Northern Ireland

PLATFORM: Desmond Rea: Legacy - the appropriate time to draw a line?

Ballymurphy Families and MLAs at Stormont during a protest over the funding of inquests but Professor Rea thinks it is time to draw a line under the past. Picture by Hugh Russell.
Ballymurphy Families and MLAs at Stormont during a protest over the funding of inquests but Professor Rea thinks it is time to draw a line under the past. Picture by Hugh Russell. Ballymurphy Families and MLAs at Stormont during a protest over the funding of inquests but Professor Rea thinks it is time to draw a line under the past. Picture by Hugh Russell.

IN what would seem to be a well-informed ‘leak’ The Times of May 6 stated the following: Soldiers and terrorists to be given immunity from prosecution (for actions taken during the Troubles as part of plans to draw a line under the past) and Ministers plan Mandela-style truth and reconciliation process.

In respect to the former, it would appear that ministers intend to bring in a statute of limitations; although the mention of the intention in the Queen’s Speech was remarkably brief.

In considering the UK Government’s proposals when they surface, it is imperative that we remember the scale of the deaths and to which ‘organisation’ attributed, also injuries caused during the Troubles and here I draw on the Report of the Consultative Group on the Past, which noted that, as a result of the conflict between 1969 and 2001.

Of the 3,523 killed 2055 (58%) were attributed to republican paramilitary groups, 1,020 (29%) to loyalist paramilitary groups, 368 (10%) to security forces.

The breakdown of those killed were civilians (1,855); security forces (1,123); republican paramilitaries (394); and loyalist paramilitaries (151) and also some 47,000 people sustained injuries in 16,200 bombings and 37,000 shooting incidents.

On May 11 - the same date as the Queen delivered her Speech - a coroner concluded that ten civilians killed in Ballymurphy during three days of violence in August 1971 during a military operation were ‘entirely innocent’.

Whilst this was a welcome judgment for the families of the victims their pain is still raw.

On August 8 2007 I was invited as then Chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board to join a panel at the West Belfast Festival.

The first question through the Chair was addressed to me :“Professor Rea, I am Patrick Finucane’s son. Your views on dealing with the past are well-known but where do your views leave me and my family?”

I replied as follows: “First, I should say that’ legacy’ is the one area where I have sought and been given permission by the Northern Ireland Policing Board to address as long as I state that I speak for myself and not the Board and I do so now.

"Secondly, I sympathise with you, your mother and your family in the death of your father but everywhere I go in Northern Ireland I meet similar pain, be it the relatives of the Omagh Bombing or the widows of RUC / PSNI officers. I see no hierarchy in death.

"Thirdly, I have bought into the peace process on Sinn Féin’s terms ,which I understand to be Sinn Féin has argued that its paramilitary wing, viz PIRA : was an army not terrorists; was engaged in a war; and that since the Troubles was a war, the prisoners of war should be released.

I refer to Annex B of the Good Friday Agreement. [ I then put to the audience – and I had noted that the audience included the then leader of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams – the following Question]: Does this not mean that both governments have accepted Sinn Féin’s argument?

(No one in an audience of 800 voiced their disagreement.)

Fourthly, in a war nasty things happen on both sides. I do not doubt that some collusion took place.

While you can argue that more can be expected from a state - (Article 2. of the European Convention on Human Rights.)- it would seem disingenuous to do so.

If, as Sinn Féin has argued, and it has been implicitly accepted by both governments that PIRA were engaged in a war, and not in terrorism.

Accordingly, I would argue that as of the Good Friday Agreement, the slate should be wiped clean, and our society should embrace the future ; the release of prisoners should be extended to immunity from prosecution for former security force personnel and former paramilitaries; there should be no more ‘legacy’ inquiries; and our concern should be with ‘Troubles’ victims at their points of need and meeting those needs with generosity and as much speed as is possible..

To the above I would now add that Northern Ireland should draw a line in a national act of contrition.

In the Queen’s Speech the leak of May 6 is confirmed as accurate and as such it is an implicit acceptance by the British government of Sinn Féin’s argument that the ‘Troubles’ were a war, that paramilitaries were soldiers, that the investigation of (former) attributed paramilitary killings is extremely difficult and costly, that the concentration on alleged security force killings is unfair and that what is being proposed is sensible and just. I concur. Should not the Irish Government (and the American Administration) do the same?

:: Professor Sir Desmond Rea was inaugural chair of the Northern Ireland Policing Board and is also a former chair of the Local Government Staff Commission and the Labour Relations Agency