Media and politicians playing into murderers hands
by Padraig MacDabhaid
``If a Catholic goes and gets an education and then demands their
rights, this is what happens, it's Croppies Lie Down. That's the
message they are trying to send out: Croppie Lie Down. All Rosemary
Nelson did was get people their rights''. This was the view expressed
by a 50 year old Lurgan man, a view shared by most people.
One Lurgan friend said ``With Rosemary it wasn't about Republicanism
or loyalism, it was about human rights''. Ms Nelson was well known for
her willingness to represent anyone who had suffered injustice, this
is why she was killed.
Her death has brought a flood of sympathy from many sources and calls
for a an independent public inquiry, but unfortunately it has only
been crocodile tears from some quarters.
It is a great disappointment that her death has not brought the
attention and support for the ideals which she held so dearly. Many
of the establishment/gutter press decided to give more emphasis to
the trouble which followed in Lurgan the night of her death, ignoring
the role of the RUC in Rosemary's murder and labelling such uprisings
as mere ``mindless and sectarian violence''. Most press reports,
instead of focusing on the human rights work she had done and the
circumstances surrounding her death, choose to highlight a small
minority of the cases she worked on in order to offer some sort of a
justification for the murder.
Only a small amount of the commentaries which followed her death
looked at the fact that she had received numerous death threats from
senior RUC officers and had been denied protection by Tony Blair's
top aide Jonathan Powell despite documented evidence that her life
was in danger.
However, what has been more appalling is the way certain sections of
the media portrayed her. She was portrayed as only representing
Republican causes, ``the courtroom champion of IRA suspects'' and ``the
controversial solicitor who defended suspected IRA men''. One daily
paper went as far as to claim that the murderers had created a
Republican martyr. All of this takes away from her work as a human
rights lawyer.
It is publicity like this which resulted in her murder, not her work.
Some sections of the media must accept a share of the responsibility
for the murder in the same way that Douglas Hogg must accept some
responsibility for the murder of Pat Finucane, a case which is
closely connected with Ms Nelson's murder.
She had often protested herself that she was ``a human rights lawyer''
who believed in the rule of law. It was her belief that the law was
not being upheld in her own area, this was why she was held in such
high esteem. As Derry solicitor Paddy MacDermott said, ``Rosemary
Nelson was killed for representing her clients to the best of her
ability without fear or favour''.
Even worse, however, than some of the media reports were the views of
some unionist politicians.
The UUP's John Taylor had said that, ``while Unionists would have
disagreed with Rosemary Nelson's views and actions, murder can never
be justified''.
This, unfortunately, was not the worst view expressed by UUP members.
David Trimble on a TV interview implied that Republicans were behind
or had a role in the attack. A view also expressed by one editorial
which stated that ``if this was a loyalist action, it was oddly
counter-productive. For one of its effects will be to take the
pressure off the IRA to decommission''. To suggest that this is the
case is completely inhuman and unjustified.
All such comments are serving only one purpose. They are hiding the
truth about her murder and playing into the hands of all the forces
involved in Rosemary Nelson's death.
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