kissel
National President
Irish American Unity Conference
www.iauc.org
