Dealing with the Past – Page 16 – Slugger O'Toole

Republicans thinking about being courageous in reconciliation (unionists say tell us when you’ve made your mind up)…

Mick Fealty on March 2, 2012, 6:23 pm

| Readers 49

Some excitement over an article in An Phoblacht (you have to buy the print version to see the whole thing)… “Reconciliation means being willing to have uncomfortable conversations,” the senior Sinn Féin figure warns, adding: “A deep suspicion remains within unionist communities towards republicans due to the legacy of the armed struggle. Real hurt exists on all sides.” Declan Kearney tells An Phoblacht readers: “This is a time for republicans to free up our thinking, to carefully explore the potential …

Terrorists and Forgiveness

Turgon on March 1, 2012, 12:47 pm

| Readers 63

The News Letter yesterday had an article quoting (and interviewing Ian Bothwell of the Crossfire Trust in Darkley). He suggests that some Republicans he has spoken to are “seeking forgiveness for their past.” From the News letter: He says he knows several former IRA members who would like closure on the deeds they have committed in the past. “We are talking about a number of republicans who have engaged in front-line activity,” he told the News Letter. “They would like …

Are we seeing Increasing frustration from old securocrats or mounting pressure against the former IRA leadership?

Brian Walker on February 14, 2012, 11:17 am

| Readers 73

Eamonn McCann gives an absorbing analysis in Counterpunch, co- edited by Alexander Cockburn the Independent’s highly critical reporter of “the war on terror,” of the linkages between the Omagh bomb and the Boston College tapes. A key figure is former Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter, who is now one of a number of former RUC and PSNI officers working for Col Tim Collins’ New Century security consultancy in Afghanistan. Others will know much more about Baxter than I. Since his retirement …

Hutchinson leaves under a cloud but he has an obvious point

Brian Walker on February 13, 2012, 3:20 pm

| Readers 11

For all the criticisms made against him, Al Hutchinson ends his controversial period as Police Ombudsman admitting the obvious, that not all Troubles cases can be investigated and calling for a “limited” amnesty. He said that any amnesties would be conditional and that victims should be the driving force in making decisions on individual cases. What he means by “driving force” and “conditional” isn’t clear from the web version of a Radio Ulster Sunday Sequence interview. “Conditional” presumably means some acknowledgment …

“Failure to deal with the past is the Achilles’ Heel of the current arrangement”

Mick Fealty on February 7, 2012, 2:55 pm

| Readers 49

Haunted is a good word for the core subject of Robin Wilson’s op ed in the Belfast Telegraph today. The past haunts all the players to one degree or another. He echoes DPP Barra McGrory’s concern that treating all matters via the judicial route is not the most desirable means of moving forward. As Tim Garton Ash has noted, there has been no catharsis of victory: …the new anti-Jacobin model of revolution, with its surreal encounters of former prisoners and …

… to prosecute cases if the evidence emerges …

John Ó Néill on February 5, 2012, 9:56 am

| Readers 51

The Detail has an interesting piece to set alongside the DPP’s comments regarding confronting the past. It concerns the RUC and HET investigations into the killings such as the attack on Sean Grahams on the Ormeau Road which involved a Browning that was handed to the UFF/UDA by the RUC. The Detail outlines how: In 2010 the families were informed by the Historic Enquiries Team (HET) that police had “disposed of” interview notes of two loyalists who’d been caught in possession of the …

Twentieth anniversary of Teebane

Turgon on January 17, 2012, 3:40 pm

| Readers 821

Almost any date in Northern Ireland is the anniversary of a death from the Troubles. Often the less iconic are forgotten about. As such marking one event may be unfair to the relatives of the less well known about deaths. Sometimes, however, the anniversary is such that is should be marked. This is the 20th anniversary of the Teebane murders. 20 years ago this evening a group of workmen were returning home from working on Lisanelly army base in Omagh: …

Victims and the redress of historic grievance: shall we forbid them, or not?

Mick Fealty on January 10, 2012, 10:58 am

| Readers 49

A sharp observation from Malachi O’Doherty in yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph that the past is becoming more not less livid, put me in mind of a line from the King James Bible (Luke 18:16), “suffer little children to come unto me” followed by the less familiar “and forbid them not”. With new campaigns springing up it seems that the demand for redress for past injustices is transferring through the generations: The eloquence and passion of the grandchildren of the McGurk family, the …

“Investigations mean more locks are applied…”

Pete Baker on January 3, 2012, 2:27 pm

| Readers 48

In the Belfast Telegraph, Brian Rowan picks up on former police ombudsman Nuala O’Loan’s call for a “unified investigatory body with powers to arrest and prosecute” to deal with the past and argues that this can only ever be a partial solution. From the Belfast Telegraph article. Investigations will only scratch the surface of what happened. The past is not just about who pulled a trigger, or who placed a bomb. It is about the orders and the thinking behind those …

Maltreating victims may condemn us to the folly of repeating the past

Ann Travers on December 29, 2011, 3:45 pm

| Readers 32

So here I am seven months on from the appointment of Mary McArdle as Special Advisor to the then new Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín . That appointment – of the only person convicted of my sister Mary’s murder – caused untold stress both to me and my family. While Sinn Fein seemed not to see a problem with it, it sent us a strong signal that what our family felt didn’t matter, just as it didn’t matter to them that …

Nuala O’Loan: “that is not the foundation for a just society.”

Pete Baker on December 27, 2011, 3:28 pm

| Readers 17

A novel suggestion for dealing with the past from former Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, in a Guardian interview. And it’s not an “absurd” and “disingenuous” call for an international ‘truth’ commission. From the Guardian article …the former ombudsman, now Lady O’Loan, stressed that a “Waking the Dead” style unit investigating Ulster’s recent conflict would not be tantamount to a truth commission like that which dealt with the apartheid era in South Africa. “There should be one unified operation to deal …

Thinking beyond Finucane

Brian Walker on October 12, 2011, 10:35 pm

| Readers 18

I’m surprised, both that a public inquiry into the Finucane murder has been refused, and that the response to the refusal so far has been quite muted. Perhaps it’s only the calm before the storm. I would guess that the decision was finally taken on political grounds, namely that the UK government can get away with it. That probably wasn’t true a few years ago. If it’s true today, it may be a backhanded compliment to what we still call the …

Mary Lynch in the Impartial: saying things that need to be said

Turgon on October 3, 2011, 9:29 pm

| Readers 69

Mary Lynch was mentioned on slugger a couple of months ago when there were complaints about her column in the Impartial Reporter. Ms. Lynch refers to those comments in her latest piece saying: “I may not say things that people want to hear but these things need to be said.” On this occasion one of the things Ms. Lynch felt the need to say was about her “illegal and inhumane treatment in 1978” (by the RUC). This treatment seems indeed …

“What are Sinn Fein waiting for, more people to die?”

Mick Fealty on June 23, 2011, 11:48 am

| Readers 102

Interesting piece on BBC Spotlight on Tuesday night reviewed controversy over the Travers’ killing of April 1984. In passing at the beginning, it suggests the HET report into the killing of Mary Travers murder came to the conclusion that this operation was a deliberate attempt to kill all three family members. They also carried a statement from Mary McArdle saying “the murder of Mary Travers was a tragic mistake which I regret”. In an impromptu interview with the BBC journalist Julian …

Victims and an Amnesty

FitzJames Horse on June 22, 2011, 9:58 am

| Readers 8

From the UTV Report last night we are told that a Truth Commission is “actively back on the Agenda”. Its hard not to conclude that we are being softened up to be prepared for an announcement, the draft of which is possibly known in British and Irish Government circles and the Conflict Resolutionists (with a degree of special pleading) who advise them. Three Victims Groups had spokespersons in the Report……WAVE Trauma Centre, Relatives for Justice and a Mr McAvoy an …

Boston College and the ongoing battle over a disturbing past…

Mick Fealty on June 20, 2011, 2:16 pm

| Readers 30

As the legal process continues the disturbance of the past continues apace… Liam Clarke has an interesting piece from yesterday’s Sunday Times up on Nuzhound today. In it points out that there is a fascinating clash between history and the law. In particular hightlights the current case in which the PSNI has a US Federal subpoena out to try and get material information on given by Dolours Price: Price has told me she will not make a statement or speak …

Archbishop Harper: “…personal attacks on members of the CGP team benefit no one”

Mick Fealty on June 17, 2011, 2:46 pm

| Readers 29

Interesting intervention from Alan Harper, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh who takes the Church of Ireland Gazette to task for its editorial criticism of the Eames Bradley report. The Archbishop’s statement is as follows: I wish to disassociate myself entirely from the sentiments expressed in the most recent Editorial of the Church of Ireland Gazette in respect of the Revd Dr Lesley Carroll and Mr Denis Bradley. The Gazette enjoys complete editorial freedom, but with freedom comes responsibility. The Gazette …

CoI Gazette denounces attempt to resurrect Eames Bradley

Turgon on June 14, 2011, 7:24 pm

| Readers 20

Gladys had a blog on Sunday Sequence’s interview with two former members of the Consultative Group on the Past: Denis Bradley and Rev. Lesley Carroll in which they called for Eames Bradley to be looked at again. My comments on Eames Bradley are posted below. It seems, however, that Gladys and myself are not the only ones to have picked up on the potential appearance of an undead Eames Bradley. The editorial in this weeks Church of Ireland Gazette will …

Eames Bradley: if it is coming back; time to fight it again

Turgon on June 13, 2011, 11:35 am

| Readers 24

When I went trekking in Africa one summer with my sister I remember meeting a game warden with a Kalashnikov assault rifle in the Masai Mara. I enquired whether it was to stop poachers. He said no it was really for crocodiles and explained that if one tries to attack you the only solution is to keep shooting it until it stops moving. Then if there is any sign of life keep firing at it. Gladys has a blog below …

Victims and Guilt: a Kafkaesque proposition

Turgon on June 8, 2011, 9:37 pm

| Readers 17

In Northern Ireland we are all victims. Unfortunately many people do not feel that they are victims not having suffered during the Troubles. As such it is necessary for peace processors to help us all understand our victimhood. This can be difficult because there are many stubborn cases of people who feel they are not victims. These unfortunate souls must not be neglected by peace processors. Indeed as we are all getting older it is vital that no one is …