Is Reconciliation ‘a Toxic Legacy’ or is there a role of Truth Recovery?
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Last Thursday, February 9th, 2023, the Irish News published a letter from Gerry Armstrong, criticising Archbishop Eamon Martin for his address in St Ann’s Cathedral last month suggesting that Church leaders could play an important role in the process of 'truth recovery' for victims, and for reconciliation in society at large in addressing the legacy of the Troubles.
In the same letter Gerry asked me to clarify why I welcomed the Archbishop’s initiative on behalf of the Truth Recover Process (CLG).
The Irish News published my reply to Gerry’s letter below earlier today, February 13th, 2023)
Note: As background readers should know that the body of Gerry Armstrong’s brother Paul was found at a derelict bakery in the Old Park area of Belfast on November 8th, 1974. He had been beaten and shot four times in the head. ‘Ulster Protestant Action’ claimed responsibility. It was a cover name associated with the UVF. No one has ever been charged with Paul’s death. He was 18 at the time.
Irish News, February 9th, 2023
Reconciliation is a toxic process
On the day my letter ‘Words not enough’ (January 27) appeared, Padraig Yeates, from Truth Recovery Process, had his letter – ‘Archbishop’s truth recovery proposal is timely’ – opposite mine.
I would like him to clarify – ‘a Troubles truth recovery process is very welcome’. Welcome for whom?
Also that day there were four letters mainly dealing with legacy. The word reconciliation is used five times on that page.
I want to pose the question: who have our family to reconcile with – Paul’s killers; the RUC detectives who assured our late father Jimmy that no stone would be left unturned in the investigation of the UVF gang that so brutally murdered our young brother Paul; or maybe, as stated in Padraig’s letter, the politicians to show leadership? In my humble opinion three of the four letters seem to agree with me, that words are not enough. For almost 49 years our family have been failed by many. Suffice to say, words are well and good – words like draw a line, get on with your life, forget the past. I don’t dwell on the past, but I refuse to let others tell me how to deal with it.
My point being, this past that many have an opinion on, and rightly so, this past that many want to just be air brushed and swept under a dirty carpet, this toxic topic of legacy will still go on long after all our family members have passed on.
The word reconciliation in my opinion is as toxic as the whole legacy and truth and justice process. Some know the truth of who murdered Paul – namely his killers. Some also know the truth of investigation or indeed lack of investigation into Paul’s brutal murder. They too will pass. History, we are told, is written by winners.
I’m reconciled with the fact that I wrote the Armstrong family narrative (A Young Life Stolen).
GERRY ARMSTRONG
RESPONSE
Irish News, February 13th, 2023
Urgent need to recover truth
Gerry Armstrong – ‘Reconciliation is a toxic process’ (February 9) – has asked me to clarify why I welcomed Archbishop Eamon Martin’s initiative on the need to achieve ‘a Troubles truth recovery process’. Far from seeing such initiatives as a necessary part of healing the divisions of the past, he says that ‘The word reconciliation in my opinion is as toxic as the whole legacy and truth and justice process.’
Nothing I can say will assuage the understandable hurt and anger that he feels at the death of his brother Paul on November 8 1974, and the failure of the British state to deliver truth and justice for his family.
We are not suggesting for a moment that he should abandon his search for truth and justice, only that where former combatants are willing to provide information to victims and survivors in return for conditional amnesties, families that wish to avail of such an option should be facilitated. Such a process would have to be through a properly resourced mediation process under judicial oversight by the British and Irish governments in compliance with the terms of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and the European Convention of Human Rights.
The purpose would be to find out what happened, why and who was involved. The aim would be to achieve reconciliation on the facts, nothing more. But without reconciliation on the facts we have no adequate basis for reconciliation on anything else.
Unfortunately, most of us face serious loss and trauma in our lives. We all have to find our own ways of dealing with it. The legacy of the Troubles affects everyone on this island. We cannot rely on the courts alone to address the lethal divisions in our society. That responsibility lies on all of us.
The Truth Recovery Process is simply advocating one of the ways in which we can do so. We believe there is now an urgent need to use this and every other means of recovering the truth while we still can. Most of those killed and injured suffered by the end of 1976, almost 50 years ago. This is why we welcomed the Archbishop’s initiative.
PADRAIG YEATES
Secretary,
Truth Recovery Process,
