Paul Whitters’ mother Helen fondly remembers kind and generous son at poignant tribute event

Helen travelled from Glasgow to Derry for the publication of a new pamphlet from the Pat Finucane Centre that memorialises his ‘generous spirit’.

"Paul was a 15 year old boy, full of life, looking forward to his future. He loved fishing, his music. He played the tin whistle. He loved people and loved interacting with people, of all ages, it didn't matter, young, old, middle aged, whatever.

“He had a knack of interacting and being kind. He was a kind boy,” she told the ‘Journal’ at a memorial event in the Museum of Free Derry on Friday.

Paul was born in Scotland in 1965 but moved home with Helen, his late father Desmond and elder brother Des in 1974.

He was popular around Belview Avenue where the family lived.

"He did a paper round in the area which he loved. Not only did he deliver the papers, he would ask people if he could get them a message when he was out. That's the type of boy he was.

"He called frequently with his grandparents. He was always there if they needed him to light the fire, set the coal,” she said.

On the evening of Wednesday, April 15, 1981, an RUC officer fired a plastic bullet at Paul at short range during rioting in the Great James Street area. He was critically injured and never recovered, passing away on April 25.

To commemorate the 45h anniversary of his death PFC have produced ‘Paul Whitters: A Generous Spirit’, a celebration of his life.

The book was authored by PFC case worker Stuart Ross in close collaboration with the Whitters family and the assistance of Sara Duddy and Paul O’Connor.

At a launch event in the Museum of Free Derry, Mr. Ross said: "Anniversaries like this are never easy. Often they are sad. But this isn't simply about the horrific thing that happened years ago, it is a celebration and a tribute to Paul and tells you about his life before this happened.

"He was a 15-year-old boy. I have a 15-year-old boy and that was always in the back of my head.”

He said it was also a tribute to the Whitters family ‘who for decades now have been trying to get truth and justice for something they shouldn't have to fight for’.

Paul’s uncle Tony Brown said: “1981 was a very difficult time for us as a family. When I think back to those days I think back to people like Margaret Thatcher [the British Prime Minister when Paul was killed] and Humphrey Atkins [the British Secretary of State at the time] and since that day I've heard people say we need to draw a line under the past. People have written that.”

Mr. Brown said he had little faith in the capacity of Mrs. Thatcher or Mr. Atkins’ present day successors to deliver justice for his family.

He said that when he watched Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s defence of Keir Starmer in the presence of US President Donald Trump in the White House on St. Patrick’s Day ‘others names came into my mind’.

"I thought of Pat Finucane, Stephen McConomy, Paul, Annette McGavigan, too many names to recount today, and when I thought about those names I also thought of those people who lost their lives in the conflict, those people who spent many years in jail,” he said.

Mr. Brown added: “Do I trust Mr. Starmer or Hilary Benn? No. Do I have confidence in Mr. Starmer or Mr. Benn? No. What do I have confidence in? I have confidence in the work of PFC and all those solicitors who spend their days striving for peace and for justice.”

He said, however, that he drew hope from the emblem and slogan of the civil rights movement that was carried on Bloody Sunday.

“Every time I come into this building I pass that symbolic icon at the front door and I have absolutely no doubt, ‘We Shall Overcome’,” he said.

Paul O’Connor of PFC reminded those in attendance how a confidential memo uncovered a number of years ago showed that the former Secretary of State Jim Prior had been advised that a ‘metal end-cap’ that was supposed to detach from a plastic bullet round may have contributed to Paul’s death.

The memo, dated February 5, 1982, prompted a campaign for a fresh inquest into the use of plastic bullets three years ago.

Mr. O’Connor said: “In Paul's case and in a number of other cases the plastic bullets that were being fired were faulty and the metal cap which should have been ejected instead went flying through the air with the projectile itself and Paul had two wounds on both sides of his forehead, one from the plastic bullet and one from the metal cap.

"That has never properly been investigated to this day. And I think that is the final point. There has never been an Article 2 investigation into the killing of Paul Whitters.”

During the memorial event Derry poet Paul McLaughlin read ‘If I Must Die’, in English and in Irish.

The poem was written by the late Gazan activist Refaat Alareer before he was killed in an Israeli air strike in 2023.

Mr. O’Connor reflected on how ‘26 per cent of all children who were killed here, 16 years and younger, were killed by the British Army or the RUC’.

"Twenty-six per cent: and there wasn't a single prosecution. We need to keep reminding people in Britain of that fact,” he said.

Mrs. Whitters reflected that Paul had had an impact on many in his short fifteen years.

"He left a mark on anyone who knew him. The book is lovely and many thanks to Stuart Ross for taking the interest to do this lovely book, which I will treasure.”