Today, Wednesday June 10th, 2026 will mark the beginning of the public inquiry into the murder of my husband, Patrick Finucane, the solicitor from Belfast. He was just 39 when he was murdered in our home on February 12th, 1989 as he sat having a meal with me and our children. That is 37 years, 3 months, and 30 days ago, or 448 months, or 13,633 days, depending on how you count it. This is the length of time that I - along with my three children and my entire family - have spent campaigning for this public inquiry. We have been saying for all that time that it was required because we believed that agencies within the British state colluded with the loyalist paramilitary organisation who carried out the killing of Pat. We have done everything in our power to achieve this. We have gone everywhere in the world to enlist those who might help to make it possible. We have been to the White House to meet several US presidents, and 10 Downing Street to meet several British prime ministers, and to Irish Government Buildings to meet several taoisigh. We litigated our case in the European Court of Human Rights and the UK Supreme Court. And that’s just a snapshot. Pat was a successful solicitor practising in Belfast, his home town, and among the first from his home area of West Belfast to attend university. He was one of the very few to qualify as a solicitor. The legal work he became known for was a reflection of the lack of opportunity in his community and Pat seized this with both hands. He relished the challenge of helping people in a newly emerging conflict landscape that presented obstacles never before encountered. Middle-of-the-night raids and arrests, controversial deaths, contentious inquests, civil actions against the police and army - the list goes on and on. The rulebook, for what it was worth, was constantly being rewritten. Sometimes, Pat was the one rewriting it. Inevitably, this led him into dispute with the authorities, the RUC, British military, the British government, Pat was unafraid to challenge any of them. As his profile grew, so too did the enmity he incurred. What we didn’t know was just how much they wanted to remove him - to end the work that he was doing and to send a warning to others who might aspire to replace him.The work that Pat began in his lifetime is not finished yet but we, his family, now have a chance to reveal the truth behind his murder in a public, independent judicial inquiry that has the power to seek all of the evidence and to examine the testimony of all relevant witnesses. I look forward to having the opportunity to participate and expose publicly the whole truth behind the murder of my husband. This has always been the objective of the campaign that we pursued. We have only ever been concerned with uncovering the truth. It is this that has kept us going. It is the thing that has been missing, all these years.We had no confidence that RUC investigations would ever bring those actually responsible to justice. We were not satisfied with private, limited reviews from which we were excluded. We did not accept the assurances of previous British governments that they were anxious to set the record straight, because they were never prepared to do so in public. The only investigation of any kind that was established by the British government in all the years since 1989 was a review by a lawyer appointed by former prime minister David Cameron. This review was criticised by the UK Supreme Court as wholly inadequate. The court ruled that it was not a proper inquiry, and the government had not fulfilled its legal or human rights obligations. This ruling was given in 2019. We had to go back to court twice to force the British government to implement it. The feeling of relief – and release – when the inquiry was announced was overwhelming.The journey to this point is not one that my family and I have had to endure alone. We would never have succeeded without the assistance and support and encouragement of so many people over the years. So many people, in Belfast and all across the island of Ireland, in Britain and America, indeed, all over the world, were willing to give generously of their time and talent again and again. The issue of what happened in Ireland during the many years of conflict has become a fraught subject. There are so many divided opinions on the events, who was responsible and what should be done about it now. The society of today is unrecognisable from the world of 1989 that marked the last year of my husband’s life. We now live in a world more open and interconnected than ever, and yet the things that happened in the Northern Ireland conflict often feel more obscured and hidden than ever. This inquiry can change that. I do not ask that anyone come simply to support, or oppose, the issues. I just ask that people observe the work of the inquiry and listen to the evidence that is presented. The conclusions reached by individuals are their own, but it is important to listen, to consider, and to learn from the information presented in public. Much of this will be done for the first time. This is the objective we have been striving to achieve: the right to know all of the facts, open and unredacted. This is the right of every person who was affected by the conflict, which is the same as saying it is the right of every person, for there was no-one unaffected. Everyone has the right to know the truth.I believe this inquiry can be a watershed moment in the difficult subject of legacy on this island. If a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane can finally examine publicly the collusion that plagued our society for so many years, there is hope that a real process of healing can begin. Pat’s murder is the last remaining Weston Park case, and the inquiry fulfils a commitment made during the 2001 Weston Park peace talks. It is high time it was properly investigated, publicly examined and finally resolved. I believe that my family deserve this, after so many years. Pat Finucane certainly deserves this. Our society deserves this. After 37 years, 3 months, and 30 days of cover-ups, it is time for the truth.