Opinion

Newton Emerson: We are drifting towards a general Troubles amnesty

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson writes a twice-weekly column for The Irish News and is a regular commentator on current affairs on radio and television.

The Westminster committee concluded that former Briitsh soldiers should be protected from future prosecutions
The Westminster committee concluded that former Briitsh soldiers should be protected from future prosecutions The Westminster committee concluded that former Briitsh soldiers should be protected from future prosecutions

Media coverage of a report from Westminster’s Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has suggested it recommends a Troubles amnesty for former soldiers and police officers. While that is certainly what the unionist-dominated committee set out to achieve, it ended up accepting legal advice that any amnesty would have to apply to everyone, take the form of a statute of limitations and still leave Troubles crimes open to investigation, albeit not prosecution. In the absence of Stormont it does appear we are drifting towards a general Troubles amnesty - a goal the British government and Sinn Féin have been dancing around for 20 years, as the on-the-runs scandal revealed. Because such an amnesty would apply to civil and criminal cases, one of the few remaining ways Troubles crimes could end up in court would be via Northern Ireland’s unreformed libel laws, as people sued each other over historic allegations. There is no sign the DUP foresaw this when it blocked libel reform.

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The inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme (remember that?) has held a preliminary hearing but signs for speedy progress are ominous. Inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin, a retired judge, has said a further session might be held in June but public evidence hearings will not begin until the autumn. This appears to observe the archaic courts service calendar of a lengthy summer recess followed by an autumn ‘Michaelmas Term’ (followed by two weeks of wig-cleaning, then Hogwarts Term.) The inquiry is not a court, however, so there is no reason why the 125 public bodies summoned to testify need to kick their heels until September at the earliest. It should be noted that there is no good reason for the courts to close all summer either.

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SAS flags have been flown in Loughgall during Sinn Féin’s commemoration of the Loughgall ambush. This was an act of tasteless gloating and an insult to the bereaved, yet mystery surrounds why Sinn Féin claimed to have reported it to the PSNI (the party later corrected this to say a complaint was made by lawyers for the families of all those killed.) What offence does Sinn Féin think might the flag-flying might have caused or committed that the commemoration did not? The flags might constitute a breach of the peace, although hardly in Loughgall. The commemoration, on the other hand, committed multiple offences of ‘glorifying terrorism’ under admittedly ridiculous anti-terror legislation. It is a mark of progress that Sinn Féin so completely disassociates bombing the RUC with complaining to the PSNI - but it is also ominous that it still so completely disassociates its own faults from the identical faults of others.

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A woman from Northern Ireland who lives in London has ordered a cake for two friends from Asher’s Bakery in Belfast, with the slogan: “Gay marriage rocks! Happy engagement, Andy and Joe!”

The woman professed surprise when her order was turned down by the UK’s most famous non-provider of gay cakes, telling the Sunday Life: “My friends and I don’t want to sue but others might want to take action.” Or, indeed, get a slice of the action.

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Power-sharing can encourage a tendency among our parties to act as if they are in government and opposition at the same time. Now it seems this confusion is spreading. A new campaign by lobby group Participation and Practice of Rights (PPR) involves turning up at benefit offices and handing “human rights checklists” to social security decision makers, in protest at benefit sanctions. It would be normal practice to object to a government policy by targeting the politicians responsible, rather than engaging in passive-aggressive stunts against blameless public sector workers. Not only is PPR ignoring this but it is has invited politicians from all Northern Ireland’s parties - including those involved in welfare reform - to join it in handing over the ‘checklists’ to benefits staff. Alliance and People Before Profit have indicated they endorse this extraordinary behaviour.

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Spoiler alert: the new film about Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness’s at St Andrews, The Journey, has a twist in the tale. It emerges the driver of their official car is an MI5 agent, who is being directed by earpiece to steer their conversation towards rapprochement. Reviewing the film in the Irish Times, veteran journalist Eamonn Mallie denounces this as a “ludicrous narrative innovation.” Really? There are enough facts to forgive it as a neat symbolic summary of Britain’s role. In 1999, MI5 was revealed to have bugged the car McGuinness and Gerry Adams used during Good Friday Agreement negotiations. In 2008, one of Adams’s personal drivers was unmasked as an MI5 agent. He had driven Sinn Fein leaders since 1994, the year of the IRA ceasefire.

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Tony Blair chose the 20th anniversary of becoming prime minister to announce a return to politics - and the BBC responded with a 2,000 word online article about his legacy, going into exhaustive detail on seemingly every aspect of his time in office, from Britpop to the Iraq war, with graphs to complete the economic analysis. There was not one word about Northern Ireland.

newton@irishnews.com