‘Monumental day’ for family of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane at public inquiry

By Rebecca Black, Press Association

The widow of murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane has hailed the first day of a long-campaigned-for public inquiry into his death as “monumental”.

The 39-year-old was shot dead at his family home in north Belfast in 1989 by the Ulster Defence Association in an attack found by a series of probes to have involved collusion with the state.

The Finucane family has been campaigning for decades for a public inquiry to establish the extent of security force involvement.

Geraldine Finucane was accompanied by family who arrived in a large coach at the venue for the Patrick Finucane Inquiry in south Belfast.

Flanked by her sons Michael and John, and daughter Katherine, as well as Finucane’s brothers Martin and Dermot, Mrs Finucane said no-one wanted to miss the long-awaited day.

Speaking to media outside Bradford Court, she said: “As you can see by the number of people who are with me today, this is a monumental day for our family.

“We have waited 37-and-a-half years for this day and not one of us wanted to miss it.

“We fought long and hard to get to the truth, and to get to justice, and that’s what we’re hoping that this inquiry will provide us with.

“We’re hoping that all those questions that have never been fully answered will be answered during the inquiry and it will be thorough, and it will satisfy us, and then we will have closure.”

The inquiry into the circumstances of Finucane’s death was announced by Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn in 2024.

Last June the Government announced senior judge Gary Hickinbottom as chairman of the inquiry.

The first hearing on Tuesday has been described as a “procedural hearing which will provide an opportunity to introduce the public to the inquiry”.