We look at the stories that were making the headlines this week in 1984
23-year-old Mark Marron shot dead by British soldiers
A high-powered delegation of lawyers from all parts of the Western World will arrive in Belfast this weekend to investigate fatal shootings by the British Military.
23-year-old Clonard man Mark Marron, shot dead at a roadblock on Monday night by British soldiers, was the twentieth death to be attributed to the ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy.
It is believed the format of the tribunal which was to conduct its first hearing in Belfast on Saturday, 4th February, will be changed to allow relatives of Mr Marron to give evidence. The victim's mother, Mrs Jean Marron, has accused a British soldier of shooting Mark after the car he had been in was stopped. The RUC Press Office claim the car which had been stolen earlier in the city centre, had accelerated past a British soldier who had tried to wave it down. The hearings at which witnesses and lawyers will provide evidence and make submissions, especially as to the role of the Coroner's Courts, policies regarding prosecution and methods of investigating, will take place in Armagh, Derry and Belfast in early February.
According to the Inquiry organisers, the Association for Legal Justice, Mr Kador Asmal, Dean of Arts and Senior Lecturer in Law at Trinity College Dublin, will chair the Tribunal. The panel also includes: Mr Geoffrey Bindman, British solicitor, Mr John Brittain, Professor of Constitutional Law and International Relations, University of Connecticut and Mr Michael Zavrian, Advocate of the Court of Appeals, Paris.
Mr Richard Hanvey, British Barrister and Member of the New York Bar, and Mr Marlene Archer, National Director law students Civil Rights Research Council (USA), will act as legal counsel to the Inquiry.
Another member of the Marron family, Samuel, featured at a previous inquiry by international experts into the use of plastic bullets which was held by the ALJ in 1981. Samuel Marron was hit by a plastic bullet in that year, and as a result is now paralysed down one side of his body.
Appeal for witnesses after Shaws Road attack
THE mother of a local youth who was set upon and viciously assaulted on Friday night last, is appealing for witnesses who can give her more information about the incident.
20-year-old Damien Carey is recovering in the City Hospital where doctors are treating him for two fractures of the skull, a large bruise on the head and a deep cut, which required 13 stitches, beside his left eye. He has no memory of the incident which happened as he and his friend left the Kel-Star Fish and Chip Shop on the Shaws Road at around 12.30 a.m.
Explained Mrs Sally Carey: "Damien and his friend had been at the Clubhouse and on their way home called in for a chip. When they sat on a bollard outside to eat the chips, another crowd of youths came over and one of them hit Damien's friend. He managed to get away, but Damien was beaten senseless."
Damien Carey was in a coma when an ambulance arrived to take him to hospital and medical staff say he only came round the following morning.
"I am desperate to get in touch with anyone who witnessed the attack", said Mrs Carey, "and would like especially to contact the girls who went into the Chinese Restaurant to phone for an ambulance."
Mrs Carey continued: "I would also like to thank the girls for taking the action they did. If Damien had been left lying there, he could have died."
One of Ireland’s biggest play grounds for St James’
ONE of the biggest and best equipped adventure playgrounds in Ireland is to be built in the St James' area. A model of the proposed park has been constructed by students of Queen's University Winter School and is presently on display in the Crescent Community Centre.
Local community worker Danny Quigg says the march is now on for the money to finance the project.
"Already we have received £750 from the N.I. Voluntary Trust and several other submissions to trust funds are being considered.
“The site at the top of St Katherine's Road is being loaned to the Crescent Community Association by the Parish. Facilities in the completed playground will include a football pitch, a BMX track and an adventure area.
"We hope there will be something for all the young teenagers and children in St James'," said Danny. He went on: "This is the first time a scheme of this nature has been undertaken in Belfast. In fact we had to travel to Strangford to view the nearest adventure play ground to us – and our project is six times bigger than the Strangford playground."
Work on the playground will go ahead as soon as planning permission, the architect's drawings, and a loan of the land is obtained.
