Dealing with the Past – Page 14 – Slugger O'Toole

Haass Talks: Reconciling the Orange and the Green to the same past will not work

Mick Fealty on September 19, 2013, 2:37 pm

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Eamon McCann, an enthusiastic scholar of canon law, has a decent eye for contractual detail… In today’s Irish Times he offers this thoughtful insight… One key aspect of the flags dispute is that all who signed up to the Belfast Agreement accepted implicitly that Northern Ireland will remain within the United Kingdom for as long as there is no majority for a united Ireland: that is to say, for as far into the future as it is possible to see. Sinn Féin …

The Haass agenda on the past. The release of documents must include MI5’s and others in the secret state

Brian Walker on September 16, 2013, 5:22 pm

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The remarks by Teresa Villiers on dealing with the past will surprise no one. They serve as a reminder of who is ultimately in charge, despite bashfully standing on the sidelines. The era of public inquiries is over. For good or ill there will be no public inquiry into Finucane, the “Ballymurphy massacre” or any other terrible incident with major question marks hanging over it. Since Savile, the limitations of inquiries have been demonstrated at a cost of another hundred million pounds. …

Henry Patterson on ‘Could Dublin have done more to stop the IRA’

David McCann on September 15, 2013, 3:29 pm

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Professor Henry Patterson had this interesting article in the Irish Times on Friday about the Irish government’s failure to tackle the Provisional IRA from 1970 onwards. Here I must declare an interest, Henry Patterson is my supervisor, but this is something I have written about myself. Patterson has recently written a book on this subject called Ireland’s Violent Frontier which looks at the border security policies of the British and Irish governments during the Troubles. In his book and in …

“The Board has no confidence in the leadership of the Historical Enquiries Team…”

Pete Baker on July 5, 2013, 6:25 pm

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The Northern Ireland Policing Board has agreed a response to the critical HMIC Report on the Inspection of the PSNI Historical Enquiries Team. The BBC’s headline may be somewhat misleading, it’s the leadership of the HET that the Board have no confidence in. From the NI Policing Board statement The following has been agreed: The Board has no confidence in the leadership of the Historical Enquiries Team and the Chief Constable has been asked to review and action the management …

In learning from the past do honesty and comprehensiveness cancel each other out?

Mick Fealty on June 13, 2013, 2:31 pm

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“There must be ghosts all over the country. They lie thick as grains of sand. And we’re all so horribly afraid of the light.” – Henrik Ibsen (1881) So the past is a foreign place after all. Nowhere more-so than in Northern Ireland. The decision to ‘plant’ the G8 in Northern Ireland is testimony to the degree which things have calmed down in the twenty years since the ceasefires. Still, we remain a battleground of sorts. There’s a steady stream …

Sinn Fein possess the resources to sidestep any negative employment effect of #SpadBill…

Mick Fealty on June 1, 2013, 5:36 pm

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So, just a quick tidy up on the outstanding issues around the SpAdBill, namely employment rights. Daithi McKay, who has played point on this issue over the last year or two has suggested that: “Members of staff could potentially lose their jobs, and that is not what we should be legislating for in the chamber, in the Assembly. We should be legislating for jobs, not taking away jobs.” As it happens, the narrow terms of the bill will only have …

“…no amount of conflict transformation rhetoric can plaster over the bloodied past”

Mick Fealty on May 30, 2013, 11:29 am

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Guesting on Eamonn Mallie’s blog, Cillian McGrattan points out that the past is not a good place for Sinn Fein to picking fights. And he also hints that the media and others have been rather too indulgent in the party’s own peculiar doublethink on the past, if for understandable reasons… …indulging the party may stave off the inevitable collapse but unless Sinn Féin begins to articulate a vision of politics based on social responsibility rather than craven self-interest, a vision …

Reconciliation without truth is the new game in town. But will anyone play?

Mick Fealty on May 27, 2013, 11:00 am

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Steven McCaffrey reports on a new proposals from Mitchel McLaughlin, in which dealing with the past he suggests be detached from the idea of truth: The party’s Mitchel Mclaughlin said republicans would prefer a South African style `truth and reconciliation’ commission, but now accepted that splitting the two elements into a twin-track process could help deliver swifter progress on reconciliation, given the deadlock on the past. A prominent victims’ group however said that putting reconciliation before establishing the facts of …

Sinn Féin: Hyde Park bomb charges “vindictive, unnecessary and unhelpful”

Pete Baker on May 22, 2013, 5:02 pm

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Reports that John Anthony Downey, 61, from County Donegal, has been charged with the murder of four members of the Royal Household Cavalry in the 1982 Provisional IRA bombing in Hyde Park, London – he was arrested on Sunday at Gatwick Airport – has prompted a statement from Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly, MLA and member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board. From the Sinn Féin statement [added emphasis throughout] [Gerry Kelly] “John Downey is a member of Sinn Féin and a long time supporter of the …

Ann Travers: “If had joined the IRA or a loyalist paramilitary and killed someone, I would be being listened to…”

Mick Fealty on May 21, 2013, 4:37 pm

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Ann Travers talks to Wendy Austin earlier on Talkback on the SDLP’s petition of concern that will finally kill the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Bill. I’ll try and get a better quality recording as and when it becomes available, since for a number of reasons, I think this is an important interview. I’m going to refrain from detailed comment on this though – as you might guess having written a long profile of the political, opposed to the legislative, arguments …

After the political victory of the GFA is Northern Ireland slipping back into another ‘big sleep’?

Mick Fealty on May 20, 2013, 12:24 pm

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Men it has been well said, think in herds. It will be seen that they go mad in herds while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one. Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841) Speaking of Fionola, her essay in an excellent collection from the British Council, gets a mention from Robert Fisk this morning (h/t Kate), where he quotes her saying, “springtime honeymoon period is over, the cherry blossom blown away, and we are now …

“A lot of Northern Irish funding rewards bad behaviour” (with few positive outcomes)

Mick Fealty on May 3, 2013, 7:08 am

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Pete Shirlow was in Washington last night, briefing staffers on Capitol Hill about the current situation in Northern Ireland. The US – Ireland Alliance site has his report, which in turn draws on insight and data from two different surveys. Here’s how he opens: the peace process appears to be moving at two speeds in which some communities remain caught in a perpetual cycle of poverty, sectarian asperity and intra-community devotion whilst others are shifting into less antagonistic positions. These …

“For reconciliation to work it must be a social rather than political process… “

Mick Fealty on April 23, 2013, 5:37 pm

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Good piece from Barney Rowan, with a useful perspective from the PUP on Sinn Fein’s reconciliation project lead by party officer (probably a reflection of how highly the project lies within party priorities) Declan Kearney… “However reconciliation is defined, we believe that it will not work if conceived as an extension of the political process,” the document reads. “In that instance reconciliation will become little more than a reinforcement of the two-horse political race that currently dominates. It will be …

The political vacuum is compromising the standing of the PSNI

Brian Walker on March 5, 2013, 12:42 pm

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When criticism is made from both directions it’s often said that the subject of the criticism must be doing something right. I suspect that’s what Matt Baggott is thinking now over the rows about recent arrests on both sides of the divide. There is an alternative view of course; he may be getting it wrong across the board. Either way a small storm of whataboutery is blowing. It must not get out of hand. Willie Frazer is a hero to …

Reconciliation: “Not every question will be answered”

Mick Fealty on March 4, 2013, 11:36 am

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Brian Rowan at Eamonn’s place notes that there is a difference between getting to the truth of the past, and an apology: Everyone and every side understands that more has to be done – the questions are within what structure and within what rules? Not every question will be answered – but let’s find out what answers are possible and within what context, and let all sides do it in the here and now. The last phrase there, the here …

The Niedermayers and the cascading misery of our dirty little war…

Mick Fealty on February 4, 2013, 5:22 pm

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At least, from time to time, someone remembers. Anne Marie Hourihane recalls just one terrible event out of many in the year 1973. Much as it is never far from my finger tips Lost Lives does not recall the interminable damage wrought on families long after their loved ones were taken in the midst of the Troubles. The news bulletins did not tell us that when the kidnappers came to the Niedermayer house, which, far from being a mansion, was …

Stormont needs to raise itself above the level of events

Brian Walker on January 10, 2013, 4:23 pm

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If nothing else the flags trouble has exposed the dearth of genuine engagement over grievances that are the expressions of low morale. They’re not all about making excuses for rioting and grabbing fifteen minutes of fame with egregious and calculated exercises of disinformation and distortion. I’ve listed below two sets of grievances carried in separate Newsletter reports arising out of the disturbances. Whatever you may think of them and their spokespersons, it has to be admitted that they have remained in the …

Niall Collins calls for a Dail statement from Dessie Ellis…

Mick Fealty on December 30, 2012, 12:44 pm

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Ah, so thirty years ago the British thought the now TD for Dublin North West Dessie Ellis had had a hand in fifty murders. It brought a flurry of defensive tweets suggesting Mr Ellis had been acquitted of conspiracy to murder, and thereby innocent of allegations. Except of course these are not allegations. They’re just private notes from thirty years ago. In any case Mr Ellis has since spoken to Niall O’Connor in the Evening Herald: …the Dublin North West …

The PSNI investigation into Bloody Sunday is mistaken. Try them for perjury

Brian Walker on December 21, 2012, 11:16 pm

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Many people will say that if ever there was a suitable case for prosecution, it’s Bloody Sunday when paratroop soldiers shot 14 people before the eyes of many of us around at time. But challenged on whether I approve of the opening of a police inquiry into Bloody Sunday that will take four years , I’ve decided to come clean and say I think it’s fundamentally mistaken. How disillusioning is this development for the many who deceived themselves when they thought closure had been …

After “closure,” the reopening of Bloody Sunday for at least four more years

Brian Walker on December 20, 2012, 9:29 pm

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In a statement, police said that for the investigation to be as “comprehensive and effective” as possible, they would be asking witnesses who gave evidence to the Saville inquiry to make statements to detectives. “This is because police are precluded from using Saville testimony in a criminal investigation. Details on how this process will be facilitated will be made available in the near future,” the statement said Press Release from Madden & Finucane Solicitors regarding Bloody Sunday Inquiry Report …