Insidious legacy of the Troubles

Irish Times, June 13th, 2024. Irish Examiner, June 15th, 2024, Belfast News Letter, June 27th, 2024

Sir, – The publication of the report by the Commission for Victims and Survivors (CVSNI) this week, which reveals that 8 per cent of the population of Britain identify as victims of the Irish Troubles, is a badly needed reminder of how insidious and protracted the legacy of the Troubles has been for everyone living on these islands.

It is also a reminder that the Belfast Agreement was not, as it is often portrayed, a “peace” agreement but rather a truce that gave political leaders the space to seek alternatives that would lay the ghosts that still regularly foment conflict here, and across the Irish Sea.

One of the positive findings of the report, commissioned by Andrew Sloan, on behalf of the CVSNI, is that 80 per cent of respondents in Britain believe the conflict should be included in the curriculum for British secondary school students.

Indeed, we believe that there should be a joint curriculum agreed for all secondary school students on these islands.

Another positive finding to emerge from the survey is that respondents believe that the British, Irish and Northern Ireland governments should develop a joint strategy for addressing the long running sore that is the legacy wars.

With a new Taoiseach in Dublin, the imminent election of a new prime minister in London who has pledged to repeal the Legacy Act, and a new team of First Minister and Deputy First Minister in Belfast, surely the time has arrived to reset the clock and find a joint way forward? This is something that not alone people in Britain clearly want, but ourselves as well.

We would urge everyone interested in solving our past differences and facilitating a better future to read this report. – Yours, etc,

HARRY DONAGHY, (Belfast), Northern Chair,

JOHN GREEN, (Wicklow), Southern Chair,

PADRAIG YEATES, Secretary,