Andrée Murphy hails from Dublin but has lived in Belfast since 1994.
She is the Deputy Director of Relatives for Justice, a national victim support NGO which provides advocacy and therapeutic support for the bereaved and injured of the conflict. Holding a Masters Degree in international human rights law, Andrée's particular expertise and research on women affected by conflict trauma has seen her provide evidence to the United Nations in Geneva and to Congressional hearings in the US.
Andrée is a columnist for Belfast Media Group and is a regular contributor to broadcast media, providing political analysis and commentary.
HOW long do we say 'Legacy is damaging the PSNI' without saying the RUC needs to be disbanded?
“KEVIN Barry O’Donnell was shot in the back whilst trying to escape and in the face while lying incapacitated on the ground. Peter Clancy was shot whilst trying to flee and then repeatedly while in a crouched kneeling position. Patrick Vincent was shot while seated in the cab of the lorry and then while lying incapacitated across the lorry through its open doors. Sean O’Farrell was shot in the back whilst running away and then in the face whilst on the ground incapacitated.”
A YEAR since the re-establishment of the Executive and the anniversary is causing a fair bit of commentary and attempts at scoring a report card.
THE last thing anyone wants to write in the week we remember the Holocaust is mud-slinging at those who defend human rights. It is quite obvious that all of us would reflect not just on the horror of Nazi genocide against Jews, LGBTQ, Roma, Blacks and other non-Aryan groups, but also the many, many, genocides since, including in Europe. To attack the Irish President, who refuses to be blind to modern-day genocide in Gaza, is, quite frankly, a blatant apologia for the Israeli state and its current genocidal policies. To do that on the back of Holocaust commemoration is perversion of memory.
THE southern government’s Programme for Government – scant on detail and modest In aspiration – feels like an opportunity missed as we sit at a crossroads waiting to determine our national future.
IRISH Department of Foreign Affairs officials are in the middle of an extensive consultation on their new Action Plan on Women Peace and Security. Don’t jump forward yet – I promise this gets interesting.
IN 2003, Sinn Féin overtook the SDLP as the largest nationalist party in the North of Ireland. Since then the party’s electoral trajectory both north and south has been, for the most part, pointed skyward. Even when there have been bad days for the party, its position as a formidable force in contemporary Irish politics has been safe.
HERE comes 2025 – slap bang in the middle of the Decade of Possibilities. There are signs that this may become a seminal year in the development of a new nation. A new Irish government with a new opposition enters into the 34th Dáil (note to readers: my old-school republican eyes twitch typing that – if you know, you know). The matter of Irish unity is on the political agenda at a significant level.
SINCE 1994 Santa has been a visitor to my house. He has come for our five kids for 30 years, and he has come for our granddaughter too. This year it is looking like it is his last year for a little while until, please God, we are gifted with more grandchildren.
SIR George Ernest Craythorne Hamilton was PSNI Chief Constable from 2014 until 2018. In 2015 he was invited to speak at Féile An Phobail and was interviewed by journalist Brian Rowan. Sir George was presented as a good guy, despite the scepticism of many since Sinn Féin signed up to policing in 2007.
THIS week is International Human Rights Week. It was designated such by the United Nations to honour the signing of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights on December 10 1948. At the heart of the document is a commitment to the dignity of every human being, irrespective of their place of birth or their status. Whether born in a manger or born in a palace, every human being must carry the same worth. Or so, after the Second World War of mass genocide and murderous intent, the global community decided.
THE results of the general election in the South give us all much to think about. Less so on a practical level – unless Fine Gael decide that they want some time out, which is not impossible, it will be more of the same old same old in Leinster House.
IN a lovely pub in the Bronx in New York this week I was lucky enough to be part of an event to celebrate ordinary Irish Americans who have contributed to their own communities and to building peace and justice in Ireland.
ALL of those who have suffered state and non-state violations on this island since partition can point to a lack of accurate memory of that experience. Some of this is incredibly personal. For some families the experience of violation was quite simply unspeakable and was not spoken.
IN the dying hours of the 33rd Dáil, the Joint Oireachtas Committee for the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement published an extraordinary report with recommendations regarding women and the constitutional debate. It was extraordinary because it took the wider debate on the potential for constitutional change and focused on the necessary, practical steps to ensure women’s participation. That included recognition of the disproportionate impact of our conflict on women.