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 within a permanent record available to all at a time mutually agreed upon.
The professor of history continued: It really does not matter whether or not Boston College and the Linenhall Library directs a programme for recording interviews of the many people from all sectarian, political and avocational . . . groups who have been victims of various trauma . . . What . . . is essential is that this opportunity not be lost before the passage of time results in too few survivors.
According to Prof Hachey: That would not only preclude these individuals from having the opportunity to vent about, and expound upon, their own experiences, it would also deny posterity access to an archive that would be enormously helpful to future understanding of the phenomenon of victimology.a
You can comment on individual aspects of the Eames Bradley report at Slugger’s own:consultationonthepast.org
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty