Reply to Diarmaid Ferriter’s Column on Truth Recovery in Irish Times April 22nd, 2023

The Troubles – the suffering of victims

Sir, – We very much welcome the coverage in Diarmaid Ferriter’s column of our Truth Recovery Process (TRP) conference in Belfast on April 1st (“It’s time to talk about the suffering of victims”, Opinion & Analysis, April 21st). We deliberately held it before the celebratory events that followed, as a reminder of all the problems that remain to be addressed since the Belfast Agreement was signed in 1998. As Prof Ferriter says, the need to find ways of finding out the truth for victims and survivors of the Troubles has become increasingly urgent.

This was starkly demonstrated by the recent death of Freddie Scappaticci, who was central to the Kenova investigation headed by former Bedfordshire chief constable Jon Boutcher. Nobody doubts Mr Boutcher’s commitment to his task, but even he faces enormous challenges in bringing an investigation to a successful conclusion after the passing of the chief suspect. Most people do not realise that most of those who were killed and seriously injured in the Troubles suffered by the end of 1976, which is over 46 years ago. By far the bloodiest year was 1972, over 50 years ago.

Prof Ferriter is of course right to say it would be naive to assume a truth commission would only hear the “truth”, but we believe a process that involves the Irish and British governments, is subject to judicial oversight and is based on a mediation model rather than the courts could address the vast majority of outstanding cases, which have no prospect of ever reaching the courts.

Could we add that, unlike the current British government Bill, we propose the TRP as an option to the courts should victims and survivors choose to use it. It would also provide a means of addressing the many miscarriages of justice that took place during the Troubles

We believe that it could be introduced under the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval (ICIR) heading of the Stormont House Agreement (Sections 41 to 50). This has succeeded in retrieving the remains of most of the “disappeared” and remains the only viable process under which the remainder will hopefully be recovered.

We were very heartened by the number of people who came to our conference, which received no publicity, and their response. All of the speakers were outstanding.

We would particularly urge both governments to consult Sergio Jaramillo, who concluded the agreement with Farc, ending the Colombian civil war, and Archbishop Eamon Martin, for their perspectives on new ways of seeking truth and reconciliation in our still very troubled society.

Finally, if anyone wishes to read the article by Ian McBride that Prof Ferriter cited in his column, they can do so in the latest issue of Legacy Matters, which is now online free of charge at truthrecoveryprocess.ie/legacymatters. – Yours, etc,

HARRY DONAGHY,

Northern Chair,

JOHN GREEN,

Southern Chair,

PADRAIG YEATES,

Secretary,

Truth Recovery Process, Dublin 13.