A NEWLYWED couple and their baby who died in a loyalist petrol bomb attack in the New Lodge have been remembered on their 50th anniversary.
Joseph (22), Jeanette (19) and Brigeen Dempsey (10 months) died as they slept in their Hillman Street home on August 27, 1976.
The young family had moved into their new home only weeks before the attack. They were at the very beginning of married life, building a home and a future together with their baby daughter.
A neighbour, Danny McNally, risked his own life trying to rescue the young family and managed to make his way into the burning house. When he reached the bedroom, he saw Joe holding Brigeen in his arms. In the final moments of his life, Joe was still a father trying to protect his baby daughter.
Joe would be 72-years-of-age today. Jeanette would be 69. Brigeen would now be 50 with a life and a story of her own. Instead, for those who loved them, they remain forever 22, 19 and ten-months-old, while their family has grown older in the pursuit of answers.
The impact of the murders has never left either family. Joe's mother Annie was devastated by the loss of her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, and her children remember that she was never the same woman again.
Today – on their 50th anniversary – Joe's siblings Hugh, Liza and Esther continue to carry the memory of Joe, Jeanette and Brigeen, and seek the truth about what happened to them. Their brothers Paddy, John and Jimmy have all since passed away. They died without ever seeing the full truth established or anyone held accountable for the murders of their brother, sister-in-law and niece.
Numerous suspects were arrested in connection with the murders over the years, including 11 people in the weeks immediately following the attack, yet no one was ever charged with or convicted of killing Joe, Jeanette and Brigeen. The family were not kept informed about significant developments in the investigation and only learned many years later about those arrests.
There has never been an effective, human rights-compliant investigation into the murders of this young family. That failure cannot simply be attributed to the passage of time.
The Dempsey family have never been passive in their pursuit of truth and justice. They have engaged with the processes made available to them and continued to pursue every avenue for answers, while facing delay, obstruction and the failure of state bodies to meet the legal obligations owed to them.
The family engaged with the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) and, with the support of Relatives for Justice, subsequently lodged a complaint with the Police Ombudsman raising serious concerns about the original RUC investigation. That complaint was accepted for investigation. However, before that investigation could be concluded, the Legacy Act shut down that investigative pathway.
The passage of five decades cannot obscure where responsibility lies: Families did not create these delays, and the state cannot be permitted to benefit from the consequences of its own failures to deliver effective investigation.
The experience of the Dempsey family is shared by many families bereaved through the conflict. The Legacy Act represented an unprecedented interference with their rights, shutting down inquests, civil proceedings and legacy investigations and replacing established judicial and investigative processes with a mechanism which has failed to command the confidence of families.
As new legislation is now brought forward to reshape the legacy landscape, the rights of victims and survivors must not again be subordinated to political expediency or state interests. Any new framework must deliver genuinely independent, effective and human rights-compliant investigations, with full disclosure and meaningful participation for families. After decades of delay, families cannot be asked simply to continue waiting.
For the Dempsey family, the consequences of that delay are already irreversible.
On the 40th anniversary of their murders, the Dempsey family said: “The loss of Joe, Jeanette and Brigeen has left a big gap in our lives. We owe it to them to keep looking for answers.” Ten years later, they are still looking.
Relatives for Justice stands with the Dempsey family in remembering Joe, Jeanette and Brigeen, and will continue to support them in their pursuit of the truth, justice and accountability to which they have always been entitled.
