Prison officer commemoration approved for Ballyclare War Memorial Park

Councillors have approved the commemoration 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”.

It has been agreed to install a granite memorial in Ballyclare War Memorial Park with the inscription: ‘Erected to honour the service and sacrifice of the Northern Ireland Prison Service.’

The proposed wording has been agreed in consultation with Threemilewater DUP Councillor Sam Flanagan and party colleague Glengormley Cllr Alison Bennington who proposed and seconded a motion in support of the commemoration, the Prison Officers’ Association and the Northern Ireland Prison Service Central Benevolent Fund.

A civic dinner for serving and retired prison officer is being planned by the council with an exhibition relating to the history of the Northern Ireland Prison Service being developed.

Proposing the motion last May, Cllr 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.”

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

Cllr 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 meeting how her father had served as a prison officer 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 (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) 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.”

Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter