Today (Monday) Lisnaskea-based South East Fermanagh Foundation working in partnership with RUC GC Association (Fermanagh Branch) will mark the 30th anniversary of the murder Fermanagh native R/Const. Douglas Carrothers.
Douglas known as Dougie was murdered on May 17, 1991 when aged 41 years, outside his home in Lisbellaw where he, wife Phyllis and three children had recently moved.
SEFF's Director of Services Kenny Donaldson stated: "Dougie was very well respected and his murder brought a sense of revulsion from across the community. Today from 11am onwards we will be showing a short tribute film on our SEFF Victim and Survivors Facebook page which has been developed with the support of Rev Alan Irwin and RUC GC Association (Fermanagh Branch).
"Please search SEFF Victims and Survivors on Facebook. Do make the effort to log on today and in-so-doing you will be showing solidarity with the Carrothers family and also advise others of the tribute film," concluded Mr Donaldson.
He added: "The Carrothers family have been members of our organisation since it was first formed back in the late 1990s, they epitomise the very best of Ulster folk; hard workers, God fearing people with a strong commitment to serving others.
"Dougie Carrothers was aged just 41 years when the Provisional IRA took the decision to extinguish his life. Dougie was murdered in an under-car booby trap bomb attack. The Carrothers family had been advised by the authorities to move from their previous home in Brookeborough after retired RUC Reservist Cullen Stevenson (a close family friend) was murdered in the area just a few months previously."
The late Dougie Carrothers.
Speaking within SEFF's I'll Never Forget publication, Dougie's widow Phyllis recalls: "That is a day I will never forget - the day my husband was so brutally taken from me, and I was catapulted into the role of provider and head of our family. I had to fulfil those roles for our three children who were deprived of a father."
The title of the SEFF Publication came directly from those comment by Phyllis.
Phyllis added: "I will never forget the afternoon that I had to break the news to my children that their father was dead. Only someone who has gone through that experience can truly know how it feels. It hurts me deeply every time the word ‘atrocity’ is attributed to the loss of multiple lives in a single incident and very seldom to single murders. For an individual family the loss of a husband, father, or other family member is an 'atrocity and a travesty' too."
Mr. Donaldson added: "Dougie was a devoted Christian who lived life for his faith, his family and this community. The principles he lived his life by are carried on within those beloved family members from whom he has been temporarily parted".
"There remain individuals who were involved in the murder of Dougie who have yet to be brought to justice for their heinous actions, on this being the 30th Anniversary we would issue a fresh appeal for information, a good man was taken away by cowards motivated by sectarian and ethnic hatred."
Dougie's individual path contained on one of SEFF's Memorial Quilts - Your Legacy Lives On.
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