Letter: Time to deliver on legacy commitments and get justice for victims

Olven was very well known, a pillar of the community, a very highly respected businessman who was also a part time member of the UDR. He was aged only 32 with a wife and two young daughters.

The evil which came into Castlederg that Tuesday evening at 5.20pm while Olven was serving customers in the shop must never be forgotten and for that reason I am planning to launch a booklet telling Olven’s life story, marking the 35th anniversary of his murder.

The bloodthirsty republican terrorists with murder in their hearts burst into the shop and brutally shot Olven at close range. He died instantly.

The murderers then placed a bomb in a shoe box in the shop and it exploded less than an hour later as the shop was being cleared, slightly injuring two RUC officers.

The explosion started a fire that destroyed the shop and it would not be until after 10pm that evening before Olven’s body was recovered from his then burnt out shop.

Olven knew he was an easy target, an unarmed man in a busy shop - how can you defend yourself?

It goes to show a level of bravery that is often overlooked in those who took a stand against terrorism, in that he was not going to be intimidated by terrorists who are not worth being mentioned in the same breath as true heroes like Olven.

With a thriving business, he was also an economic target in the perverse extreme nationalist fascist and republican movement ideology of genocide and ethnic cleansing in border areas like Castlederg that to this day still claim there was no alternative.

That is why while hoping to murder others, no matter who they were, in the no warning bomb they placed, they also intended to burn the shop to the ground, doing as much economic damage as possible to Castlederg.

It is understood the murderers came and returned to the safe haven of the Republic of Ireland.

Thirty-five years on since Olven’s murder, like so many others from the unionist and loyalist minority in border areas like Castlederg, no one has even been charged in connection with Olven’s murder, never mind convicted.

With all the chat about public inquiries, I believe there does need to be a public inquiry into why the republican movement was allowed to murder and maim without having its perpetrators brought to justice on either side of the border.

The United Kingdom, and Republic of Ireland government in particular’s involvement in state collusion needs to be examined.

This was promised as part of legacy commitments given in the Belfast/Good Friday agreement, but over a quarter of a century on they still have still not been addressed.

Now is the time to finally deliver on them to bring the justice required for all those like Olven.

Stevan Patterson, Castlederg