“It’s been 35 years since Britain’s worst sporting disaster when 97 people died, and I’d love to say that after half a lifetime the pain and anger has diminished, but I’d be lying”
I had the usual thoughts on Monday that I’ve had every April 15 since 1989.
I wonder how many of the young, excited fans who walked through the Leppings Lane end gate with me that sunny afternoon were going into the final 20 minutes of their lives. I still try to fathom how police could have looked away as people, supposedly in their care, were dying in front of them. I question, for the ten thousandth time, why was I one of the lucky ones who came home from Hillsborough.
It’s been 35 years since Britain’s worst sporting disaster when 97 people died, and I’d love to say that after half a lifetime the pain and anger has diminished, but I’d be lying. We may have established the truth – that those fans were unlawfully killed – but we never got justice. The only person convicted for the criminal negligence and the decades-long cover-up was the Sheffield Wednesday club secretary for a minor health and safety charge. No copper lost a day’s pay.
There is a bigger reason why the pain never lessens. I go to Liverpool games still and, at many of them, hear fans chanting in support of the false narrative that stopped the truth getting out. That us fans killed our own, or as our biggest rivals sing en masse: “The Sun were right, you’re murderers.” And it’s getting worse.
I know football banter is all about hitting your rival supporters where it hurts, and I have become sadly resigned to these chants. But many bereaved family members and still-traumatised survivors will never become resigned. Hearing it forces them into a steep mental decline. The calls from respected football figures to cease all tragedy chanting goes largely unheeded. Maybe because football supporters under 45 have no memory of how fans were treated back in the 1980s. They are unaware of the cages and the contempt.
They don’t understand that it could so easily have been their team and their dad or grandad killed that day. The only solution is educating new generations on why tragedy chanting is abhorrent. And I have seen first-hand how it works.
I recently attended a meeting of The Real Truth Legacy Project, an idea by Labour MP Ian Byrne, which seeks to educate youngsters about the tragic events of that day. It was inspirational. More than 100 kids from six different primary schools listened to those of us with first-hand knowledge of the disaster explaining what happened and why.
They were impeccably behaved, totally engrossed and visibly shocked. When Jenni Hicks dropped in, matter of factly, that she was at the FA Cup semi-final and went home without her two beautiful teenage daughters, some of the girls became tearful. One boy whispered to a teacher that he had a grandad who died there.
Best of all, when tests were set to see what they had learned, the kids grasped the facts 25 years quicker than it took the English legal system. I left feeling uplifted. When humans learn the undeniable truth about tragedies, the vast majority are programmed to behave decently. In the face of disinterest and cynicism we need to carry on doing this.
The denial of ignorance is the only solution. Education is key. The lessons of disasters like Hillsborough should be taught in every school. Only then might we have a generation of football fans who realise tragedy chanting is not banter but a dagger to many hearts.
