At the beginning of this document it was made clear that the purpose was to ask the questions being asked by the family and friends of Rosemary Nelson and the wider community. There are specific issues concerning this tragic death. How did a group of loyalist paramilitaries feel confident enough to enter the nationalist area of Lurgan on the night in question and attach an under car booby trap bomb? There was an unquestionably heavy and unprecedented security presence in the area that weekend. Allegations have been made that members of the security forces colluded in her murder by providing information and/or safe entry and escape routes. This can neither be proved nor disproved at this point.
What is clear is that the trail which led to her eventual death can be traced back to the demonisation of an individual. Rosemary was demonised because she was a solicitor doing what she was trained professionally to do; defend those charged with breaking the law. The trail can be followed back to interview rooms in Gough barracks in Armagh, Castlereagh in Belfast and Lurgan RUC. To represent 'terrorist suspects' is to become a 'terrorist suspect' in the warped reality of this conflict. Guilt by association. The issue of whether death threats were issued against her by RUC officers does not require the preface 'allegation'. Rosemary documented the threats to the United Nations, the US Congress, British Irish Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch, the Lawyers Committee on Human Rights, Amnesty International, the Committee on the Administration of Justice and to the Pat Finucane Centre.
Once the finger was pointed the deed was as good as done. Though aware that the finger had been pointed those with the responsibility to provide protection failed to do so. If RUC detectives believed her to be a 'provo solicitor' that was good enough. No smoke without fire. Within extreme loyalism there was little need for further encouragement. A bizarre leaflet titled "The Man without a Future" was distributed at Drumcree in the summer of 1998. Though aimed primarily at Breandan Mc Cionnaith the anonymous authors also fixed their sights firmly on Rosemary Nelson providing her address and phone number at work. Describing Rosemary as a "Lurgan solicitor and former bomber" the leaflet wove a confused web of conspiracy centred on Jesuit machinations at Drumcree with references to the plight of Hungarian protestants. Similar Old Testament fixated and dangerously fanatical rubbish was to be found in leaflets circulating at the time welcoming the burning of eleven Catholic churches. A website established within days of her murder elaborated on the 'former bomber' theme. Again anonymous, the website, provided by a US server, alleged that Rosemary Nelson had been an IRA bomber thus explaining the birth scar on her face. Central to the plot was the allegation that she was a fully fledged bomber by the age of just 13. The webpage, which was removed by the server following protests, had only one link. It was to the website of Portadown Loyal Orange Lodge.
Within mainstream unionism the reaction to the murder could be divided into two categories. The majority were shocked, unequivocally condemned the attack and offered sympathy. There was no hesitation or 'whataboutary'.
John Taylor MP however viewed the killers as 'misguided' loyalists who were providing the IRA with reasons not to disarm. David Trimble MP had initial difficulty accepting the reality that loyalist paramilitaries had murdered a prominent solicitor in his constituency. In a number of interviews (Channel 4 News and on the UTV Insight programme) he appeared to imply that loyalists simply were not capable of planting such a sophisticated device alone. Only republicans possessed such lethal capability. On of his top aides reiterated this view some weeks later in a private conversation at a conference in Glencree in Co Wicklow. 'Republican' elements may have cooperated in the plan as part of a joint loyalist/ republican plot to discredit the RUC. Even the 'security correspondent' for the BBC, suggested that loyalist paramilitaries had not had such lethal capability in "perhaps two decades" despite the fact that Bangor man Glenn Greer was killed in a similar attack in October 1997.
The most predictable unionist reaction focuses on the demand that more attention be paid to those murdered by the IRA over the years such as law lecturer Edgar Graham and members of the judiciary including Judges Conaghan, Doyle and Gibson (and his wife), and Resident Magistrates Staunton, Mc Birney and the daughter of a Resident Magistrate Mary Travers, killed during an attack on her father.
Why, it is argued, are there no demands for international independent inquiries in these and other cases ? Why the focus on Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson? The argument completely misses the point. There are no allegations that members of the security forces routinely issued death threats, demonised, had prior knowledge of or colluded in any way in these murders. There is no suggestion that the security forces were less than thorough in the subsequent investigations. At times it is necessary to state the obvious.
Was there collusion between members of the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in the murder of Rosemary Nelson? The answer is to be found in the interview rooms at Gough, Castlereagh and Lurgan RUC. Those members of the RUC who demonised a solicitor, who pointed the finger of guilt by association, colluded in the process that eventually led to her death. Whether there was also active collusion in her murder by members of the security forces can only be established by an independent international inquiry into the circumstances surrounding her death. Only a full disclosure of all the facts surrounding this murder will serve the interests of justice. The RUC Chief Constable is adamant that the RUC have nothing to hide. If this is the case, then he should welcome an independent inquiry.
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Introduction