Opinion

Tom Kelly: British government sees Troubles victims as inconvenient irritant

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

Alan Black, the sole survivor of the Kingsmill attack, said he doubts whether anyone will ever be brought ot justice for the massacre
Alan Black, the sole survivor of the Kingsmill attack, said he doubts whether anyone will ever be brought ot justice for the massacre Alan Black, the sole survivor of the Kingsmill attack, said he doubts whether anyone will ever be brought ot justice for the massacre

The late Brazilian Archbishop Helder Camara, better known as Bishop to the Poor, once wrote that: “If there’s some corner of the world which has remained peaceful but with a peace based on injustices, the peace of a swamp with rotten matter fermenting in its depth, we may be sure that peace is false.”

It’s not hard to apply his sentiments to Northern Ireland. Last week the Public Prosecution Service delivered another hammer blow to the families of victims of the Kingsmill massacre and to Alan Black, the sole survivor of that slaughter.

Mr Black was shot eighteen times on the evening of the January 5, 1976, which was one of the darkest days in the bloody history of Northern Ireland. It followed the equally brutal and horrific UVF murders of the O’Dowd and Reavey families. Mr Black has said that he doubts he will ever see anyone brought to justice.

Like Eugene Reavey, Mr Black bravely continues to bear witness to those atrocities. They both strive to keep shining a light into some of our most shadowy corners. They can’t forget but they also rightly believe that we should not forget either. The peace we gained was at the expense of people like Mr Reavey and Mr Black and countless thousands of other victims.

Northern Ireland is the ‘peace of a swamp with rotten matter fermenting in its depths.’ It has always suited the protagonists of the peace process to either exploit, ignore or patronise victims and their families. Some thought it was even worth trying to buy them off with some cheap cheque book diplomacy.

A few months ago, when I interviewed Alan Black for Q Radio, he said that he felt the government’s current strategy was to simply let the victims and their families fade away. To go quietly into the dark night. But those victims, survivors and their families with considerable dignity and tenacity refuse to go away, though time and age is against them.

Unionists and republicans like to lionise their own victims and vilify others. Instead both should be taking responsibility if not for the victims created by their tribalism, then at least taking responsibility for getting justice for victims and their families. And that includes letting justice go where the evidence takes it - no matter how high up or low down on the command chain.

The recent furore over the possibility of some former soldiers being prosecuted for killings such as the Ballymurphy massacre sent unionist and Tory politicians into a state of apoplexy. Neither a uniform nor a balaclava should give anyone the right to cover up murderous actions, whatever the circumstances.

One would imagine that law and order proponents would get that but of course they have blinkers on when it comes to British soldiers. Why would soldiers who went rogue whilst in service in Northern Ireland be any less immune to prosecution than their comrades who served in Iraq?

Jews who survived the Holocaust and their campaigners pursued Nazi war criminals and their collaborators for the past seventy years. The age of the perpetrators is irrelevant when justice deserves witness. The reality is that victims in Northern Ireland are an inconvenient irritant to the British government.

The scale of state collusion with loyalist and republican paramilitaries is undeniable and penetrated the highest levels in all three organisations. The knowledge of such collusion is disconcerting to victims and their families searching for answers. A coalition of interests including securocrats, paramilitaries and some individuals in the political sphere now coalesce and find common cause in covering up the past. What’s embarrassing for a forces loving Tory minister will be equally embarrassing for unionists who play footsie with well-known loyalist criminals as it will be for Gerry Adams and his brigade of old IRA comrades.

When you look at the horrific nature of Ballymurphy, Kingsmill, Whitecross, McGurk's, the Miami Showband or La Mon, one wonders how soundly those who have escaped justice sleep at night.

But no doubt sleep they do and with every year that passes they sleep deeper as the threat of justice catching up with them recedes.

It’s bizarre that the collusion which kept the Troubles going now colludes again to prevent justice. Yet as a society and for victims we should want to disturb the peace of these perparators because as Helder Camara said: “Without justice and love, peace will always be a great illusion.”

And as we now have politics bereft of generosity we can’t afford to lose justice too.