Emma Groves

Emma Groves (1920 - 2 April 2007) was a mother of 11 children, who was blinded after being struck by a rubber bullet in the face at 9 a.m. on 4 November 1971. After she was blinded she then became a leading campaigner for banning the use of plastic bullets and was a co-founder of the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets. [cite web | author=Damian McCarney | title="West Belfast’s First Lady" | work=Andersonstown News | url=http://www.irelandclick.com/home.tvt?_scope=DailyIreland/Andersonstown%20News/News&id=26935&psv=1&_ticket=9NTHLXD4YGSGX4SGNNNADY7BZKLAFUUGUYRKJPOCEPXM9LLDN32STRRIVON9ANVRBNKACJ5J9QRFK11M9NTGNXT9CHUT71QFIRY4S0SEAOYFBHSJ5LE1HONDNMTEGPKACN1FURUQE68VL175OE | accessdate=4 April | accessyear=2007POV-statement|date=December 2007] [ [http://www.irelandclick.com/emma.html Emma Groves] ]

hooting incident

In 1971, aged 51, Emma Groves, was standing at her living room window during British Army searches on her neighbours' houses. As a mark of defiance Emma turned on her record player and placed the ballad Four Green Fields on her record player and turned up the volume. [ [http://www.irishnationalcaucus.org/pages/ArticlesUndated/Congressional%20Briefing%20Paper%20April%201993.htm Congressional Briefing Paper, April 1993 - "The Use of Plastic Bullets in Northern Ireland"] ] "They Shoot Children": The use of rubber and plastic bullets in the north of Ireland, Published by Information on Ireland, Ivor Place, London, 1982, ISBN 0950738123]

As she turned back to the window, a British soldier, at a distance of about eight yards, shot a plastic bullet through the window hitting her in the face. As a result she lost her sight in both eyes. A doctor at the hospital who was removing Emma's eyes approached Mother Teresa of Calcutta to break the news to Emma that her eyesight was gone. [ [http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=81253&pt=n Blinded plastic bullet campaigner dies] ] [ [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/violence/murray.htm STATE VIOLENCE - Northern Ireland 1969-1997] ] Years later, she was offered £35,000 compensation, which was seen at the time as a "de facto" admission by the British Army, although the soldier involved was never charged.

Campaign to ban "plastic bullets"

Despite her injuries, Emma campaigned for thirty years for the banning of plastic bullets. Emma and Clara Reilly founded the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets after the killing of John Downes in August 1984. The aim of the organisation was to bring together the families bereaved or injured by rubber and plastic bullets. They also compiled information on the statistics relating to usage of plastic bullets in Northern Ireland. "See chart opposite"

In 1976 the rubber bullets, were replaced by plastic bullets. Up until that time they had caused the death of one person and the wounding of a further seventy. The new bullets were solid PVC cylinders, 4 inches long and 1.5 inches in diameter. Their weight was nearly 5 ounces and they were fired at up to 170 miles per hour. 'The troubles we've seen...'Women's Stories from the North of Ireland, Silvia Calamati, English language edition published 2002, Beyond the Pale, Belfast, ISBN 1 900960 19 2] [ [http://hrw.org/campaigns/nireland98/bullet.htm Human Rights Watch] ]

They were presented as a more secure and less dangerous means of crowd-control and that their use was prohibited on British soil as they were deemed ‘a danger to the civilian population’. Despite this, Emma said they were used "unsparingly in Northern Ireland."

In 1981, during the Hunger Strikes, large numbers of people took to the streets to show their solidarity with the prisoners. The greatest number of plastic bullets fired was between May and August 1981, the same period in which Bobby Sands and the other nine prisoners died on hunger strike. "See chart opposite"

It was during those years, that the vast majority of fatalities of plastic bullets were children between the ages of ten and fifteen. In October 1976 Brian Stewart, 13 years old, [ [http://www.relativesforjustice.com/?pid=449 Relatives for Justice] ] was killed in Belfast by a plastic bullet. He was shot in the face by a British soldier. Again in Belfast, 12 year-old Carol Ann Kelly [ [http://books.google.ie/books?id=2GBQRoB4JDYC&pg=PA73&ots=iE7de7kZ4v&dq=Carol+Ann+Kelly&sig=2ea6NwJZmR68KhfrLhzInG1TvpY Human Rights in Northern Ireland: Congressional Hearing] ] was fatally shot on her way home after buying milk, in May 1981. Paul Whitters, aged 15, [ [http://www.policeombudsman.org/press.cfm?Press_ID=158&action=detail&year=2007 Police Ombudsman] ] from Derry, died in April 1981 as the result of a bullet to the head fired by an RUC policeman. [ [http://irelandsown.net/plasticbullets.html Ireland's Own] , [http://www.indymedia.ie/article/73973] , [http://www.relativesforjustice.com/?pid=449 Relatives for Justice] ]

It was at this point that Emma decided to do something and to have those "deadly bullets banned." In 1982 she learned that the bullets were manufactured by an American company. So she went to the US along with her daughter and an 18 year-old youth from Derry who had "lost an eye and had his face disfigured." She managed to arrange a meeting in New York with the manager of the company who manufactured them. After their talk she said "the company stopped producing the bullets."

In April 1982 another boy (Stephen McConomy, aged eleven) died as a result of shot to the head fired by a British soldier. Commenting on this Emma said "When you start killing the children, you inflict the deepest wound of all on a country." In 1982, at the request of the government in Dublin, the European Parliament banned plastic bullets throughout the European Union. However, the British government ignored the ban. [ [http://www.iauc.org/hr.htm IAUC] [http://archive.peacemagazine.org/v17n3p13.htm Peace Magazine] ] ['The troubles we've seen...'Women's Stories from the North of Ireland, Silvia Calamati, English language edition published 2002, Beyond the Pale, Belfast, ISBN 1 900960 19 2]

With other members of the United Campaign she spoke of her experience at public meetings throughout Ireland. They then decided to take their campaign abroad. They were invited to Holland, Belgium, Norway, Italy, Sweden and Germany. Emma Groves herself went to the US on two occasions. The Campaign then discovered that a Scottish factory, the Bronx Fireworks Company, was manufacturing plastic bullets, and for four years a group from the United Campaign went over to Scotland to picket the factory gates. Later the factory stopped making the bullets. There were according to Emma at the time still a number of factories producing the bullets but "the British authorities keep their names secret." The Campaign then began focusing their efforts on a London-based company, Astra Holdings, who they hoped would stop manufacturing the bullets.

John Downes [ [http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/sanis/archiv/b_downes/index.htm nadir.org] ] was another victim of the bullets and after John, two more youths were killed by plastic bullets: Keith White, [ [http://www.relativesforjustice.com/?pid=449 Relatives for Justice] ] a twenty-two-year-old from Portadown (1986) and Seamus Duffy, [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376828/ IMDB] ] aged fifteen, from Belfast (1989).

Emma, in an interview with Silvia Calamati recorded in Belfast, August 1990, said, "In all these years the only member of the security forces to be brought to trial was Nigel Hegarty, [ [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/comment/0,,1137670,00.html Guardian] , [http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27a/259.html Ireland Click] , [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE4DA103DF934A1575AC0A960948260 New York Times] , [http://www.nuzhound.com/archive/nijul203.php Nuzhound] ] the police officer who killed John Downes. During the course of the trial evidence was presented in the form of photographs and a video showing the sequence of the killing. They were the same images that thousands of people had seen on TV that tragic August 12th 1984. And yet Hegarty was acquitted and reinstated in the ranks of the police. Shortly afterwards he was promoted."

She conluded her interview by saying "The victims of plastic bullets are always offered large sums of money as compensation. I have always refused this money as have other family members of the victims. We do not want money. What we do want is justice."

Further reading

*Carol Ackroyd, Karen Margolis, Jonathan Rosenhead and Tim Shallice, "The Technology of Political Control", second edition, London: Pluto Press 1980.
*John McGuffin and Diarmaid MacDermott, 'Plastic Death', "The Sunday Tribune Magazine", vol.1 no.10, 23 August 1981.
*Jonathan Rosenhead and Dr Peter J Smith, 'Ulster riot control: a warning', "New Scientist and Science Journal", 12 August 1971.
*Jonathan Rosenhead, 'Rubber bullets and riot control', "New Scientist", 14 June 1973.
*Dr Tim Shallice, 'The harmless bullet that kills', "New Statesman", 14 August 1981.
*Steve Wright, 'Your unfriendly neighbourhood bobby', "The Guardian", 16 July 1981.
*Michael Yardley, 'What shall we do with the drunken soldier?', "New Statesman", 2 October 1981.
*'The troubles we've seen...'Women's Stories from the North of Ireland, Silvia Calamati, English language edition published 2002, Beyond the Pale, Belfast, ISBN 1 900960 19 2
*They Shoot Children: The use of rubber and plastic bullets in the north of Ireland, Published by Information on Ireland, Ivor Place, London.

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/jp.swf?video_id=XHUB6Z0EKCA&eurl=http%3A//www10.alluc.org/alluc/showmovie.html%3Fuid%3D196964&iurl=http%3A//img.youtube.com/vi/XHUB6Z0EKCA/default.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskL7aynWLhCG5Qcw2YlfJ6Hs Interview With Emma Groves - Irish Ways]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/1460116.stm BBC News, Thursday, 2 August, 2001, 12:35 GMT 13:35 UK - The trouble with plastic bullets]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1363178.stm BBC News, Friday, 1 June, 2001, 21:38 GMT 22:38 UK - NI plastic bullet records 'inadequate']

References