Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Trust
During our evidence session on 2 February,
the Committee asked a question which I requested to take back
to the participants of the Legacy Project for their response.
The question was:
"What more could the Government do to
officially recognise the suffering of victims in GB?"
I attach a collation of the responses we received
from victims and survivors in Great Britain to add to our submission.
Since the evidence session there have been many
developments in the Peace Process and potentially some of our
answers may have been different in the context of recent events.
The Trust would also like to add our own response to the question
above:
— We would like to see a Victims Commissioner
appointed who could be available to provide assistance to victims
and survivors in Great Britain as well as Northern Ireland, and
who can champion the issues facing victims and survivors on this
island.
— We would also like the Government
to provide further funding for initiatives to meet the needs of
victims and survivors in Great Britain, as outlined in our Needs
Analysis. We would also urge the Government to support a call
for the EU Peace & Reconciliation Funding for Northern Ireland
to extend its geographical limitations to include those outside
of Northern Ireland and the Border counties who have been affected
by the "Troubles" to be included in its criteria for
funding.
— The final comment we would like to
make is that in all future decisions regarding the Peace Process,
the Government should consider the impact on victims and survivors
in GB when making policy decisions.
Question: What more can be done to officially
recognise the suffering of victims in GB?
ANNALIESE BOWMAN
I am the daughter of a bomb disposal officer
with the army. My dad was serving in Londonderry in the summer
of 1973 when he was blown up by the IRA. He left a wife with three
children age nearly five, nearly three and a 15 month old baby.
He also left two brothers, two young sisters and a mother who
relied upon him sending money home.
I grew up missing my dad, but too young to understand
why he wasn't coming home. His death caused lots of family arguments
and meant that I rarely saw any of my dad's family. My brothers
and I have ended up growing up in a tense, sad environment with
hardly any support given to my mum. Growing up in the '70s was
not a time when single parents were accepted socially, whatever
the reason. Even the way that my mum was informed of my dad's
death was terrible. I am sure that nowadays people are much more
careful and caring about how the next of kin are informed, and
I hope that everybody in similar circumstances to ours would be
automatically given counselling as a matter of course.
Until recently when I started getting involved
with people like Jo Dover and Jo Berry (who I originally contacted
after the TV documentary "Meeting the Enemy"), I had
never met anyone else affected by the troubles in Northern Ireland.
It is thanks to the two organisations at Glencree and Warrington
that I have finally made some progress in dealing with my loss.
In order to answer your question I will explain
why exactly organisations like this have helped me.
In the world in which I grew up, there was never
any way of explaining why I haven't got a dad, except bluntly.
This is difficult for most people to listen to, so generally the
conversation stops and is avoided after that. Personally I have
always started crying when I have spoken about it, so even my
family avoids talking about my dad in front of me for fear of
upsetting me.
Going to the residential weekends at Glencree
(twice) and Warrington (once), I have been able to meet others
to talk about issues that have been bottled up, in my case for
my whole life. I now know that I am not alone. I have been able
to talk about my experiences and how it has affected my life to
people who understand the pain. I am different to most of the
people that I have met, in that I never had a change in my lifestyle
due to a terrible event, because I was so young. So although I
have never had to cope with being the victim of a bomb explosion,
or living in Northern Ireland as a soldier, this is something
that has affected my whole life, and that I haven't had any support
for until recently.
I have also been able to listen to other people's
experiences, which is incredibly humbling. The most significant
step for me was at the Residential weekend that I went to in October
2004. During this weekend, I met soldiers who had been in Londonderry
in the early '70s. I listened to the experiences they had, and
the descriptions of their daily life, and it was the first time
that I had any knowledge of the context of the life my dad had
been living before he was killed. I have joined NIVA and am now
in contact with other soldiers, and hopefully we will meet up
once a year at the National War Memorial Arboretum in the Midlands
where trees have been planted for all the soldiers killed in Northern
Ireland.
I don't think that I need to go to any more
residentials for the time being, because it has achieved its goal.
I have talked about my experiences, which has helped my healing
process and I have made my own contacts and friends who are there
when I do feel that I need to talk.
If the Government can do anything, then I would
hope that it would advertise and fund more residentials in Warrington,
in order for more people to benefit like I did. People are suffering
all around the country, but they feel that they are alone and
isolated and that the government won't talk about it any more
than their friends and family do. We need a safe place to go,
and support when we get there. We don't necessarily need to keep
going, but once or twice may help, and making those connections
with other people helps too. Then we can start helping ourselves.
Not only has the Government forgotten about
it, but it isn't even recognised as being a war. Half of the trees
in the National War Memorial Arboretum have no plaques against
them. NIVA is not allowed to March in London on Remembrance Sunday.
I never even realised that Remembrance day included my dad!
SUSAN LEE
Speaking on a personal level it would really
help if the Medical Institutions were helped to understand that
the depression, fear, anxiety, panic attacks etc suffered by the
survivors (I don't use the word Victim) of GB IRA attacks need
more specialist care. The depression etc which can ensue from
such an attack sometimes doesn't happen for a great length of
time, sometimes months, and the way some Doctors react is to just
say a person is depressed and give out pills. The Medical field
need to know how to help us. Family GPs especially should understand
that when they are told about feelings of being in the attack,
sometimes years later, it should not elicit the response of "That
was years ago, you should have got over it by now". I personally
still cry about being caught in the Manchester IRA bombing in
1996.
The Government could also make it easier for
people to claim compensation when they have been involved in IRA
attacks. They should make it a completely separate claim and not
use excuses not to pay out citing existing medical problems. The
physical and psychological trauma caused by being caught up in
such an attack cannot always be put into words effectively enough
to be able to claim compensation.
The Government really should help survivors
in some way to keep the media at bay. Once they find out that
you have been caught up in a GB IRA bombing, they start a frenzy
to get at your front door to be the first one who prints it on
the front page of their newspapers.
To officially recognise the suffering of survivors,
the Government should find a way of making it possible and easy
for all survivors to get Counselling when and if they want it
even if it is years later.
And finally, to officially recognise the suffering
of survivors the Government should try their very hardest to make
the Peace Process work. This would be the greatest recognition
any survivor would want. I do.
KEITH HUDSON
You ask what more the Government can do.
The answer is simple stop pushing the soldiers
and their families to the back of the queue. Since the peace talks
have began only two sides of the troubles have been heard. People
have forgot that the people in the UK were in the middle.
They not have to have been in the Armed Forces.
Ask the people of Manchester, Warrington London etc.
The Service man does his duty for Queen and
Country. How soon the country forgets him.
The IRA and Loyalist groups have help; ask why
the service man is forgotten. The people of the cities were the
bombs were placed. How much the people got in the offer of help.
I am not bitter, no just saddened that the troubles
did not end at the River Lagan or the shores of Antrim but somehow
the people in power think that.
CLIVE HUGHES
For the Government to officially recognise,
they first need to identify, and understand that not all wounds
are visible and the trauma can be physical, mental, and sometimes
spiritual, where people don't just lose their faith in themselves
but everyone around them including the Government. To be a leader
you also have to be a follower. People can and will work together,
and the power is much greater as a whole and not as an outsider
that is on both parts.
JEFFREY BLUM
I hadn't forgotten you but am frankly not sure
what else can be done other than to LISTEN and recognise that
there are sufferers and survivors in England too . . . Angela's
(Smith) ministerial visit was a very good start but it should
be followed by more coordination rather than a single event.
MAUREEN NORTON
I really not sure how to answer this at all—I
feel as though they should officially do more to recognise the
GB victims but I am not sure how or what they could do as I feel
as though after every conflict those that are left behind just
get forgotten and we are left to get on with it.
RITA RESTORICK
1. A Victims Commissioner should be appointed,
whose role included supporting victims in Great Britain as well
as Northern Ireland.
2. Victims over here should be treated equally
with victims in Northern Ireland. This is not happening at present.
Victims over here only had the opportunity to have a meeting with
the Victims Minister this year whereas the post has been in existence
since 1998. We are never notified or included in weekend breaks
run by the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund and most victims over
here are not aware of the NIMF due to the total lack of publicity
in the national press.
3. Victims over here are not eligible for
European Peace funding unless they attend residentials in Northern
Ireland or the Republic but many victims are still reluctant to
visit there. Therefore the Government should provide funding proportionately
to cover victims over here to attend similar residentials in this
country.
4. As it is difficult to set up support
groups over here due to victims being scattered, there are only
two formal support groups here (Legacy and NIVA) but between them
they cover civilians and ex-military. Therefore Legacy should
receive more funding than at present and NIVA should receive funding.
5. As some ex-soldiers many years after
their service in Northern Ireland are suffering psychological
effects—many of whom are coping on their own at present,
the Government should provide additional funding to Combat Stress
to enable them to treat those who also have alcohol or drug problems.
To do this they need another care centre. The ex-RBL Churchill
House might be a possibility for this but they would need government
funding to run and maintain this.
6. The Government should through the NIO
pay for a memorial at the Ulster Grove to civilian victims of
the IRA resident over here. It could be in the form of an English
oak tree or a block of English granite.
7. The Government should pay for the plaques
at each tree in the Ulster Grove. These men and women gave their
lives for this country but their families feel this sacrifice
is not recognised, especially at a time when the Government is
meeting with those who were seen as the enemy.
8. The NIO should ensure that all research
and consultation exercises with victims includes those in GB—this
has often not happened in the past where only those in Northern
Ireland have been included.
9. Victims over here should be consulted
(as have victims in Northern Ireland) about a Truth process, Reconciliation
etc, following widespread advertising for their views in the national
press. Most victims are not in contact with the VLU, which has
now closed without victims being told by them who is now the contact
for victims over here.
10. If an exhibition of the conflict is
set up at the former Maze prison, a similar exhibition should
be set up at the Imperial War Museum or similar.
15 March 2005
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