There was plenty of stuff to talk about on last night’s Spotlight Special, and we will be coming back to other parts of the programme. But this piece from Naomi Long was direct and to the point when invited to talk about Gerry Adams post the Liam Adams child rape trial:
I think what it does show is just how sordid things were in Northern Ireland, and not just in terms of what one community did to other community but the kind of injustices that were meted out within families and within communities during the Troubles, because of the very warped sense of loyalty that people had to different causes.
The fact that people didn’t feel they could engage with the police the fact that they didn’t feel that they could have recourse to justice, the fact that people opted to go to paramilitaries to seek resolution rather than go through the normal justice system and how justice was denied not just on the big-ticket sectarian issues that we focus on so much but actually on the core issues.
Things like child abuse things, like the abuse of young people. Those things were not given their prominence during the Troubles because everything was focused on something else. That’s an injustice. And that injustice will out too. That’s why walking away from our past isn’t a solution.
We are going to have to confront our past day with our past and not include everyone in this room on it includes Gerry Adams today and there will be no walking away from what he did what he knew and didn’t know. It will have to be acknowledged by everyone in the community what happened I we need to find ways than to try and heal the harm that has been done.
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
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