Rubber/Plastic bullet victims Teribus, anything to tell me ?

I clearly remember cutting short my holiday in Achill Island and coming home on a hot August afternoon in 1976 to see a child laid out in her coffin. 12-year-old Majella O'Hare was a schoolgirl who was shot in the back by a soldier.

Her mum Mary O'Hare stood up when I walked in and asked me, "why would they kill my child" ? Her daughter was killed as she walked past an Army patrol.

Majella, from Whitecross, was on her way with other children to confession at a nearby church when she was hit in the back by a bullet fired by a paratrooper.


Her daddy Jimmy, who was working nearby, ran up the road and found Majella lying on the ground, blood pouring from her left side.
He cradled her in his arms until a local nurse arrived.
Majella lifted her hand up to her father's chest and said faintly, 'Daddy, Daddy'. Within seconds she was dead.

I spoke with Jimmy O'Hare a few days before he died 16 years later and all he talked about was Majella. The man never lived a days peace since the bastard shot her.

A 24-year-old paratrooper was charged with manslaughter.

He was acquitted when the trial judge accepted his claim to have shouted a warning before firing at a gunman he spotted in a hedge.

The Army's version of events had been widely disputed and the court verdict provoked controversy.

Soldiers at first claimed Majella was killed in crossfire, but local people insisted only one shot was fired, that no warning was issued and no other witnesses saw a gunman.

At the trial, Mary came face-to-face with the man she believes shot her daughter.

She shouted over to him 'Are you proud of what you did? Are you proud of killing Majella?'. He just shrugged his shoulders, smirked and said nothing."

In the 30 years the British authorities have never apologised for the death of the 12-year-old. The Army has never spoken directly to the family.

Teribus Mary is 83 now, would you like to talk to her ? I could pm you her phone number.