FIFTY years ago on 8 November 1974, our young brother Paul was abducted in broad daylight, taken away and was brutally murdered by the UVF. His young 18-year-old body was dumped in a disused bakery in Byron Street in the North Belfast area of Oldpark Road.
At the outset I would like to make it clear that Geraldine Finucane, her family and many, many families deserve truth and justice. As a family we have been failed for too many decades by RUC, PSNI, HET, Police Ombudsman's Office, past and present governments – the list is endless. Pledges and promises have never ever materialised into any proper investigations of Paul’s brutal murder. I will go further, it is shameful, cruel and so unfair.
Hilary Benn has pledged to replace and repeal this very toxic Legacy Act, I put it to Hilary Benn, how can our family ever take seriously his government’s intent to take them at their word?
We as a family have been failed by many: The RUC (who back 50 years ago assured our late father, James, that no stone would be left unturned in catching and bringing to justice, the UVF gang that tortured and murdered Paul). No one then or since has beaten a path to our door. Forget the past, draw a line, get on with your life: A common utterance used by many. I do not dwell on the past but I refuse to let our young brother Paul to be just another statistic. He was a loving son to our late parents James and Mary Armstrong and a loving young brother to his remaining brothers and sisters.
Constantly we are told to go down the story-telling route. That is the reason some years ago I wrote the book A Young Life Stolen, telling the Armstrong family narrative.
I challenge Hilary Benn to meet me, look me straight in the face, convince me to take him seriously. Some weeks ago the WAVE Trauma Centre sent him a copy of my book. My reason being, I don’t want him to say to us as a family, it didn’t happen on my watch. A phrase I have heard over the years by many.
Gerry Armstrong,
Author of A Young Life Stolen
