The Liverpool Echo trawled through the archives to host an exhibition marking the 21st anniversary of the Hillsborough football disaster.

A selection of 96 stories from the daily’s coverage since the tragedy on 15 April 1989, which can be seen below, were displayed in the atrium of the Daily Post and Echo’s offices in Liverpool city centre.

Margaret Aspinall, from the Hillsborough Family Support Group, told the Echo that the old news cuttings still had an important message.

“There are a lot of people, especially younger ones, who don’t understand,” she said.

“I think it’s important for people to be aware, as well, of each stage we’ve been through to get to today.”

The exhibition also featured the emergency Sunday Echo that was published on 16 April 1989 and represents the starting point for all the Echo’s subsequent coverage.

Last year the Echo marked the 20th anniversary by carrying a collage of all 96 victims of the tragedy, a project which was completed just days before the anniversary.

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Comments

Onlooker (05/05/2010 10:30:18)
Last year the Echo marked the disaster’s 20th anniversary. This year it is marking its 21st. Why ? Disaster copy sells newspapers, true, but that is no excuse to wallow in something as sad and tragic as Hillsborough – despite what local groups insist they want.

Crinkle (05/05/2010 11:07:08)
Agree with “Onlooker”. The MEN ceaselessly gouges away at the “Busby Babes” story, year after year, decade after decade. Yes, very sad, terrible tragedy, etc etc. It sells papers – but Christ, it’s boring.

Bob (05/05/2010 11:16:39)
Well, what a couple of bone-headed comments they are. If the Echo and the MEN didn’t mark significant anniversaries of such events then readers would complain about a lack of local coverage. You can’t please all the people all the time but, personally, I think this was a nice touch by the Echo without going into overkill. No-one forced people into the offices to read the stories and HTFP has given younger readers a chance to see what the Echo used to look like.

Gruffalo (05/05/2010 12:34:04)
So bored of Hillsborough

Neil Macdonald (05/05/2010 13:44:48)
To Onlooker, Crinkle and especially Gruffalo, you all make me sick.
Ask the families who lost husbands, fathers, sons and daughters at Hillsborough if they are bored or if they consider this wallowing in tragedy.
We honour the memory of the 96 because what happened that day and in its aftermath is still raw and the families and whole communities affected are still fighting for justice and the real truth of what happened.
As an Echo journalist I’m proud we have supported and been involved in that campaign whenever and wherever possible, and long may that continue.

All Subbed Out (05/05/2010 13:55:29)
The exhibition for the 21st anniversary is clearly different from the in-paper coverage of the 20th, Onlooker. It seems a very dignified and respectful way of giving people the opportunity to reflect on what happened, and isn’t a sales pitch for the paper, so stop being so churlish.

Onlooker (05/05/2010 14:36:52)
Neil, I’ve worked on various tragic disaster stories for various newspapers but none has been written about and pored over more than Hillsborough. Someone once coined the phrase ‘Liverpool …Self-Pity City’. I don’t go along with that but Liverpool (usually with the Echo’s help) does seem to bear its scars more often in public than other cities.

Sarah (05/05/2010 14:44:39)
I don’t usually poke the HTFP trolls but I can’t ignore the three offensive comments posted on this story.
I’m astonished by the lack of humanity and grace displayed by Onlooker, Crinkle and Gruffalo; if there was an ounce of intelligence in their views it would be concerning but they are obviously mouth-breathers who have – somehow – mastered the basic ability of signing into a website to post ‘hur hur hur’ type thoughts.
Perhaps if they had ever met anyone who had been at Hillsborough that day, they wouldn’t be quite so quick with their calls to “move on”.

Eric (05/05/2010 15:29:15)
Yeah, yeah, yeah…and yet, somehow, Manchester – to take just one example – has managed to deal with and progress beyond the various disasters which have befallen it – the Stockport air crash, the Woolworths department store fire, etc etc, along with countless other places where disaster has struck. No-one is saying that Hillsborough was anything but a terrible and tragic waste of lives. But, you know, an awful lot more people have lost loved ones in different but equally dreadful circumstances – Lockerbie, for example, or how about Dunblane? Bad things happen to good people because of other people’s greed, stupidity or ignorance, and sometimes just through sheer utter bloody bad luck. It’s as simple – and heartbreaking – as that.

Reporter (05/05/2010 16:16:48)
I find the people dismissing this coverage as crass and insensitive and above all ignorant. How dare they criticise what (the majority of) people in Liverpool would like to read. Sometimes it’s better to have a think first.

Lynn (05/05/2010 16:50:31)
Neil,
‘Onlooker, Crinkle and Gruffalo’ don’t even have the balls to comment under their own name…. Enough said…

Lee (05/05/2010 16:59:41)
Surely the unique point about Hillsborough is the fact that a.) the people of Liverpool were blamed for the event, and b.) it’s widely agreed that there was a miscarriage of justice, but it hasn’t been effectively dealt with. It’s not just a case of digging over a tragedy, it’s highlighting an injustice.
Campaigns for redress don’t stop after a few months or years have passed by, just in case some idiots find it “boring”.

Gruffalo (06/05/2010 11:52:56)
Neither does ‘Lynn’. Enough said.

David (06/05/2010 16:32:20)
I’m not sure what comparing one tragedy to another really achieves, because every community will deal with things differently. The Hillsborough tragedy, as Lee says, is compounded by a miscarriage of justice which has yet to be sorted, and the slurs and lies which The Sun printed, and which Kelvin MacKenzie has repeatedly used as a self-publicity tool ever since. This isn’t some sort of sales driver for the Echo, it’s an exhibition at their building. For as long as the injustice of Hillsborough goes uncorrected, the Echo is duty bound to ensure that those in authority know that the people of Liverpool won’t forget about it. I feel very sorry for the people who can’t see that, and especially sorry for those who think it’s acceptable to criticise the way a city grieves. As for Gruffalo – you just need help. Or something more productive to spend your time on.