EamesBradley
“safeguards for those individuals proposed by the group are patently inadequate”
In the Irish Times letters page today, Peter Smith, QC, responds to Denis Bradley’s previous response to his criticism of the proposals by the Consultative Group on the Past. From the Irish Times I have the highest regard for Mr Bradley and his equally distinguished colleagues, but I do not believe that his prediction will [...] more »
“The only door that has been closed is that of the IRA.”
Co-chairmen of the Consultative Group on the Past, Robin Eames and Dominic Denis Bradley, were in Dublin today appearing in front of an all-party Irish parliamentary Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement which included Member of [the UK] Parliament, Sinn Féin’s Pat Doherty. From the iol report “The only door that has [...] more »
Eames Bradley discounted a troubles archive…
The Irish Times quotes Prof Thomas Hachey, executive director of the Centre for Irish Programs at Boston College: “the consultative group may very well have lost an opportunity to help redress the very human need people have to vent their own sentiments about personal loss, or cost, for a tribunal that would incorporate such commentary [...] more »
“there is no placing of blame on any individual..”
In the Irish Times Gerry Moriarty reports Denis Bradley’s response to the criticisms of their proposals by Peter Smith QC – as noted yesterday. Mr Bradley also said he respected but disagreed with Belfast lawyer, Peter Smith QC, who in yesterday’s Irish Times said the Eames-Bradley proposals relating to truth recovery could threaten an individual’s [...] more »
Eames-Bradley: The problem of sectarianism…
The section on how youth describes the normative culture of paramilitary exiling, or the systematic moving of troubled families from one Paramilitary controlled area to another, the summary forms of paramilitary justice from beatings, to kneecapping. The report then goes on to discuss a particularly ingrained, and in some respects, entirely unconscious problem of sectarianism. [...] more »
Eames-Bradley: A Question of Hierarchy
Alan McBride, whose wife and father-in-law were killed in the1993 Shankill bombing, works for the victim support group WAVE and supports the One Small Step Campaign. A recent article by him questioning the Eames Bradley support for dispensing with a ‘hierarchy of victims’ ethic for the Belfast Telegraph is replicated below the fold:By Alan McBride [...] more »
Eames-Bradley: An ahistorical tool of the Peace and reconciliation industry?
Henry Patterson has a piece in the Parliamentary Brief on the Eames-Bradley report. He’s worth quoting en bloc and at considerable length: Bradley’s problem, and indeed the problem of the report, is that the politicians’ response articulates profound communal division over victims and the past. Unionists, politicians and those who have voted for them, do [...] more »
“Clearly it was a mistake because it caused so much controversy…”
Gerry Kelly’s on HardTalk tomorrow (you can get here online H/T Kathleen). I was struck by his view that the suggestion in the Eames-Bradley report that £12,000 should be paid to all victims was a mistake, because it caused controversy. That’s code for making it too hot to handle inside the OFMDFM Castle. Fear of [...] more »
These communities were never completely of the same mind as to what was done [in their name]?
The report talks about the effects of paramilitary domination of the most vulnerable communities. They note the disappearance of normal forms of law and order in favour of the kinds of summary justice that persist to this day: The Group heard how they had to endure over many years the presence in their midst of [...] more »
Eames-Bradley: Ulsterising the blame for collusion…
The section of the Eames-Bradley report dealing with collusion begins with a faint echo of British government policy from the seventies and eighties when the decision was made to take Army personnel out of the firing line and put locally recruited police and UDR in. In this case, they refer to what is allegedly and [...] more »
Eames-Bradley: on the hierarchy of victims
Chapter 3 of the Eames-Bradley report begins by going into considerable detail of who died and where. It’s clear that Belfast took the brunt of the often indiscriminate violence. According to their figures: East Belfast 128; North Belfast 576; West Belfast 623. The next largest figure is Derry City with 227 fatalities. It also contains [...] more »
Eames Bradley: Roadmap to the future…
Welcome to those readers of the Belfast Telegraph joining us here for the first time, or the first time in some while. Slugger’s Consultation on the Past will take all comments on this and other posts relating to the recent Eames Bradley report. Today we focus on the core of the groups thinking about the [...] more »
It’s about time Adams ‘fessed up…
AS Twittered earlier by the DUP, Nelson McCausland was chucked out of the Assembly by his party colleague, Speaker Willie Hay, earlier today. While I don’t always see eye to eye with Nelson, he has provided evidence suggesting that Gerry Adams was in the IRA. Now I know this is an old debate and one [...] more »
Assembly to debate Eames Bradley
The assembly are to debate the Eames Bradley report today. There is little doubt that sparks will fly. As I have already mentioned, Jim Allister (and our own fair_deal) have called on Jarleth Burns to “name and shame” the unionists who Mr. Burns claims were “a bit dishonest and almost duplicitous“ in their responses to [...] more »
I wonder how much they cared about the £12K
The launch of Eames Bradley report generated a lot of comment and controversy mostly centred on the recommendation of paying £12,000 to the families of people killed during the conflict/troubles/war. For three families the debate must have been more difficult than for most as the 28th January was the anniversary of the day their loved [...] more »
“an insult to the memory of our loved ones.”
Useful correctives to “admittedly provocative” [or disingenuous? - Ed] presentations of “the reaction to the Eames-Bradley Report” can be found in the Andersonstown News and in the Derry Journal – where the daughter of murdered Donegal Sinn Féin councillor Eddie Fullerton spells out the impact of the proposals on her, and others, call for “an [...] more »
Eames-Bradley: Preserving the partial sanctity of the past…
Wednesday’s release of the Eames Bradley report on how do deal with Nothern Ireland’s troubled past was, as Lord Robin Eames himself noted on BBC NI’s Hearts and Minds programme last night, a poisoned chalice from the outset. Both men were determined to come out of that process with something real, rather than a bland [...] more »
“You cannot have partial stories..”
Yesterday Brian noted Michael White’s identification of the problem with the Consultative Group proposals to deal with the “toxic debt” of the past. It’s there also in my own post on the proposed Legacy Commission, and more explicitly in this previous post. the groups he’s pointing to as being necessary participants [] include those responsible [...] more »
Thoughts on Eames Bradley
An enormous amount has already been said about the Eames Bradley report. I have now tried to read the report. Many will have their own opinions on it and I am sure more reaction will come as it is more completely digested. However, I though a few observations and comments might be interesting. I will [...] more »
Inquiry would bear heaviest on those responsible for a small share deaths
No one who saw Eames-Bradleys’ initial brief, never mind their specific terms of reference, could do much other than shake their head slowly in sympathy for two decent men charged with an impossible task. Whatever came out of the machine, was always likely to fall under the category of ‘political football’. Paul Bew’s on the [...] more »
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Books
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Hearing the Other Voice from the Grave: Why Should we Listen to David Ervine’s Stories?
Ed Moloney’s Voices from the Grave: Two Men’s War in Ireland has received considerable attention in the press and in the public realm since its publication earlier this year. Although the book relates the experiences of the Provisional IRA’s Brendan Hughes and the PUP/UVF’s David Ervine, much of the discussion has focused on Hughes’ stories [...] read our review » -
A New Vision for the Catholic Church – Book Review
The oft-quoted verse from the book of Proverbs, ‘where there is no vision, the people perish,’ (chapter 29, verse 18) opens a new book by Gerry O’Hanlon, A New Vision for the Catholic Church: A View from Ireland (Columba Press, 2011). That verse could be considered an apt summary of the current state of the [...] read our review »
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Of the Old North and other Vanished Kingdoms..
I’m currently trawling through Norman Davies’s fabulous new tome – “Vanished Kingdoms” – Five stars in the (London) Telegraph’s review from Ben Wilson: All the nations that have ever lived have left their footsteps in the sand,” writes Norman Davies. “The traces fade with every tide, the echoes grow faint, the images are fractured, the human [...] read our review »
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