City pays it’s respects with a silence for the 96 who lost their lives.
Today, marked the 30-year mile stone from the devastating tragedy of Hillsborough. On the 15TH of April, hundreds of people gathered outside of Liverpool’s St George’s hall to commemorate those who lost their lives.
On the football ground in 1989, thousands of fans gathered for the FA Cup semi-final football game between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Hillsborough stadium, and 96 of those fans didn’t return home. The youngest of those fans was Jon-Paul Gilhooney aged 10, who was Liverpool FC’s Captain Steven Gerard’s cousin.
The city came together with open arms and heavy hearts, to show respect and share love with the 96 and the families who lost their love ones. The city gathered at 2:30pm and a brief service was held. Not many words where spoken, but you could feel the warmth, love and sadness in the air as people gave their tributes. At 3:06pm, those who gathered had a minute’s silence- the time that the football match was stopped. The Bells on Liverpool’s town hall rang 96 times, each for the men, women and children who lost their lives in 1996. The whole city stood still, and mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said a few words and lay down a beautiful display of flowers.
Today marked a day of love, remembrance and reflection. The heart of Liverpool will always hold those 96 people close. The 96 are always watching over our city and will never walk alone in Liverpool. It was a beautiful thing to witness so many people to come together with so much love and respect for what our city has lost.
Looking through the crowd of hundreds, people held pictures, Liverpool scarfs and tributes that where spelled people’s names on -many of these had ‘SON’ ‘FATHER’ ‘GRANDFATHER’ and ‘DAUGHTER’ written on them.
People have been grieving and giving tributes since the weekend of the tragedy. The stillness, love and sadness that filled the air all those years ago, was still here today years on. The Hillsborough monument is based in the centre of Liverpool city just by St Johns gardens, streams of people gathered throughout the day. I looked at all the names engraved into the monument, and thought how special it is that their names will stand forever, engraved into in the heart of our city.
Even though hundreds gathered to mourn and celebrate in the memory of those who lost their lives, LFC football team showed their respects by laying wreaths down at the memorial of Hillsborough at Anfield stadium. while other team’s took to social media to send thoughts and tributes to the families.
Wreaths, messages of support for the families, and Liverpool memorabilia were also left on the steps ahead of the minutes silence by the people of Liverpool.
Liverpool L17 local news 