Benjamin Gilman: “Mr. Speaker I want to thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the gentleman from New York (Mr. King), the…”

“Mr. Speaker I want to thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the gentleman from New York (Mr. King), the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Gejdenson), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley), and all those on both sides of the aisle for working together on this bipartisan resolution on the murder of Rosemary Nelson in Northern Ireland that is now before us. It passed without objection last week in our committee because we all know what is at stake here, the very integrity of the Northern Ireland peace process. On March 15, in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, Rosemary Nelson, prominent Northern Ireland solicitor who had long defended nationalists, Catholics, as well as having represented the nearby Drumcree nationalist community in the controversy over forced Orange Order triumphant marches through their neighborhoods, was murdered. In a brutal, cowardly, and professionally done car bomb near her home, this mother of three lost both her legs from the bomb and died shortly thereafter in the hospital. A loyalist group, the Protestant Red Hand Defenders, claimed credit for this cowardly terrorist act. Mrs. Nelson was killed solely because she was engaged in advocacy and providing vital legal counsel to many of those who have little faith in a unionist dominated society, and especially the police service, RUC, many fear and want disbanded.”