Sir Declan Shows the way again!

The Irish Times is the only newspaper to carry one of our letters showing how the impasse over the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill might be overcome. So far none of the Belfast papers have done so. Indeed the Irish News has not carried any letters since we wrote to them last week.

In the absence of any other dissenting voice from the current chorus of despair, and in the absence of alternative proposals, we reiterate the urgent need to look at new ways of recovering the Truth about the Troubles as time is fast running out.

Below is the text of the Irish Times letter published in today’s edition(September 9th, 2023).

The Troubles and truth recovery process

Sir, – Sir Declan Morgan has shown the way to resolve legacy issues to all the Irish political parties and the two governments in his interviews with the media (“New NI legacy body offers ‘real opportunity to deliver answers’ people are seeking”, News, July 26th).

In them 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. – Yours, etc,

HARRY DONAGHY,

Northern Chair,

JOHN GREEN,

Southern Chair,

PADRAIG YEATES,

Secretary,

 Truth Recovery Process,

.