Sir Declan Morgan shows the way
The following letter has been sent to the Irish News for publication in response to the interview Sir Declan Morgan gave to it’s political correspondent John Manley last week.
Sir Declan Morgan has shown the way to resolve Legacy issues to all the Irish political parties and the two governments in his latest interview with John Manley in Thursday’s Irish News.
He has reiterated his view that ‘the best way for the politicians to thwart the Northern Ireland (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill’ is by implementing the Stormont House Agreement. Unfortunately, it is far easier for politicians to rail against the injustices of the Bill than propose any alternative except continued reliance on the criminal justice system, when they all know it will not deliver for the vast majority of victims and survivors, or for society as a whole.
Nor have the British and Irish governments been able to engage in a serious dialogue on how to address the issues.
As Sir Declan says, the means of addressing the issues effectively already exist in the 2014 Stormont House Agreement. It can be done by amending the sections of the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval that has succeeded in retrieving the remains of most of the victims buried secretly during the Troubles to their grieving families.
In those cases information was provided to the victims’ families through protected disclosures. We believe that such a system could be used again to provide information on other deaths and serious injuries inflicted by former combatants from all sides in the conflict. It would be even more effective in addressing the issues of truth, justice and reconciliation if it was done through a conditional amnesty based on a mediation process.
This process could still be subject to judicial oversight under the auspices of both governments and it would only apply to those cases where victims and survivors opted to use it. This would free up the courts to address cases where victims and survivors wished to continue their search for truth and justice in the courts.
Finally, such a process would allow miscarriages of justice to be addressed, including those involving collusion.
Harry Donaghy, Northern Chair
John Green, Southern Chair
Padraig Yeates, Secretary
TRUTH RECOVERY PROCESS (CLG)
