THE LESSONS OF HILLSBOROUGH

JOHN ANTHONY FINDS OUT ABOUT A BOOK AND PLAY THAT ARE HELPING TO EDUCATE PEOPLE ABOUT ONE OF ENGLISH FOOTBALL'S WORST DISASTERS...

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FOR football supporters over the age of 40, it's inconceivable that mention of the Hillsborough disaster should draw blank looks from anyone.

Surely the horrors of that FA Cup semi-final in 1989 and the deaths of 97 Liverpool supporters have been burned into British history?

Even more so given the families fought a three-decade battle for justice that saw a verdict of unlawful killing recorded for the fans who lost their lives at a long overdue inquest in 2016. The jury determined that the fans were not to blame for the tragedy.

So it came as a real shock to teacher Shaun Millea when he was speaking about Hillsborough to a group of children at a school in Liverpool that many of them had no idea what the disaster was or what effect it had had on their own city and football in general.

He was also told of a group of Liverpool supporters from southern England who visited Anfield and had no idea what the eternal flame memorial to the victims was or what it meant.

That may seem shocking to many readers of this magazine - but the disaster is more than a generation ago. You would have to be in your 40s to have any memory of it happening.

That inspired Millea to write a book for children - Hillsborough: One Boy's Story Of A Tragedy - so future generations would know about what happened on that day in Sheffield and in the years after.

He said: “Hillsborough can mean nothing to many, especially the young. So, I have decided to tell the story of Hillsborough in the form of a children’s book, in the hope that others understand what this city went through and why we won't let it go or forget.

“It’s not based on real characters, but it is based on very real events that changed the face of football, the establishment, the city, its people and the families of the 97 who went to the match and never came home.”