THE death has occurred of veteran human rights campaigner Monsignor Raymond Murray.
One of the founders of the Association of Legal Justice in the 1970s with the late Fr Denis Faul, together they highlighted British state killings and torture within the prison system as the conflict raged in the North. He was also a founding member of victims’ group Relatives for Justice (RFJ) along with Clara Reilly and Peter Madden and campaigned with others against the use of plastic and rubber bullets. Raymond Murray was also an Irish speaker and a poet of some renown in the Irish language.
Speaking about Monsignor Murray, RFJ CEO Mark Thompson described his contribution to human rights in Ireland as “unparalleled”.
“His first-hand testimony led directly to the Irish Government successfully taking the first inter-state case to the European Commission of Human Rights on the systemic use of torture,” said Mark.
“From writing of the ‘killing triangle’ and state collusion in Mid-Ulster throughout the 1970s, when collusion was being called “republican propaganda”, to working with Arder Fegan and myself, on the first documented account of the use of South African weapons in the post-1987 period, he documented the policy of collusion in real time. Every single piece of contemporary work on the policy of state collusion finds its origins in Raymond Murray’s work.
“He was chaplain in Armagh Gaol when the most egregious of violations occurred against women political prisoners. He was vocal when so many remained shamefully silent. He wrote many pamphlets on individual killings which would have otherwise gone undocumented, Michael McCartan, Julie Livingstone, Danny Barrett and Majella O’Hare, to mention just a few.
“With Emma Groves, Paddy Kelly and Clara Reilly, he was part of the establishment of the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets, contesting their use, and demanding not only their removal from the arsenal of the RUC and British Army, but a cease in their production.
“His seminal work on the British Government’s use of lethal force during the conflict, The SAS in Ireland, remains a touchstone reference for anyone interested in how the conflict was waged, and the experience of victims of state violence. There is not a week goes by when the current generation of human rights activists and lawyers dealing with what we now term legacy do not rely on the foundational work of Monsignor Murray.”
Mark added that there was much more to Raymond Murray beside his human rights work.
"A linguist, historian and academic with a passion for the arts, road bowls, Armagh GAA and cycling, he was a towering intellectual and utterly non-judgmental. He insisted on an embracing and inclusive approach to the past and to victims and survivors.
“Fiercely independent, he was at the heart of the development of RFJ’s human rights focused approach to support and core values that ensured all victims of the conflict would be treated equally. He touched countless lives across the island and beyond, of so many families and individuals harmed by our conflict. His vocational reach of love, compassion and commitment to redress for injustice made him a unique example and a beacon of hope in the darkest of days.
“His courage, tenacity, foresight, care and love gave us in RFJ, and Irish society as a whole, an example for which we must never tire of being reminded. We have lost our mentor but not his example. Ireland is a better country because of the lifelong contribution of Monsignor Raymond Murray."
