Hillsborough

Last Monday was the 30th anniversary of the terrible day at Hillsborough, Sheffield when 94 Liverpool supporters at the FA Cup Semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest,were crushed to death at the Leppings Lane end of the ground. On the 19 April the death toll reached 95 when a 14 year old lad, Lee Nicol died in hospital when his life support was switched off. The 96th victim was 22 year old Tony Bland, who had been in a persistent vegetative state for nearly four years, Tony showed no signs of recovery and his hydration and artificial feeding were withdrawn. Stephen Whittle is considered by many as the 97th victim of Hillborough. He had sold his ticket for the match to a friend, as he wasn’t able to go due to work commitments. His friend was one of the those who died that day, Stephen was wracked by survivor’s guilt over the death of his friend and committed suicide in February 2011.

I was 14 years old that day, an avid Liverpool fan, loved the Irish players on the team, Whelan, Houghton and Aldridge. Barnes, Rush and Dalglish were also my heroes.
We lived in two channel land so there wasn’t much live football from England on telly, but that Saturday, RTÉ were showing the match live on Sports Stadium. I remember it so well, it kicked off at 3pm. There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. After 5 mins, Liverpool’s Peter Beardsley, unleashed a shot which hit the Forest crossbar. Fan’s behind the goal began pleading with Liverpool k keeper Bruce Grobbelaar for help as the crush got worse. At 3.06 pm the ref stopped the game, the players went back to the dressing rooms, fans broke through gates to try to escape the crush. Fans in the stand above the terrace were pulling people up to safety. The crush was so tight that fans died standing up, crush barriers were bent and broken. Fans carried their fellow fans in makeshift stretchers onto the pitch, trying to perform CPR.  It was terrible.
Throughout the following days and weeks, the TV news was all about the Liverpool stadium, Anfield, how the club opened the ground on the Sunday to allow the people to honour those who died. Scenes of of the thousands visiting the stadium and the pitch covered with flowers, scarves and tributes.

Most people now know how the Liverpool supporters were blamed for the tragedy, they were accused of hooliganism, drunkenness trying to enter the stadium without tickets. The Sun newspaper, carried the story of how they pick-pocketed the dead and dying, urinating on them, obstructing attempts to help the injured. They were portrayed as scum, the lowest of the low.
After 27 years of inquiries, reports, investigations and two coroner’s hearings, on 26 April 2016, the jury in the second coroner’s inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing in respect of the 96 people who died. After a long hard struggle, the families got justice. The fans weren’t responsible for the tragedy, a mixture of  “errors or omissions” by police commanders, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, the ambulance and  the design and certification of the Hillsborough stadium had all “caused or contributed” to the deaths. The behaviour of the Liverpool supporters had not.

A terrible miscarriage of justice had been righted.

Justice For The 96 - JFT96