Northern Ireland

Council approves prison officer memorial

Murdered prison officer David Black. Picture from Alan Lewis, Photopress
Murdered prison officer David Black

A memorial tribute to prison officers is being planned by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council.

Members approved it in recognition of the “immense sacrifice of prison officers who served in Northern Ireland through its most difficult times, and indeed who continue until the present day to serve this community with great bravery”.

The granite memorial will be installed in Ballyclare War Memorial Park.

DUP councillor Sam Flanagan said: “It is intended to acknowledge a group of individuals in the borough who have given so much to our community. They have contributed to peace and stability in Northern Ireland. Those objectives are to be admired.”

Mr Flanagan paid tribute to the 32 prison officers who lost their lives, saying that “too few” recognise their great sacrifice.

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He also acknowledged the murder of David Black while he was driving to work in 2012 and off-duty prison officer Adrian Ismay in 2016.

Party colleague Alison Bennington gave an emotional account of how her father John Carson Bennington had been shot when he went to collect her mum from work in January 1977.

She told the council how her father had served at Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast following a Naval career. After the shooting, she said: “He was not my dad any more.

“He suffered for 21 years with PTSD hiding when a knock came to the door and watching every move he made because he was shot for being a prison officer, for protecting the public.”