Plan to recognise sacrifices of prison officers in Northern Ireland is passed despite Sinn Fein objections

By Michelle Weir
Published 30th Mar 2023, 11:08 BST
Updated 30th Mar 2023, 11:08 BST
The Annual Northern Ireland Prison Service Memorial Service to remember Prison Service members who gave their lives in the service of our community. Picture: Michael CooperThe Annual Northern Ireland Prison Service Memorial Service to remember Prison Service members who gave their lives in the service of our community. Picture: Michael Cooper
The Annual Northern Ireland Prison Service Memorial Service to remember Prison Service members who gave their lives in the service of our community. Picture: Michael Cooper
Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council has backed proposals for a commemoration in recognition of the “immense sacrifice” of prison officers in Northern Ireland despite Sinn Fein objections.

A motion put forward by DUP Councillor Sam Flanagan and seconded by party colleague Alison Bennington was approved at a council meeting this week with 33 councillors in favour, including the SDLP but with three Sinn Fein councillors voting against.

The motion said: “This council recognises the immense sacrifice of those prison officers who served in Northern Ireland through its most difficult times, and indeed who continue until the present day to serve this community with great bravery; further, that an appropriate commemoration be installed in the borough, an event be held to celebrate officers within the borough and a legacy project be commenced to honour their contribution to our society.”

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Councillor Flanagan said: “It is intended to acknowledge a group of individuals in the borough who have given so much to our community. They have contributed to peace and stability in Northern Ireland. Those objectives are to be admired.”

Councillor Flanagan paid tribute to the 32 prison officers who lost their lives, saying that “too few” recognise their great sacrifice. He also acknowledged the murder of David Black while he was driving to work in 2012 and off-duty prison officer Adrian Ismay in 2016

He stated some officers have turned to “detrimental coping mechanisms”, many have been “tormented by criminals” and some forced to move to “safe houses” and check vehicles for explosives. He said prison officers do a job for which they should be “supported and admired”.

Councillor Bennington gave an emotional account of how her father John Carson Bennington had been shot when he went to collect her mum from work in January 1977. She told the meeting her father had served as a prison officer at Crumlin Road Prison following a Naval career. After the shooting, she said: “He was not my dad any more.”

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“He suffered for 21 years with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) hiding when a knock came to the door and watching every move he made because he was shot for being a prison officer, for protecting the public.”

Ulster Unionist Cllr Robert Foster said that prison officers “deal with some heinous criminals” and their families “live under fear of attack, not just from one side but from many sides”.

But Sinn Fein Cllr Michael Goodman stated that his party would not be supporting the motion. “It was a very emotive presentation and we recognise the pain and hurt expressed,” he said but added the motion does not reflect the “totality and history of this place”.

He went on to say the prison system over many years has been a place of “torture and hell” for many people held there.