October 4 2001
We the family of Sammy Devenny welcome the report of the Police Ombudsman’s office. They have clarified many of the questions we have asked. They have confirmed what we, the family, already knew happened on the night of April 19 1969.
The findings of the Drury report have finally been made known to our family, 31 years after 12 copies were made available to the then Chief Constable Arthur Young and members of the Government. We are mystified as to why the RUC were unable to furnish a copy of the Drury investigation to the Ombudsman in the course of this investigation. That the RUC claims not to have retained a copy of the very first investigation to be carried out by an outside force, Scotland Yard, into serious misconduct by members of the RUC raises questions about the willingness of the RUC to learn the lessons of the report.
What happened to our father, family and friends on the night of April 19 1969 was deeply traumatic and shameful. The subsequent cover-up within the RUC, the conspiracy of silence, added insult to injury. It is our honest belief that this was a major contributory factor in the escalating violence of the period.
Following the death of our father we as a family were demonised for no other reason than the fact that we carried the Devenny name. We were denied employment on ‘security grounds’ because we were the children of Sammy Devenny.
This report will not bring back our father. The findings have come too late for our mother. Nevertheless we are hopeful that this report will help us along the journey to emotional closure. We believe that many families are not able to begin that journey because they have also been denied the truth surrounding the deaths of their loved ones.
We now call on the Chief Constable to respond to the report of the Police Ombudsman. As the most senior officer in the institution responsible he is duty bound to break the conspiracy of silence which has defined the RUC response to date.
We wish to thank the Police Ombudsman Nuala O’ Loan and her staff for treating our family with compassion and respect. We also wish to thank the staff at the Pat Finucane Centre for their help and support throughout this process and Dr Raymond Mc Clean who has stood by us all these years. On this special day for our family we are keeping our mother in our thoughts.