Family Business Remains Closed

national | crime and justice | news report Sunday July 09, 2006 14:24 by Political Hostage - Michael McKevitt Justice Campaign

It is almost eight years since The Print Junction shop owned by Bernadette Sands-McKevitt was closed. It still remains closed to this day. A layer of dust a couple of millimeters deep covers every surface. T-Shirts bleached and worn-out looking by the sun and passage of time hang limply in the window. A pile of mail rests under a coat of soot-like dust inside the door, unopened, unread and unanswered.

Inside of shop

Bernadette McKevitt was one of the first tenants to trade in the Long Walk shopping centre when it first opened in March 1994. She used her redundancy money from a local factory to open the T-shirt, Photocopying & Print shop. Although a small shop, the business grew over the subsequent years and provided a living for her and her family.

During the week immediately after the Omagh bombing, photographers were permitted to enter the shopping centre to photograph Bernadette in her shop. She was harassed and hounded by them as she tried to conduct her business. Bernadette made numerous requests to the shopping centre Management and security staff to intervene and stop the harassment, however her requests were ignored. Much to her concern, she witnessed members of the security staff point her premises out to reporters and photographers.

On the evening of August 19th, Bernadette closed her shop as normal and locked up. Sometime afterwards the shop was broken into and the locks were changed. The next morning when she returned to the shopping centre, she was prevented from entering the building. A senior member of the security staff informed Bernadette that she was no longer permitted to conduct her business there. She was excluded from her shop and lost her livelihood.

The McKevitt family later learned from a source close to the Fianna Fail leadership that the owner of the Long Walk shopping centre, Mr. Martin Naughton allegedly ordered the closure as a political favour. Martin Naughton is one of the wealthiest men in Ireland. It seems ironic that as chairperson of the cross border employment body and a former member of the council of state to the Irish president that he is linked with denying Bernadette McKevitt the constitutional right to earn a living.

Martin Naughton, owner of Longwalk S.C.