Crowd backs calls for public inquiry into 1997 murder of GAA official
Mr Brown's family met Irish deputy premier Simon Harris earlier this week as part of their campaign to see a public inquiry heard.
Friday evening saw people travel from across Ireland, including as far away as Co Kerry, to Bellaghy to take part in a Walk For Truth event from St Mary's Church through the town to the home of Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAC.
Those in attendance included First Minister Michelle O'Neill, Sinn Fein president Mary-Lou McDonald, SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone and GAA president Jarlath Burns.
Many wore GAA shirts from their home clubs or counties as they showed solidarity with the Brown family.
There was a spontaneous round of applause for Mr Brown's family who led the procession as it reached the town centre.
Mr Brown, 61, the then chairman of the club in the Co Londonderry town, was ambushed, kidnapped and murdered by loyalist paramilitaries as he locked the gates of the club in May 1997.
No-one has ever been convicted of his killing.
Preliminary inquest proceedings last year heard that in excess of 25 people had been linked by intelligence to the murder, including several state agents.
It had also been alleged in court that surveillance of a suspect in the murder was temporarily stopped on the evening of the killing, only to resume again the following morning.
Appeal Court judges in Belfast affirmed an earlier High Court ruling compelling the Government to hold a public inquiry.
It said the failure to hold such an inquiry was unlawful.
However, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn says the case involves a key constitutional principle of who should order public inquiries, the Government or the judiciary.
Addressing the crowd, Mr Burns described the 'absolute barbarism' of the murder of Mr Brown as having 'only been matched by the depravity of what has happened since, when the family have been denied truth and justice and any sort of decency from the British Government'.
He said Mr Brown would have been proud of how his family have campaigned for justice for him.
'We are not going to stop until we get the public inquiry that this family deserves,' Mr Burns said to applause.
Mr Brown's daughter Claire Loughran thanked all those who turned out in support of her family.
'We're honestly overwhelmed by the turnout, it's incredibly touching to see so many people here and it means a great deal to us,' she said.
'It reminds us that although our journey for truth and justice has been long, we are not walking it alone.'
Ms Loughran added: 'We won't stop, not until the truth is heard, not until justice is done and not until every family who suffers in silence knows that they are not forgotten.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
5 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Moment 'Russian spy offers sensitive information about Grant Shapps to undercover British agents posing as Putin's cronies' is shown to jury
This is the moment a man accused of being a Russian agent appears to offer sensitive information about a former defence secretary to UK spooks posing as Putin 's spies. Howard Phillips, 65, is on trial accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service after he allegedly passed a USB stick containing information about Grant Shapps to British undercover police - who he believed were agents working for Russia. Phillips, of Harlow in Essex, denies the charge, claiming he had initially written to the Russian embassy to 'expose Russian agents' to help the Ukrainian war effort. Video shown to the jury at Winchester Crown Court today appears to show the moment Phillips greets the fake spies outside a Costa coffee shop in May 2024. Jurors also saw video of an April 2024 meeting at the London Bridge Hotel in which he allegedly 'offered his services' to foreign spooks. Father-of-four Phillips, described by his ex-wife as 'dream(ing) about being like James Bond ', is alleged to have forked over a digital storage device to his 'handlers'. This contained Mr Shapps' personal information, including his home address, telephone number and the location of his private plane, prosecutors say. He had allegedly teased the faux Russians with the promise of 'something interesting' about the ex-defence secretary, who was in the hot-seat from August 2023 until the end of the most recent Tory government last July. Footage of the conversation shows Phillips telling them that he retired from insolvency five years prior and went travelling, visiting cities including Moscow. Phillips said that he then found himself in a position 'where now I need to be earning money'. He told the 'agents': 'I do not want and cannot for myself go back into the normal nine-to-five office. It's not for me, it never was for me, but I did it.' Describing how he first decided he would like to work with the Russian Intelligence Service, he said: 'I was thinking, I have to do something, I have to earn money, what can I do and I came up with all the things I don't want to do. 'I was thinking about, funnily enough, I was thinking about maybe, going away on holiday. I thought about Moscow. 'Its just a thought process and I suddenly thought, maybe I can offer services. I get what I want and you get what you want.' Phillips told the agents: 'We all help each other and we look after each other, we become a family.' On May 9, 2024, Phillips met with 'Dima' at a Costa Coffee in a retail park in West Thurrock, Essex. Footage from the meeting shows him asking: 'What do you know about the, um, Secretary of Defence in the United Kingdom?' Phillips had told the officer 'I have something, I don't know if you want it or don't want it'. He continued: 'Because, I have personal information which may be useful. 'So I know his home address, I know his home telephone number and I know where he has his private plane. Maybe it's of interest, maybe not.' When asked by 'Dima' how he knew this information, Phillips said: 'Because, about five years ago, I was invited to his house with a lot of other people. 'He was the MP for Welwyn Hatfield. The local MP. And then, he became chairman of the Conservative Party and now he's Secretary of Defence.' Phillips was asked if he 'knew' Shapps, and in response he said: 'Just a little, you know, we've met three times, I think.' In the clip, Phillips also encourages using the code word 'mother' to replace 'Moscow'. The court has heard Phillips was due to start a job with Border Force at the time. His ex-wife, Amanda Phillips, said he had fantasised about being a spy, and once wrote to Arsenal saying he wanted to be manager, despite being unqualified. She told the court he was "kind, caring man, a good friend, a good dad" - but 'not a great husband'. On Thursday afternoon the jury retired to begin considering its verdict. Phillips denies the offence of engaging in conduct to assist a foreign intelligence service, in breach of the National Security Act.
ITV News
6 minutes ago
- ITV News
50 Years On: The Death Sentence, the Dictator, and the Cardiff Pool
It's 50 years since one of the more surreal moments in British diplomatic history: a tense international standoff that brought together a British lecturer, an infamous dictator, and a swimming pool in Cardiff. It was July then, Uganda was ruled by one of the most feared tyrants of the 20th century: Idi Amin. A former British colonial soldier, Amin had seized power in a military coup and declared himself president. His rule quickly descended into brutality. Known for his erratic behaviour and self styling as the 'Last King of Scotland,' Amin turned Uganda into a police state marked by mass killings, disappearances, and persecution. Living in Uganda at the time was Denis Hills, a British academic and writer. Hills had written a book in which he criticised Amin. Furious, the dictator had Hills arrested and charged with espionage. He was sentenced to death by firing squad, and suddenly found himself the centre of an international diplomatic crisis. Enter the third figure in this extraordinary story: Jim Callaghan, then Foreign Secretary and Cardiff MP. Initial diplomatic approaches had failed. Amin, ever theatrical, issued a chilling ultimatum at a press conference:'If the Foreign Secretary is not here ten days from tomorrow, we will then consider when to execute Hills by the firing squad.' Callaghan later said he 'risked his reputation' by agreeing to go. Prime Minister Harold Wilson warned him that he was moving too fast, acting without enough caution. But Callaghan went. What happened next - nobody could be the room came the huge figure of Idi Amin, there to meet him, the man dubbed as 'farmer Jim'.Amin walked up to the Foreign Secretary and immediately gave him a bear hug. His first words?'When I knew you came from Cardiff, I decided I was going to release Hills to you.' A transcript of that meeting, rediscovered 50 years on, reveals the dictator's peculiar fondness for Wales. Amin reminisces about visiting Cardiff during his time as a soldier in the British "You come from Wales?" Callaghan: "Yes" Amin: "I like it very much, very green. When I was in England, I spent my weekends there.." Callaghan: "Did you really?" Amin: "Yes, I like it very much. Cardiff I've been there." Callaghan: "Very glad to hear it" Amin: "You have a swimming pool there" Callaghan: "Did you ever try it?" Amin: "I swam there in 1964, August." The conversation, surreal in tone given the life or death stakes, drifts into talk of Wales. Amin affirms his love of Wales, saying he would spend his weekends in the country, admiring how green it is and the friendliness of the people. Asked by Callaghan if it reminds him of Uganda, Amin says it does. Later, posing for photographers with his son, Amin points at him saying to Callaghan:'He will come to Wales.'Callaghan smiles: 'I will teach him Welsh.' With that Hills and Callaghan would leave for the three men would have very different fates. Jim Callaghan would go on to become Prime Minister. Idi Amin was overthrown in 1979 and fled into exile. He died in Saudi Arabia in 2003 - unrepentant of his rule in Uganda. As for Denis Hills, he returned to Britain a reluctant celebrity. He continued to write and lecture, though he largely retreated from the spotlight. He died in 2004, aged 90. His story, and the bizarre twist of history that tied Uganda to Wales, remains one of the strangest episodes in British diplomacy. A moment where a swimming pool in Cardiff may have helped save a man's life, all because a dictator used to swim there.
.png%3Ftrim%3D0%2C0%2C0%2C0%26width%3D1200%26height%3D800%26crop%3D1200%3A800&w=3840&q=100)
The Independent
6 minutes ago
- The Independent
British spies and special forces soldiers had data leaked in Afghan breach
British spies, special forces soldiers and senior military personnel were among the tens of thousands of people potentially put at risk by the catastrophic Afghan data leak, The Independent understands. The breach, made by a Ministry of Defence official in February 2022, exposed the details of Afghans seeking an escape to the UK because of claimed links to British forces. The huge blunder saw 16,000 Afghans affected by the data breach evacuated to Britain, with some 8,000 still to come, and prompted an unprecedented two-year-long superinjunction preventing the publication of any details. More than 100 names of British government personnel were also exposed by the leak. Defence sources say that these included MI6 spies, members of the SAS, MPs, government ministers, and other senior military figures. Defence secretary John Healey told MPs on Tuesday that 'in a small number of cases, the names of Members of Parliament, senior military officers and government officials were noted as supporting the application'. In a public court hearing in front of a High Court judge on Thursday, Jude Bunting KC said 'it was a matter of surprise to the [media] defendants that the secretary of state was able to report those details we weren't'. He added: 'We can now report those details.' Cathryn McGahey KC, for the government, said that the defence secretary was giving 'urgent consideration' to the wording of an ongoing gagging order on the press, which remains in place. The further revelations come after the Intelligence and Security Committee, an influential group of MPs, demanded answers about why they were not briefed about the Afghan data leak. Lord Beamish PC, chairman of the committee, said that MPs wanted to be provided with the intelligence assessments on which the superinjunction rested for so long. He wanted these to be sent 'immediately' to the committee. And in a statement in response to the Afghan data breach, former armed forces James Heappey said that it was 'gut-wrenching to find out that someone in the MoD had screwed up so awfully', but said the individual was 'incredibly dedicated to those we served with in Afghanistan'. He also said that the department's decision-making on sanctuary applications from former Afghan special forces, known as the Triples, was 'flawed'. He said he 'pushed and pushed with the MoD for clarification in response to what was said in the press, parliament and by campaigners'. 'I said in public what very senior officials and the military had briefed me. It was hugely frustrating that proved to be wrong,' he added.
