Sir, − Generals Peter Wall and Nick Parker make several important points (“We ran the British army. In Northern Ireland, let the past be the past”, March 10th). Certainly, the Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday agreement, was never intended to be the final word and the Labour government’s new Troubles Bill is actually worse than the deeply flawed legislation passed by its Tory predecessor.
Both ignore past experience, which shows that adequate records and forensic evidence do not exist for paramilitary organisations (not just the Provisional IRA). Nor can due judicial process deal with the vast majority of outstanding cases involving paramilitaries, or allow former combatants, whether soldiers or paramilitaries, to provide information on outstanding cases without incurring punitive civil and criminal penalties.
Two consequences of the Northern Ireland Legacy Act and the new Northern Ireland Troubles Bill are that the vast majority of cases relate to rank-and-file members of the organisations concerned, leaving those further up the command chain and most culpable in the clear. By contrast, many of those convicted suffered penalties far out of proportion to their role in the conflict.
In such circumstances, judicial process becomes a performative act of appeasement in a handful of cases.
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As Wall and Parker say, legacy issues ensure that society in Northern Ireland, and indeed the Republic, remain divided on the fundamental issues that led to the conflict and who was to blame. Far from closure being needed to protect the British state, it is needed to create the mutual honesty and understanding on which a secure and lasting peace can be achieved.
Both governments and some politicians seem to think that “closure” can be achieved through symbolic apologies and referring unfinished business to the courts.
We cannot continue to allow the requirements of state security and the pursuit of “justice” for the few to usurp the need for reconciliation that society as a whole needs.
That is why a joint UK/Ireland truth and reconciliation body that allows the truth to be heard and acknowledged by all is urgently needed while it is still possible. – Yours, etc,
HARRY DONAGHY
Northern Chair,
JOHN GREEN
Southern Chair,
PADRAIG YEATES
Secretary,
Truth Recovery Process,
Portmarnock,
Dublin 13.
