15 April 2017
Today at 3.06pm Deena and I will stand in silence at the Hillsborough Memorial, Anfield, in memory of the 96 who died at Hillsborough, 28 years ago. Since the final Memorial Service at the ground last year the inquest verdicts have been delivered, the jury found that those who died were killed unlawfully. The narrative verdict laid the responsibility for the deaths at the door of the authorities, particularly the South Yorkshire Police. Consistent with the findings of the Hillsborough Independent Panel in 2012, the jury exonerated the fans of any liability for the deaths. Today we honour the lives of the 96, those who have died prematurely as a consequence of Hillsborough, those who been subjected to the trauma of survival and the bereaved and survivors' families. I wrote Their Voices Will Be Heard for the Memorial:
Their Voices Will Be HeardWith early Spring sun came warmth and hope,
Spirits lifted through snow-capped hills
Streets alive with nervous laughter
Another adventure in another place
Vibrant voices breaking solitude’s silence
Approaching Hillsborough calm and joyous,
Walking expectantly to a Wembley Final
Safe passage ended down that fateful tunnel
In pens, like cattle, between concrete and steel
Desperate voices so cruelly silenced
From callous indifference in a gymnasium’s cold
To taking blood from the innocent, the young
Their deaths examined through a distorted lens
Rupturing further families’ broken hearts
Bereaved voices cowed by contempt
Lies tripped easily from forked tongues,
Condemning, vilifying the rescuers, the brave
Relentlessly feeding pens filled with poison
Rewriting ‘The Truth’, spreading deceit
Survival’s voices denied, dismissed
Verdicts and judgments came and went,
Lawyers and politicians minced their words
A City portrayed as wracked by self-pity
Its people’s isolation now complete
Determined voices now walking alone
Shattered by loss but unbroken in spirit
In the face of injustice you never backed down
You forced them to listen, you sacrificed your lives,
You bore witness with dignity on the day of reckoning
And their voices, your voices, have been heard
With love and respect,
Phil, Deena, Paul and Sean, our families and friends x