Memorial restored
``Carol Ann Kelly died on 22 May 1981. On 22 May this year
nationalists voted in the referendum. They voted for change. An
end to conflict and an end to discrimination, inequality and
injustice'' - Sinn Fein councillor Paul Butler.
On Sunday, speaking at the re-dedication of the memorial to
schoolgirl Carol Ann Kelly, Paul Butler called on the British
government to recognise that those killed by the state ``have the
right to truth about what happened to their loved ones''.
``The British government must acknowledge the hurt and pain that
they have caused to the Kelly family and to all the families of
state violence,'' he said.
Carol Ann Kelly was 12 years old when she was shot in the head
with a plastic bullet fired by a British soldier. She was walking
back from a house shop no more than 100 yards from her home with
a pint of milk for her mother. She was less than 20 yards from
her front door when a British soldier, about 15 yards away, aimed
and shot her in the head. She died three days later.
``I'm going to move back into the front room,'' Carol Ann's mother
Eileen told An Phoblacht, ``to look after the monument. I used to
sleep there but couldn't bear to stay there after Carol Ann was
killed.''
About 100 residents and neighbours gathered at the little grass
hillock outside the Kelly home as the new memorial was
rededicated. The original was destroyed by vandals at the end of
April. It is an indication of the value with which local people
view the monument that they collected enough money to have the
new memorial erected for Carol Ann's anniversary.
``The memorial was destroyed in a hateful act of vandalism,'' said
Paul Butler.
However, there is a far more despicable act of vandalism being
perpetrated against the memory of Carol Ann, and all those like
her, the victims of state violence, and their families. In the
current rush to remember the `victims' of the past 30 years
nationalists killed by the British state are being discarded in a
wanton act of political vandalism. This memorial, in remembering
Carol Ann, defies the selective amnesia presently being indulged
in by the media.
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