Former OIRA Prisoner says Truth Commission could work, Allison Morris, Belfast Telegraph, November 18th, 2022

Harry Donaghy celebrated his 18th birthday in the Maze prison.

He is among a small group [the Truth Recovery Process www.truthrecoveryprocess.ie] which is the only organisation to date that has publicly said it is in favour of a truth commission, albeit one with international and independent oversight.

They have suggested a restorative justice-style model, where information is offered and it is the victim's personal choice over whether they want to engage.

However, the group is not in favour of a blanket amnesty.

Mr Donaghy served a jail term in a republican wing in the Maze in 1975, at the tail end of the OIRA campaign.

Now 64 years old, he would be one of the younger members of a group of veteran republicans who believe that a truth commission could help with the healing process linked to Northern Ireland's legacy.

The Government's Legacy Bill will provide immunity from prosecution to anyone who comes forward and admits their role in violent events linked to the Troubles.

A historian with an interest in the First World War, the walls of his small Belfast office are adorned with framed pictures of relatives who served in various regiments of the British Army along with their medals.

He is also the author of the book, 6th Connaught Rangers: Belfast Nationalists and the Great War.

The juxtaposition of his family's British military past and his own as a former combatant in Northern Ireland's conflict is not lost on him.

Mr Donaghy no longer has any active role in mainstream politics, but heads up the Fellowship of Messines Association.

Founded in 2002 by a range of individuals from republican, loyalist and academic backgrounds, its mission statement is to “confront sectarianism in our society as a necessary means to realistic peace building”.

Named after the Battle of Messines Ridge, the first time soldiers of the 36th Ulster and 16th Irish Divisions fought side-by-side in the First World War.

The group has released a number of discussion papers and feels that confronting the past is essential to building a peaceful future.

Mr Donaghy said there is still an opportunity for truth recovery, and points to engagement between loyalists and republicans around the past.

“Through the auspices of the Messines project we tried to engage in these types of discussions and debates,” he said.

“People coming to the table to read out their catechism as to why they were absolutely right back then and always will be right, will always stand against others of a similar viewpoint.

“But look at this island and the relationships across it following the Second World War.

“One of the issues that kept arising back in 2008/2009 was dealing with the 100 year anniversaries, it was going to be difficult but we got through it okay,” Mr Donaghy said.

“We had a unique opportunity to engage in a very open, honest and thoughtful way about the legacy of 1969.

“We called it Reflections on 1969 and there were a series of six talks, sometimes with a person who was actually there, the stuff they know, information not gleaned from text books.

“We had men and women in the room who had joined the republican movement after the call to dump arms in 1962.

“They'd been in their late teens and early 20s and joined the movement in 1963-64 around that timeframe.

“There were people from the UDA and UVF there as well.

“The debate was to involve not just bit players and it was amazing — and I use that word not ill-advisedly — to hear the reflections and the critiques that people had 50 years after what actually had taken place.”

The OIRA was heavily involved in the 1970 Falls Curfew.

An Official IRA company in the Markets area of Belfast led by Joe McCann held off an incursion into the area.

McCann was later shot dead by the Army.

In February 1972, the organisation also made an attempt on the life of UUP politician John Taylor, now Lord Kilclooney.

Any truth-telling by the OIRA would involve facing the fallout of the feud that followed the organisation's split in 1969, leading to the formation of the Provisional IRA, each rejecting the other's legitimacy.

Following a ceasefire, senior members led by Seamus Costello defected and would go on to form the INLA in 1974.

The Officials would be referred to as the 'Stickies' — a reference to the sticky backed lily they wore at Easter — with the Provisionals pinning paper lilies to their lapels.

“We all need to speak about that, all of the internal bloodletting that took place, unfortunately took place,” said Mr Donaghy.

“People were prepared to speak about that. If there is one word to describe that time it is 'futile'.

“What did it solve other than creating divisions within divisions and hatred? There were families where two sons might have went that way and another two the other.

“You are caught in the dilemma of what do you do when you come up against, basically at times, invented facts that have now become a part of narratives.”

Mr Donaghy, along with colleague Padriag Yeates, feels that a restorative justice model of truth recovery, done with the joint agreement of victims, is the best way to proceed.

The group has previously engaged in aspects of truth recovery, and members of the Official IRA have submitted evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry and to the Ballymurphy Inquest.

Mr Yeates, who is 76 years old said: “We are only a small group and we are not the youngest people in town either.

“I had a number of people who indicated in 2019 that they would give evidence, and there are still a couple of them left.

“But of those one has since died, and one has developed dementia.

“They would have had a huge reservoir of knowledge and that is lost.

“If it's not done now it'll never be done, the clock is running, we are into the last few years of being able to do this.

“It would be a matter of choice.

“If a person or a group has information they could do it through a commission.

“That commission would then have to ask families or individuals did they want to engage in such a process and that would be the first step.

“If they say no then that's the end of it,” he said.

“Politicians, lawyers, people with vested interests give people false hope, we just think there has to be an alternative.

“If we don't do it now we will be locked into the same problems, repeating history all over again,” he added.