Truth Recovery Process - Urgent need for alternatives to courts
Irish Times, January 1st, 2024
We wish to reply to Margaret Urwin’s letter of December 27th. We fully support the work undertaken by Justice for the Forgotten, the Pat Finucane Centre and other groups championing victims’ rights. We believe that our proposal for a Truth Recovery Process would make their task easier by providing alternative means for addressing legacy cases for those who wished to avail of them, as well as facilitating new opportunities for reconciliation at both individual and societal levels across these islands.
Nor was the criticism contained in our letter (December 23rd) aimed solely at the Irish Government. We were equally critical of London’s approach. It is the failure of both governments to work effectively together and produce a joint strategy on truth recovery that needs to be addressed, thus facilitating the needs of all victims and survivors, not just the relatively small number with the prospect of a court hearing.
It is true that most political parties on this island have opposed the new Legacy Act, as has the British Labour Party. Some have joined Justice for the Forgotten and the Pat Finucane Centre in welcoming the decision of the Irish Government to take a member state action against the British government to the European Court of Human Rights. Unfortunately that court is unlikely to reach a decision in less than four years. This will be far too late for most victims.
While there has been progress made in a small number of high-profile investigations, the vast majority of outstanding cases will never be reached. Nor does the present system make any provision for investigating cases involving the tens of thousands of people who suffered life-changing injuries, not to mention the many miscarriages of justice that occurred.
We were all reminded yet again that due process is not working on a remotely adequate scale on December 6th when the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in Belfast announced it would not be proceeding with five more cases involving 16 people referred to it by the Kenova team because of “insufficient evidence”. Kevin Winter, whose firm, like the Pat Finucane Centre has been to the fore in championing victims in the courts, said afterwards the PPS announcement that he thought further prosecutions were unlikely in the Stakeknife investigation. Hardly surprising, given the death of the chief suspect.
The record shows that joint initiatives by Dublin and London to contentious issues is far more likely to achieve positive results than unilateral ones.
We urgently need alternatives to the courts if the past is not to continue hijacking the present, and potentially allowing it to capture the future through perpetual legacy litigation. This can only be done by the British and Irish governments working together. – Yours, etc,
HARRY DONAGHY, (Belfast), Northern Chair,
JOHN GREEN, (Wicklow), Southern Chair,
PADRAIG YEATES, Secretary, Truth Recovery Process, Portmarnock, Co Dublin.
