NI secretary of State Theresa Villiers

Dealing with the past. Inquiries are over. The politicians must come clean. It’s time to stop paying lip service to victims.

Brian Walker on April 30, 2014, 5:51 pm

| Readers 75

You can’t say she’s not even handed . Theresa Villiers will not allow case reviews or inquiries into the Ballymurphy massacre and the la Mon atrocity. She says sorry to the victims but it’s not in the public interest. That’s it. It’s about time the penny dropped. After the de Silva review which exposed a long catalogue of collusion, there will be no further inquiries or reviews in the lifetime of this coalition government. Mrs Finucane will continue legal process as far …

Is Villiers’ warning to OTRs the cue to launch a whole new search for fresh evidence?

Brian Walker on March 7, 2014, 6:08 pm

| Readers 53

Theresa Villiers has delivered her solemn warning to recipients that their comfort letters are not get out of jail cards. They will not protect you from arrest or from prosecution and if the police can gather sufficient evidence, you will be subject to all the due processes of law, just like anybody else. The letters do not amount to any immunity, exemption or amnesty something that could only ever be granted by legislation passed by Parliament. They were statements of …

Memo to Richard Haass: Greater openness in dealing with the past is long overdue

Brian Walker on August 12, 2013, 5:50 pm

| Readers 54

This call for a swift cross border public inquiry into the Omagh bombing by the British ambassador to Dublin at the time carries weight. But enough to succeed? “Material which the families presented to the British and Irish governments over a year ago, so far without response, suggests failings in MI5, the Garda and the FBI.” Fifteen years ago, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern made clear no stone would be left unturned in the search for the perpetrators. This hollow promise …