Wreath-laying takes place to honour lawyer killed by paramilitaries – Edgar Graham

Edgar Graham, an Ulster Unionist Assembly member and law lecturer, was shot by the IRA outside Queen’s University in Belfast in December 1983.

The 29-year-old’s murder came six years before prominent solicitor Mr Finucane was gunned down in his north Belfast home by the UDA.

Some victims’ campaigners have sought to draw parallels with the two killings and have asked why Mr Graham’s case has not been afforded the same prominence as that of Mr Finucane.

At the ceremony this morning, Maura Babington, whose husband, James Henry, was also murdered by the IRA, laid a floral wreath at the spot where Mr Graham was shot.

She was accompanied by their son, Marcus.

“Today I feel sympathy in memory for Mr Edgar Graham,” he said. “It’s not about us and our case today. I thought it was appropriate to remember the man.

“I do remember ... Mr Edgar Graham being murdered and I remember how horrified my whole family was at the time.”

The wreath-laying ceremony was organised by victims’ support group South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF).

Pat Finucane’s son, John, Sinn Fein MP for north Belfast, has been challenged on a number of occasions to specifically condemn Mr Graham’s murder.

He has stopped short of doing so, though he has insisted all killings in the conflict were wrong.

Mr Babington said he had written to Mr Finucane last year to ask him to help him get answers about his father’s death. He said he had not received a reply from the MP.

Mr Babington’s father was shot dead on the Cavehill Road in Belfast in October 1989. The IRA said it was a case of mistaken identity.

No-one has been convicted.

“Like so many other families ... we didn’t get any justice,” said Mr Babington. “And I don’t expect to get any justice for my father’s murder.”