Still not too late for governments to deal with the legacy problem
Irish News, Thursday, February 15th, 2024
THE short answer to the exchange between Alex Kane and Brian Feeney in last Friday’s paper is an emphatic ‘No’. The problem now for the North is that the legacy of the ‘Troubles’ will continue to suck everyone back into the same old game that the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and St Andrews Agreement are predicated on. In other words keeping society divided by continuing to devour the middle ground.
As long as a Border poll and the Union dominate political debate, mundane everyday issues such as the state of the health services and the cost of living will be framed in the same old terms and decisions taken on the same old basis.
Similarly, the enormous hopes invested in addressing the legacy of the Troubles through initiatives as varied as Kenova and the Legacy Act will distract the community from finding better routes to reconciliation and recalibrating the public discourse to issues that affect them now.
The Legacy Act should be repealed and families who wish to do so should be allowed to prosecute their cases in the absence of anything better. Meanwhile both governments must negotiate a truth recovery process based on mediation and reconciliation for all those who wish to avail of it
The problem is essentially political, not legal. It was the failure of the parties to include some form of conditional amnesty in the 1998 settlement that would draw a line under the Troubles that left so much ‘unfinished business’ to be addressed. Eventually the problem was contracted out, by default, to the courts and the criminal justice system where it has festered ever since.
The legal system exists to deal with disputes that cannot be dealt with by any other means. It is literally the court of last resort, designed to deal with difficult issues between individuals and/or groups that cannot be resolved through avenues such as mediation and negotiation. When used to deal with the legacy of a bitter ethnic conflict, the first casualty is reconciliation. The second comprises all of the individuals and families consigned to the tender mercies of the legal arena because there is nowhere else to go.
It is too late now to rewind to 1998, but it is still not too late for the British and Irish governments to come together and deal with the problem. The Legacy Act should be repealed and families who wish to do so should be allowed to prosecute their cases in the absence of anything better.
Meanwhile both governments must negotiate a truth recovery process based on mediation and reconciliation for all those who wish to avail of it; and for the benefit of society on this island.
Padraig Yeates, Secretary, Truth Recovery Process, Portmarnock, Dublin
