Son of lawyer murdered over Garvaghy Road conflict backs residents

Chris Nelson said the latest conflict has stirred memories of "a bad time in my life" when he "lived in fear".

In 1998, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Solicitors, noted threats from the RUC in his annual report and stated in a television interview that he believed Nelson's life could be in danger. She was seriously assaulted on the barricade by RUC officers in 1999.

She was just 40 years-old when she was killed by a bomb planted under her car. Allegations that the British state security forces were involved in her killing led to a public inquiry. The inquiry found they "could not exclude the possibility" that individual members of those agencies had helped the perpetrators.

Today, several hundred people are continuing to gather on the Garvaghy Road mainly at its junction with the Drumcree Road in order to prevent a contentious Orange Orange march that was due to take place on Sunday.

• Everything you need to know about the Garvaghy Road stand-off

Rosemary's son Chris Nelson said on RTE's Liveline, he and his siblings grew up in fear and children now do not need "to be brought up to be fearful".

"She said that she was protecting families," Chris said of his mother.

"She she actually went out of her way to tell tell us that she was protecting children like us, children our age. I can remember her sitting me down and telling me that there was a primary school on that road as well, and that she was trying to protect those children, just like she would have done me and my friends in our school."

He said the return of this Drumcree conflict has caused him and his siblings huge upset.

"My initial reaction-it was sadness, worry, deep concern, especially for me because of my own family's history," he said.

"This isn't about just me having a reaction. There are families living on that road, and families are having to deal with the consequences today. Families that are you know reliving what happened in the past, and against all the noise that's going on, that that needs to be the dominant concern.

"My main concern is just protecting the peace, the peace that's been secured in the absence of the parade dispute. It means all sides looking beyond the next few days and hours. We need to think about the children who are watching this and absorbing the lessons. You know, that's that's common sense. That's what matters to me.

"What kind of place are we leaving behind for them?"

Chris's wife and mother of his children is now protesting on the Garvaghy Road with residents.

"It's it's hard for me, but it's much harder for those families who are on that road. And my thoughts are with them," Chris said.

"They're young, they're five and two, and they don't need to know any anything. They don't need to know, and they won't know."