Rosemary Nelson
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Rosemary Nelson (September 4, 1958 – March 15, 1999) was a prominent Roman Catholic solicitor from Northern Ireland.
Nelson, née Magee, obtained her law degree at Queen's University, Belfast (QUB). She worked with other solicitors for a number of years before opening her own practice. As a result of her defence work, representing clients in a number of high profile cases (including defending a client accused of killing two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers and Michael Caraher, the South Armagh Sniper), she stated that she had received death threats from members of the RUC.
She also represented the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition in nearby Portadown in its long-running standoff against the Orange Order and RUC.
Many of her clients claimed that RUC officers had threatened her through them several times. In 1998, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Param Curamaswamy, noted these threats in his annual report, and stated in a television interview that he believed her life could be in danger. He made recommendations to the British government concerning threats from police against lawyers, which were not acted upon. Later that year, Nelson testified before a committee of the United States Congress investigating human rights in Northern Ireland, confirming that death threats had been made against her and her three children.[1]
Nelson was killed by a car bomb outside her home in Lurgan, County Armagh, in 1999 at the age of 40. A Protestant loyalist paramilitary group calling itself the Red Hand Defenders claimed responsibility for the killing.[2]
She is survived by her husband and three children.
In 2004, the Cory Collusion Inquiry recommended that the UK Government hold an inquiry into the circumstances of Nelson's death.
The resulting inquiry into her murder opened at the Craigavon Civic Centre, North County Armagh, in April, 2005.[3] In September 2006 the British security service MI5 announced it would be represented at the inquiry. This move provoked criticism from Nelson's family, fearing MI5 may remove sensitive or classified information.[4]
