Derry families with loved ones killed by British Army mark 55th anniversaries

Reflecting on the anniversaries, Billy McGreanery’s nephew and namesake, Billy McGreanery, poignantly recalled the litany of British Army murders which occurred in Derry that summer.

“Seamus Cusack (28), the first, and Desmond Beattie (19) were killed on July 8, 1971; Annette McGavigan; my Uncle Billy; and Kathleen Thompson (47) who was killed on November 6, 1971,” said Mr McGreanery.

“Billy’s anniversary is actually tomorrow (Tuesday). I think it is important to mark it because every year that goes past, the injustice doesn’t get any easier to accept,” he continued.

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“But what really struck me more than ever this year was that none of these killings were one-offs, especially Annette’s and Billy’s. Their two cases are very, very similar. Annette was shot 55 years ago at the bottom of Westland Street and Billy was shot at the top of Westland Street 55 years ago, just eight days apart.

“Both families now find themselves in the exact same position - injustice is flowing out of the British Government. It does a tick-box exercise by putting families in contact with the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) and, to be quite honest, my personal view of the PPS is the will is not there to prosecute British soldiers, that is its agenda. The PPS does everything to find loopholes and prolong everything unnecessarily.

“A good example of that was that both myself and the McGavigan family were given a PPS outcome on April 30, 2024, one day before the infamous Tory Legacy Act came into effect.

“We were in the same room, in the Pat Finucane Centre in Creggan waiting. It was a very, very emotional day. The McGavigan family’s verdict came through first. The PPS took the decision not to prosecute the soldiers involved in her murder. It was hard to watch. Then, after a short wait, I got the same thing, so I can really feel for the McGavigan family,” said Mr McGreanery.

The PPS then offered the McGreanery family a review within a timescale of six weeks.

The PPS said the decision not to prosecute the soldier responsible for Billy McGreanery’s death was based on the lack of evidence available to legally identify him.

His identity was protected by a cypher file that labelled him as Soldier A. The file was available in 2010, when the PSNI carried out its first investigation, but had “conveniently gone missing” by 2024.

“The PSNI knows exactly who he is. It has interviewed him,” said Mr McGreanery.

“Anyway, the six-week review turned into an 18-month review, which led us to believe the PPS was actually looking at something, but as we found out, it was looking at absolutely nothing new, so it couldn’t come up with any other verdict other than the original one. It took nothing else into consideration,” he added.

“There was more than his service record. There were a few other ways he could have been identified. That process was a complete waste of time and a time wasting exercise.

“That’s why I think the McGavigan case and the McGreanery case should be considered together because noth were killed in such a short timeframe. Now it’s 55 years later and both families have basically been left in the same position. We are still struggling for justice.

“When the Labour Government came in, it said it would re-introduce inquests - everybody’s inquest, not just my Uncle Billy’s but this keeps being postponed.

“The soldier who shot my uncle was 23, so he’s about 78 now. Add another three or four years onto that and he will be in his 80s, if he lives, so the age card will be played to further prevent justice, in my opinion,” said Mr McGreanery, who added he took “a little bit of heart from the fact families bereaved by British soldiers later in the conflict might use his Uncle Billy’s case as a “stepping stone towards justice” as they had “a little more time on their sides and our endeavours, which will continue, will not have been in vain”.

Martin McGavigan, Annette McGavigan’s brother, told The Derry News he believed the PPS and the British Government were “just waiting for us [the family] to die or the soldier to die so it’s ‘closure’”.

“Our family and other families just can't let this go and walk away because, at the end of the day, we've lost loved ones in sad circumstances,” said Mr McGavigan.

“The British Government just wants to brush it under the carpet and hope we forget about it. It thinks we and our dead family members are not important and don’t matter but we still grieve no matter what,” he added.

“Every year is the same. Every day is the same. We still grieve for our lost loved ones.

“We are the exact same as Billy. We are waiting on an inquest for Annette but the British Government is stalling their re-introduction, for some reason.

“In the case of Annette, they are saying they shot her in self-defense, which is crazy. How could it be self-defence, a young schoolgirl? On that day in the Pat Finucane Centre, that is what the PPS more or less said.

“It really knocked us for six. It was the worst day of my life, after the day Annette was murdered. I am trying to fight injustice all the time. When we met the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) on numerous occasions, we thought we might get closure. It was able to get material that was never ever investigated before, and we had a bit of hope. But I have no hope now the way things have gone with it,” said Mr McGavigan.

“If it happened anywhere else in the world, there would be justice but we are not getting justice because we are Irish,” he added.

“But, as a family, we are going to keep fighting until we get justice. We are not going to stop. Even if we do pass away, my children will keep fighting.”