Opinion

Newton Emerson: Dealing with the past now means making a choice between truth and justice

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.

Families leaving the City Hotel in Derry on Thursday after the Public Prosecution Service announced that one solider will face prosecution for the murders of James Wray and William McKinney and the attempted murders of Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Joe Mahon and Patrick O'Donnell on Bloody Sunday in January 1972. Picture by Liam McBurney/PA Wire
Families leaving the City Hotel in Derry on Thursday after the Public Prosecution Service announced that one solider will face prosecution for the murders of James Wray and William McKinney and the attempted murders of Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Joe Mah Families leaving the City Hotel in Derry on Thursday after the Public Prosecution Service announced that one solider will face prosecution for the murders of James Wray and William McKinney and the attempted murders of Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Joe Mahon and Patrick O'Donnell on Bloody Sunday in January 1972. Picture by Liam McBurney/PA Wire

THE decision to prosecute only one Bloody Sunday soldier is in some ways the worst possible outcome, leaving victims' families hugely disappointed while still bringing all the contention of Troubles prosecutions to the fore.

Northern Ireland's devolved criminal justice system deserves no blame and by rights should receive some credit, although that seems unlikely amid the anger on all sides.

The criminal investigation into Bloody Sunday was initiated and conducted by the PSNI from 2012, following the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

The Public Prosecution Service has made its decision without any of the elisions of "public interest" familiar before policing and justice were devolved.

However, with testimony at the inquiry inadmissible in court, there is only so much prosecutors can do.

Political leaders have a responsibility to set out the implications of this for dealing with the past.

The pursuit of truth and justice has become, in practice, the pursuit of truth or justice.

**

The DUP is badly in need of a ladder to climb down on Brexit and seriously considered voting for the prime minister's latest deal this week, until the attorney general unexpectedly kicked the ladder away, by emphasising how little the deal had changed.

Suspicions the party is now going for no deal are mistaken.

The DUP's real game, pathetically, is to show it did everything possible to remove the backstop before inevitably accepting it as part of the only manageable Brexit on offer.

Hence the DUP backed no deal as a "bargaining chip" - as, unexpectedly, did independent unionist Lady Sylvia Hermon.

Then it supported 'managed no deal' proposals just in time for the Commons to show it would never back anything like them, not that Brussels would ever have accepted them.

Meanwhile, the government published its own hopeless no deal plan implying a sea border.

A new ladder involving some Brexit role for Stormont is also clearly being erected.

All this will spare the DUP's blushes when it climbs down, assuming the government does not collapse first or no deal does not happen by accident.

Should a party founded by a preacher not know pride is the deadliest sin?

**

A number of leading figures within the GAA have urged the organisation to campaign for a border poll or advocate for Irish unity in the event of a poll.

It is surprising this has garnered so much comment, as the position of the GAA on such issues could hardly be in doubt: would it ever be neutral on unity, let alone opposed?

In the meantime, the GAA is actually calling for direct rule-style intervention pending the return of Stormont.

The cost of Casement Park has soared due to planning delays and Ulster GAA says it is concerned civil servants cannot sign off the necessary decisions.

No wonder Sinn Féin prefers to restrict itself to complaining about GAA coverage on the BBC.

**

In more serious indirect rule news, the Department of Health has published its long-awaited cancer strategy but it is largely undeliverable without a health minister in place.

Lives will almost certainly be lost as a result.

It must be asked where Northern Ireland's enormous rights sector is in all of this.

Quite apart from the general right to life, the sector spent a decade during the doomed bill of rights project proposing that healthcare "to the maximum of available resources" be a right enforceable by the courts.

Many of the groups involved in that project now say a bill of rights would address the Stormont deadlock, yet their proposed bill would not have required same-sex marriage or an Irish language act and specifically ducked the question of abortion. It would have solved nothing.

Fortunately, the rights to life and an elected legislature are already on the books.

So where the campaigns and judicial reviews for direct rule or devolution?

**

Belfast DUP councillor Dale Pankhurst said he received "numerous calls from unionists" who left a Tommy Tiernan gig at the Ulster Hall "due to comments made regarding contentious issues".

Pankhurst added some had asked for a PSNI investigation.

Calling the police on a comedian who has upset you is, of course, the ultimate act of modern liberalism and indicates that unionism is now fit for the 21st century.

Support for same-sex marriage and abortion must surely follow.

**

The cordon imposed around Belfast's Primark building after last August's fire has led councillors and officials to consider more permanent traffic calming measures.

Belfast City Council and Belfast Healthy Cities, a World Health Organisation quango, are making a joint application for funding and technical advice to help design a more child-friendly city centre.

Unfortunately, a step backwards will have to be corrected before any step forwards.

The cordon has required opening up existing pedestrianised streets to service and delivery vehicles, quickly leading to a free-for-all of cars, taxis and vans sneaking through crowds of shoppers.

It is a miracle nobody has been hurt. When the city centre is reopened, these new bad habits will need to be unlearned.

newton@irishnews.com