Chris Heaton-Harris claims Britain is pushing its Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill “to achieve better outcomes” in legacy cases. Certainly the British will expect to achieve better outcomes from their appointed commission than those they get at inquests like Ballymurphy, Ombudsman investigations such as Operation Achille, civil cases like the Miami Showband lawsuit, or criminal trials like the McAnespie verdict.
One can only imagine how bad the outcomes might get if Britain ever allowed a genuine Historical Investigations Unit, along lines prescribed in European Court cases and promised in the Stormont House Agreement.
There is no mystery why so little progress has been made in erasing the legacy backlog, 25 years after Good Friday Agreement promises to honour victims by vindicating the human rights of all. If the British government wanted legacy truth, it would not need inquests to uncover whether British troopers had opened fire without justification at Springhill, or New Lodge. They would not need an Ombudsman investigation to tell them where payments were made to British agents and informers involved in collusion murders. It would not need a Barnard Review to discover if out of bounds notices were given to clear crown patrols so that the Glenanne killers could carry out murder and escape.
Victims’ relatives have persisted because they are confident their claims are true. The British government fought them at every turn. Deny the truth, until the truth becomes undeniable. Delay legacy inquests, ombudsman reports or other legal paths to justice, until no further delays are possible. Wait for survivors, eyewitnesses or close family members to die, and hope others lose heart. Block progress in legacy cases, and then claim the lack of progress proves no progress can be made.
Meanwhile British officials keep repeating that crown forces were responsible for only 10 per cent of the north’s killings, washing their hands of joint enterprise complicity in collusion murders by paid agents. Whenever justice breaks through, these officials lament with hollow words like “vexatious prosecutions” or “rewriting history,” as if it were annoying or unfair that victims, like those of the Ballymurphy Massacre, be exonerated from the smears used to justify their murder.
The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill should be understood as Britain’s admission of guilt. British officials know the facts and are afraid to face the verdicts of their own courts, inquests, Ombudsmen etc. They must change the rules, so Britain can get better outcomes in spite of the facts.
Albert Einstein is believed to have said that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.
It does not take a genius to see it would be crazy for victims’ relatives to give up their rights to every legal channel that has worked for them, and trust a commission set up by the same British government that has tried to deny them truth at every turn.
MARTIN GALVIN
New York
Political unionism can breathe sigh of relief
As Sir Jeffrey Donaldson accuses DUP colleagues of briefing against the party (August 2), a new survey is published showing a growing disconnection between political unionism and the economy.
The latest polling undertaken by Liverpool University’s Institute of Irish Studies shows just over 50 per cent (51.9 per cent) of those who would vote to remain in the union voted for a unionist party, such as the DUP, UUP or TUV. But a much higher proportion (69.9 per cent) of those who would vote for Irish unity tomorrow voted for a pro-unity party, like Sinn Féin or the SDLP.
The results also indicated that economic priorities, such as creating jobs and investment in Northern Ireland, was only the fifth most important factor for those choosing to vote DUP. Whereas those voting for Alliance Party or Sinn Féin gave the economy a higher priority, at number three.
We know from the Scottish referendum on independence that the economy was the key deciding issue and therefore it is puzzling why political unionism is allowing a disconnect to develop between their policies and the most critical issue in a future border poll.
Political unionism needs to convince a wider audience in the event of a poll. Therefore, alienating middle-ground voters with policies that delay a resolution to the Windsor Framework and disrupt devolution are completely counterproductive.
The survey also confirmed that only 36.1 per cent would vote for a united Ireland, if there was a border poll tomorrow, but 47 per cent would vote against a change in the status quo.
So, for now, political unionism can breathe a sigh of relief but the DUP’s abandonment of the economic priorities of the middle-ground do not bode well for them.
BRIAN POPE
Co Down
Modernity brings a range of comforts
WHITEHEAD has ample pharmacies (or churches) for a retirement pre-amble towards eternity. The silence, fresh air and old buildings all make a rail trip to the quiet Co Antrim resort resemble a visit to Dolgellau or Machynlleth in mid-Wales. Alas, however, a new hazard arises. Has an automatic ticket machine foundation been dug at Whitehead’s lovely old railway station? Countless city escapees have surely valued Whitehead as a place where technology is less conspicuous. Modernity just oozes out from the city centre as a Belfast traveller to Whitehead crosses the twin rail bridges over the Lagan. Grand Central Hotel has its familiar seahorse type symbol on a huge wall and below it is the domed outline of Victoria Square shopping centre. Even the marbled evangelical bunker of St Anne’s has succumbed to modernity with its costly steel spire. Things could be worse, however, a lot worse, one is forced to surmise.
Whitehead’s pretty station still remains an easy entry point to coffee, ice cream, fish and chips, cafe stops and colourful art galleries or trim souvenir shops. The neat library, pastel-fronted promenade and a superb hardware shop are assorted cherries on the icing. Modernity does indeed bring an assorted range of valuable comforts.
JAMES HARDY
Belfast BT5
Dreaded vote of no confidence
In a recent interview with the BBC, Joe Brolly revealed he voted for Claire Hanna at the last Westminster election as she was someone whom he ‘greatly liked’.
One could forgive Ms Hanna if she found this to be disconcerting. Such an endorsement from Mr Brolly would make anyone feel “like a turkey that’s just caught Bernard Matthews grinning at him”, as Del Boy would say.
ADRIAN LONERGAN
Belfast BT7
