Families of paramilitaries killed in south got €15,000
Irish News
29 Jan 09
WORDS: Michelle Williamson, whose parents George and Gillian were killed in the 1993 Shankill Road bombing in Belfast, and Families Acting for Innocent Relatives group leader William Frazer exchange words with Danny Bradley, right, whose two brothers were killed by the British army in Co Derry. Mr Bradley’s brother Robbie died in January 1972 when an army vehicle knocked him down in Greysteel. Seamus Bradley was fatally wounded on July 31 1972 in the Creggan area of Derry city. (PICTURE: Hugh Russell)
PAYMENTS of €15,000 (£13,900) have already been made to the families of paramilitaries killed in the Republic during the Troubles, it emerged last night.
The Irish government has admitted that a scheme that offered “acknowledgment payments” to victims of the Troubles in the south in 2003 included some of the families of 27 paramilitaries.
The revelation came as victims confronted each other yesterday in a Belfast hotel when the Consultative Group on the Past launched its report, including the proposal that the families of all victims, including paramilitaries, be given a £12,000 payment funded by the taxpayer.
In June 2003 a £2 million Remembrance Fund was set up by then taoiseach Bertie Ahern to provide financial support to the families of 85 people in the Republic who had been killed or injured during the Troubles.
It has now emerged for the first time that the scheme’s criteria did not exclude the families of paramilitaries.
Ten IRA men, nine INLA members, three members of the republican splinter group Saor Eire and one member of the Real IRA were killed in the south.
On the loyalist side, one UVF man and a UDA member were killed trying to plant bombs in Co Donegal.
'So venceremos, beidh bua againn eigin lá eigin. Sealadaigh abú.'
--Bobby Sands