Dealing with the Past – Page 13 – Slugger O'Toole

Judge Smithwick finds there was indirect evidence of collusion between Garda(i) and the IRA

Mick Fealty on December 3, 2013, 8:08 pm

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So, Judge Smithwick resisted any political pressures to wind up his inquiry early. The BBC provide a summary of his conclusions: Collusion: Peter Smithwick said that while there had been no “smoking gun” he was “satisfied” that there had been collusion by one or more Garda officers in the murders Former garda sergeant Owen Corrigan: “I also find that what may have started out as a professional relationship with subversives for the legitimate purpose of intelligence-gathering ultimately developed into a …

Conviction of John Proctor’s murderer eloquent riposte to John Larkin’s proposals

Turgon on November 30, 2013, 11:31 pm

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Two weeks ago to almost universal revulsion Attorney General John Larkin proposed an effective amnesty for the crimes of the Troubles. Now the legal process has provided the most eloquent rebuttal to his suggestions. The facts of the murder of RUC reservist John Proctor were as loathsome as so many of the Troubles. Mr. Proctor had just left visiting his wife and newborn son in the Mid Ulster Hospital when he was murdered with an assault rifle by Seamus Martin …

“Everyone has a human right to his or her memories…”

Mick Fealty on November 29, 2013, 12:17 pm

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I see Arkiv are going for the Economist model of naming the writing staff (or founding team) but eschewing bylines… Anyhoo, I suspect, given the thoughtfulness of the output on their blog, their submission to Haass is well worth the time to read. In the meantime, with the vexed issue of local troubles related historiography in mind, this quote from the German sociologist Aleida Assmann in particular caught my eye… …nothing is gained by discarding lived experiences merely because they …

When exactly do we start listening to all victims and can the past ever become a ‘dead letter’?

Mick Fealty on November 25, 2013, 7:04 am

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‘That’s it, we’ve had our fun,’ The leader said to Kate, Pat’s job is done, He’ll soon be home.’ But that was not the truth. Pity for the Wicked, Brian Lynch Noel Whelan clearly ‘gets’ the pragmatic reasons (even over five years £190 million is a lot of money) why it might be better to forgo further pursuit of justice for pre Belfast Agreement crimes, but he also nails one reason the political classes jumped to …

Zero sum narratives

Turgon on November 23, 2013, 8:03 pm

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The recent BBC documentary on The Disappeared has been picked over in detail. It is, however an example of the continuing “War of the Past” we have been having recently in Northern Ireland. Frequently this has been described as an attempt to create a “Narrative of the Past” in which case we seem to have a Zero Sum Narrative developing. The battles over these narratives seem analogous to trench warfare with attacks on the other side’s position being variously repulsed …

Those wanting a formal amnesty might start by having the honesty and the decency to ask out loud…

Mick Fealty on November 22, 2013, 4:55 pm

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Yesterday was notable for people in the British press taking notice of the Attorney General’s unpopular intervention with his suggestion of an amnesty that isn’t quite an amnesty. David Aaronovitch (pointing out that the Old Bailey trial of John Downey is about to commence on January 14th) had this to say in his column in The Times: There is something odd about an Attorney-General, for whatever motives, not defending the process of justice. Politicians have to make shabby compromises, but …

The Homeric madness of ‘two narratives’ and Northern Ireland’s political psychosis…

Mick Fealty on November 22, 2013, 1:29 pm

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Call miracle self-healing: The utter, self-revealing Double-take of feeling. If there’s fire on the mountain Or lightning and storm And a god speaks from the sky That means someone is hearing The outcry and the birth-cry Of new life at its term.. The cure at Troy, Seamus Heaney In the Irish Times, with forensic accuracy, Malachi O’Doherty highlights why much that passes for political discourse in Northern Ireland has failed to develop into a functional (not to mention sane) democratic debate: …

AG’s Statement: “Would any of the parties to the Troubles be candid about their part in killing?”

Mick Fealty on November 20, 2013, 4:37 pm

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Here’s Malachi O’Doherty on the core flaws of the Attorney General’s idea of suspending the justice process because its currently being put under unbearable strain: In the first instance, it is a shocking idea. There are still measures in place for restitution for people who suffered, or were robbed, during the Second World War, which ended nearly 70 years ago. Old Nazis are still pursued and jailed; stolen artworks are recovered and efforts are made to return them to their …

AG Statement: No tools for bringing to account those who have committed offences against the state…

Mick Fealty on November 20, 2013, 8:14 am

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Interesting intervention from the Attorney General who calls for an end to any investigations into the troubles related offences before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. As RTE News notes he also highlighted the fact that the post GFA deal effectively buried a huge tranche of evidence of paramilitary murders: He said part of the weapons decommissioning deal was that no forensic evidence was gathered when guns were being put beyond use. He said no forensic evidence can be …

White vans of Sri Lanka, and the lessons of failing to make political agreements stick…

Mick Fealty on November 14, 2013, 9:06 am

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Leena Manimekalai, director of White Van Stories talked the Jon Snow last night about the full scale abductions currently ongoing in Sri Lanka, despite a much lauded ‘peace process’… Of the film she notes, the social instability it gives rise to “there is so much of hope, [in spite] of despair, there’s waiting, and there is apathy, there’s everything, you know.” Unlike our own cases of The Disappeared this is both the norm (rather than a cover for access or …

Haass Talks: Any comprehensive truth recovery must be realistic about what can be achieved…

Mick Fealty on November 13, 2013, 2:16 pm

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It’s hard to figure what role Richard Haass sees for himself, but I’ve heard it described as a figleaf for OFMdFM to sell themselves at the next election, and as a think in, with the purpose of helping the Executive recalibrate itself around the intractable issues of the last few years. There have been many calls, not least from the Bradley Eames commission, for some kind of comprehensive means of dealing with the legacy of the troubles. Interestingly Henry McDonald …

Dealing with the Past. Call for at least 300 “miscarriages of justice” to be reviewed

Brian Walker on November 4, 2013, 6:17 pm

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A new article in the November edition of the Modern Law Review by Hannah Quirk (£), describes an approach quite different from that of the historians of Arkiv. The article explores the “neglected” area of miscarriages of justice and suggests these may be much more extensive than previously realised. The level of appeals for wrongful convictions was low but is not a reliable indicator of justice served. Ms Quirk quotes a figure of at least 300 such cases which could …

“The lack of a truth recovery process means that tribal myths will continue to trump actual memory”

Pete Baker on November 4, 2013, 1:48 pm

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A parting shot from the out-going chief commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Prof Michael O’Flaherty. From the Irish Times report Prof O’Flaherty said: “Some of our most vulnerable people remain at the margins, with inadequate acknowledgment of their suffering; many are dying without ever being able to share their stories of pain and loss. “There is not a day that goes by without the unresolved sense of neglect and injustice triggering societal problems. “The lack of a truth …

Shankill bomb: As the fog of war lifts welcome to the hall of smoke and mirrors

Mick Fealty on October 29, 2013, 8:42 am

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In all the understandable controlled angry over destruction the Shankill bomb wrought, both on the day and the weeks after, Anthony McIntyre, then an IRA volunteer, reminds people his organisation was on a war footing at the time, and no amount of hindsight can change the circumstances under which Kelly and Begley planted that ill fated bomb: Wax ethical and sigh at the terrible loss of life, as we might today, three quarters of we who came through the ranks …

Westminster not Stormont has the power to answer the collusion charges and should use it

Brian Walker on October 28, 2013, 12:47 pm

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When Alastair Campbell issues a warning people should sit up and take notice, even today. You do get this sense across the spectrum that it is not a priority. They have got to be careful about that. “[John] Major made it a priority, Blair made it an absolute priority. He was like a dog with a bone. I do get a sense that it is not on the current government’s radar. British policy on Northern Ireland is to stay as …

PSNI investigation of Bloody Sunday show limits of GFA in dealing with the past.

Mick Fealty on October 21, 2013, 4:31 pm

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So the PSNI are going to open an investigation into Bloody Sunday. So, in theory at least, no one is safe from possible future prosecution. Richard Dannett, former Chief of the General Staff in the British Army notes: Soldiers gave evidence [to Saville] in good faith not fearing later prosecution. Is that good faith now to be abused? And 2010 the Nationalist community in Londonderry seemed to accept the Saville findings thus apparently closing that sorry chapter of Northern Ireland history. …

[Soapbox] Shinners, please don’t blame the messenger!

Soapbox on October 15, 2013, 8:10 am

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Gerry Adams is a liar. There. I’ve said it. Cue the wolf circling the sheep and herding them all in. He’s never been in the IRA. (yeah, right) He was in jail when ‘Always look on the Bright Side Of Life’ was written (not true). He is reported to have told the family of Jean Mc Conville that he was also in jail at that time (he wasn’t). Lies have a habit of tripping you up. Not so, if you’re …

Coming to a shared understanding of the past in the present is going to be painful, iterative and difficult

Mick Fealty on October 4, 2013, 1:17 pm

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How many other things might be tolerated in peace and left to conscience, had we but charity, and were it not the chief stronghold of our hypocrisy to be ever judging one another! I fear yet this iron yoke of outward conformity hath left a slavish print upon our necks. John Milton, Areopagitica, 1644 One of the interesting projects which I think is trying to creatively probe the peace process (or Peace Process™ as it’s occasionally referenced in this parish) is the …

Victims’ Commissioner sets herself against victims

Turgon on October 3, 2013, 1:38 pm

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Sam McBride from the News Letter has a series of articles interviewing Kathyrn Stone the relatively new victims’ commissioner in which she has expressed views likely to undermine her role as a spokesperson for victims. Stone’s problems seem to come from refusing to state an opinion on some of the most basic of issues relating to victims. Ms Stone declined to say whether the IRA, which killed 1,706 people, or the UVF, which killed 430, were terrorists. When asked whether, …

How the blood sacrifice of 1916 bequeathed independent Ireland to “the till-minders and crawthumpers”

Mick Fealty on September 20, 2013, 1:02 pm

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I like the opening of John Waters’ column today… You have to hand it to Enda: at least he has courage. I have in mind “courage” in the Sir Humphrey sense – as on the occasion when minister Hacker announces his determination to go through with some “principled” proposal of his, in the face of the warnings of his executive advisers. Having listened patiently, Sir Humphrey declares: “Very courageous, minister”. The word “courageous” triggers a note of panic in Jim …