In the Belfast Telegraph, Henry McDonald picks up on the recent reports of the Historical Enquiries Team’s findings, and how they undermine the “changing narrative [that] has become mainstream republican orthodoxy”. From the Belfast Telegraph article
The HET’s conclusions over the Enniskillen massacre paints those responsible as, at the very least, guilty of callous disregard for civilian life and, at the worst, as viscerally sectarian.
In relation to Loughgall, the HET line is quite stunning, because it actually aids the SAS story, rather than those on the receiving end of their firepower.
For political actors on either side who would seek to use inquiries to re-write history, these bit-by-bit explorations into the past have a double-edged quality: they can inflict as much damage on them as on their opponents.
Unless there is some kind of overarching truth commission that allows for a full excavation of what actually happened over the last four decades, then this will continue.
But does anyone really think that some of the new vested political interests in Northern Ireland are genuinely ready to open up all the files – given that they could be cause for major embarrassment, or further controversy?
Indeed. As has been noted previously, some of those calls for “some kind of overarching truth commission” are “absurd” and “disingenuous”. As is shouting ‘partition’ every time the economy is raised…
