The father of Billy Wright, the murdered Portadown loyalist, says he intends to lobby the Department of Foreign Affairs as part of his campaign to have a public inquiry held into the circumstances of his son's death in the Maze Prison last year.
Speaking in Portadown yesterday, Mr David Wright said: "It is exactly one year since my son was murdered in the Maze Prison by the INLA. Since then the Northern Ireland Secretary of State has repeatedly refused to hold a public inquiry into his death, despite numerous calls for her to do so. Her continued intransigence leaves me no other alternative but to travel to Dublin and present the facts of my son's murder to the Dublin Government."
Since his son's death in the Maze in December 1997 Mr Wright has been campaigning for a public inquiry into the killing. He denied any political motivation for his actions, saying: "I am not aligned to any political party in Northern Ireland. I never have been. This is my son who was murdered, don't forget that. There are serious questions about his death which in the public interest must now be answered.
"My son was the last person to be executed at Her Majesty's pleasure - executed, for that's what he was," Mr Wright continued. "It's unthinkable that a man can lose his life in what has been called the most secure jail in western Europe. The authorities had a responsibility to protect my son. They failed to do so. This is a very serious issue that requires public investigation. What is it that the British government wants suppressed about his murder?"
Mr Wright said that he had approached the First Minister and local MP, Mr David Trimble, eight weeks ago in an attempt to obtain backing for a public inquiry. However, he claimed that Mr Trimble had failed to respond and had not even acknowledged his request. "He has ignored my family's concern. It is quite obvious that our local MP has abdicated his responsibilities to his electorate here in Portadown. Is there something about Billy's murder that Mr Trimble doesn't want his constituents to know about? If not, why has he not pushed for a public inquiry like his parliamentary colleague Jeffrey Donaldson?"
Mr Wright says he will present the "full facts" of his son's killing to the Irish Government, facts which he now says "challenge the accuracy of the evidence given by prison officers on duty in the Maze on the day my son was executed". He claims to have "new evidence" from prisoners who witnessed the killing and who have never been given an opportunity to testify in court.
"The evidence I have accumulated over the last year clearly indicates that my son was killed for a political reason," Mr Wright said. "I intend to make that evidence public. There has been a deliberate policy to prevent the truth being made known. The Dublin Government have always campaigned for injustices against nationalists to be addressed. I trust they will extend the same maxim to my case and help my family obtain the public inquiry so essential to ascertain the truth about the political conspiracy which killed my son."