HILLSBOROUGH: SATURDAY, 23rd AUGUST 2003.

The name, the place, the very word itself, is seared into the minds of an entire generation. It means only tragedy and tears.

For those families who lost loved ones in 1989 it means even more. They are the most important people in all of this, no exceptions. It means a continuing sense of no justice from a corrupt and antiseptic establishment and its untrustworthy media institutions. For the families there can be no sense of closure until they receive the justice all innocent people deserve in a free society. Everyone of common sense and ordinary human warmth supports them. You do not need to be a football fan to feel solidarity. All you need is a simple sense of decency and what’s right. For the families the story is not yet ended. The truth is we have all failed them while our institutions have largely betrayed or ignored them.

We all have our stories from that terrible event. Mine centres on my youngest daughter. She was barely out of infancy when I carried her along to the scarf-tying solidarity ceremony in Stanley Park, when thousands of alternate blue and red scarves stretched from Goodison Park to Anfield. It was a classic example of what The People can do when, finally aroused, they sweep aside the establishment. As it proceeded, I explained to her what was going on. Then right out of the blue she said, “When granddad died did we tie scarves then too?” and then slumped in a saddened little weight onto my shoulder. I held onto her like there was no tomorrow in case she saw the affect on me.

I tell you this in case you have forgotten or didn’t experience the spontaneous and visceral emotion it aroused in our city. It was a seminal moment, and one more reason why the establishment and their immoral media earned the justified contempt of all our citizens.

All the more reason, therefore, to feel an additional sense of sadness and emptiness at events following the construction of two memorials. The first, the Hillsborough Memorial at Anfield. The second, the statue to William Ralph Dean at Goodison. Both of them have suffered from paint-throwing vandalism. I have no idea or interest in who started it. I only know I felt a sense of shame when it happened. In fact it shames us all. Unprincipled and untalented media hacks can’t wait to use this kind of thing against our city. But that is the least of it right now, even if the paint-throwing guilty parties may have numbered no more than two or three individuals.

Once again the Hillsborough families have to suffer yet more agony. Once again they are the most important people. By comparison, anything we Evertonians feel about the Dean statue is relatively small beer. Which is a secondary reason why we should first clean out our own house before things get even more out of order. As previously described there is much more at stake than mere stung football pride.

In the circumstances the very least we could do was attend a memorial solidarity service organised by Harry Ross, Everton’s inestimable club padre, at Anfield’s Hillsborough Memorial on Saturday, 24th August 2003. We duly went along, aetheists or not. Sometimes respect and solidarity are more important than anything else. Nobody asks your religion in a trench.

And there could be no better individual to conduct the service than Harry Ross, one of those rare human beings who tries to do good in the most difficult of circumstances. His dignity and simple eloquence made the moment all the more poignant and important for the few hundred who gathered at the behest of Mike Owen. Amongst them were family and relatives of Hillsborough victims and of Bill Dean. Dave Watson also attended as a playing link between the two club

Harry made the point that people who commit this kind of horror are not really football fans, that banter and jokes are okay but physical action of this type is way beyond the pale and should be considered and treated as such. Afterwards, Mike laid a bouquet of flowers on the memorial.

None of us, blue or red, want those culpable counted as part of the heart and soul of our clubs. We also know that relations between the two sets of fans have steadily deteriorated during the last twenty-odd years to the point where it has reached critical mass. If it is not dealt with at board level on both sides of the park matters are likely to worsen decisively. Most importantly, we don’t want families and relatives to have to go through any more sadness than already endured.

Both Harry Ross and Mike Owen made a touching and much-needed fresh start on Saturday. Now we need both clubs and their fans to keep it up.

I think we would all say amen to that.