Commissioners visit IRA memorial in Belleek

Members of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission have inspected an IRA memorial today in County Fermanagh.

They paid a visit to a stone memorial dedicated to IRA volunteers in Belleek and met with families of victims to discuss whether there are any human rights implications in the siting of the memorial.

The memorial was put up three months ago and caused outrage among the relatives of two Protestant workmen who were murdered by republicans in Belleek in 1998.

William Hazard and Frederick Love had been carrying out work at Belleek RUC Station when they were shot dead at Slater's Crossroads near the village.

The visiting Commissioners are members of the Commission’s Committee for Victims.

The Committee for Victims said they had for some time been considering how the hurts of the past can most appropriately be addressed in Northern Ireland.

In due course they will report to the full Human Rights Commission as to what further work, if any, the Commission might undertake on this topic.

Wednesday’s meeting in Enniskillen was at the request of a local councillor and the families of individual victims. Amongst the Commissioners who attended will be Reverend Harold Good, past President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, who is the chairperson of the Commission’s Committee for Victims.

(AMcE)