Sheffield and Liverpool: united by grief

For 20 years Sheffield and Liverpool have been joined at the hip by grief.

The Hillsborough disaster has been a continual black mark in the Yorkshire city’s history which its people have continually wanted to forget and needed to remember.

With few locals involved in the catastrophe itself, it has been described by many Sheffield Wednesday fans as a surreal event for them personally, seeing somewhere they knew so well helping cause something so horrific.

Even more so when to think that possibly the most memorable moment in the club’s history involved none of its own fans.

This may also reflect why for some of those in the city at the time hold a feeling of sitting in on another’s grief. Their proximity to the tragedy and the heartfelt sorrow for those involved, rather than any tangible loss, being the only real connections to the events of April 15th 1989.

There are still clouds hanging over some those involved on that day, police officers being the most condemned of all, and it is still something of an open wound for some of the Sheffield public.

The lack of a resolution has effectively tarred many of them involved that day, rightly or wrongly, with guilt and the lives of 96 men, women and children on their conscience without trial.

Even with the early release of documents relating to these events many in Sheffield are sceptical of justice ever being granted to those that perished and the families that continue to mourn without this closure.

This will also leave that perpetual question mark about the behaviour and decision making of a probable few over South Yorkshire Police which history will make it hard to shift.

Some feel the synonymy of Sheffield, Hillsborough and the 1989 FA Cup Semi-final are beginning to be lost to a generation, but it is a doubt football will ever let its greatest tragedy slip from memory for good.