Two years ago, around midday on March 15, in Lurgan, Rosemary Nelson climbed into her car, backed out of her driveway, and set off on the short distance to her office in the city center. At the first intersection, less than 100 yards from her home, a bomb planted underneath her car sometime within the previous 48 hours, detonated. Nelson's three young children, in a nearby school, heard the explosion. Neighbors and family rushed to the scene, followed by a mobile medical team, but there was little that could be done. Nelson lost both legs, suffered severe abdominal injuries, and died a few hours later after unsuccessful surgery to save her life. She is survived by her husband and three children.

Shortly after the murder, the Red Hand Defenders, a Protestant, pro-British paramilitary group not in support of the Good Friday peace accord and the current cease-fire, telephoned the BBC claiming responsibility. Since that day, many questions have emerged.

• Did this group have assistance from a more mainstream paramilitary organization(s), ostensibly on cease-fire?
  
  
• Did an intense amount of British Army activity around the Nelson home in the days and hours leading up to the murder have some part to play in the deployment of the bomb?
  
  
• Was the attack targeted specifically against Nelson, or was it a warning to those she represented? Or was it intended as a disruptive force to encourage counter-violence from Catholic, pro-Irish paramilitaries, thereby threatening the peace process?

What is known is that in the eyes of many in Northern Ireland, Nelson, like other lawyers, was a prominent target, not because of who she was, but because of whom she represented. Nelson, 40, was the first woman in Lurgan to set up her own practice, and over the years she represented many local clients in the mundane matters typical of the sole general practitioner. But, as part of her local practice, she also took on a small number of controversial cases in which she represented high profile Catholics clients. Those cases involved efforts to (1) prevent Protestant marches through Catholic neighborhoods, (2) seek redress for the death of a family member at the hands of a loyalist mob in plain view of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (Northern Ireland's police force), and (3) successfully reverse the conviction of a person incarcerated for the murder of a member of the security forces.

This work led her to be vilified by the Protestant loyalist community, and to receive threats to her clients and to herself from that community and the overwhelmingly Protestant/Unionist RUC.

A short time after the murder, Colin Port, Deputy Chief Constable of the Norfolk Constabulary, was brought from England to conduct an investigation into the Nelson murder and the broader allegations of security force collusion. Over the ensuing months, small pieces to the Nelson murder puzzle have been assembled. Most press reports have identified the bomb as a mercury tilt-switch type, which was connected to explosives. A magnet used to attach the bomb to Nelson's car was stolen from Harland & Wolff's Belfast shipyard, where identical ones were used by workers cutting steel. And, earlier this year, loyalist death lists and a haul of pipe bombs, perhaps linked to the Nelson murder, were uncovered by the police in a loyalist stronghold of north Belfast.

These discoveries, along with others, have led to some interesting, but thus far inconclusive, arrests. Last spring, Port's team arrested a former British soldier and charged him with arms offenses and membership of an illegal loyalist organization. His arrest has increased speculation that members of the security forces may have encouraged or facilitated Nelson's murder. He was not, however, charged with Nelson's murder. Over the ensuing months, three other persons were arrested, but released without charge. In sum, the puzzle remains incomplete, as the actual perpetrator(s) have yet to be arrested or publicly identified.

As a result of the shortage of evidence, and amidst concerns over the RUC's involvement in the investigation, an international array of respected legal bodies and human rights organizations, including the United Nations, the United States Congress, and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern have called for an independent inquiry.

In late 1999, we accompanied the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights on an investigative mission into the Nelson murder. In our travels, we had the opportunity to meet with Port, as well as the Chief Constable of the RUC, journalists, and legal professionals. No interview was more troubling, however, then meeting with Mr. Nelson and his family in his Lurgan home. As he and his three children attempt to get on with a "normal" life, the vacuum from his wife's absence was palpable, a chilling reminder that all has not been rectified in Northern Ireland's quest for peace.

St. Patrick's Day, celebrated by the Irish and non-Irish alike, is a day of fun. This mother and lawyer deserved a dinner in her honor, not a bomb in her car. Now her family, her friends, the people of Northern Ireland, and concerned citizens around the world deserve the truth behind this cowardly murder. The time is ripe for an independent inquiry.

Dan VanDeMortel is a paralegal with Morrison & Foerster llp, SanðFrancisco. He has traveled to Northern Ireland with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and has volunteered for the Committee on the Administration of Justice (a Belfast-based human rights organization). He is the editor of Northern Ireland Alert's Northern Ireland Congressional Scorecard.