NI 'must draw a line through the past'

The political progress that has been made in the North could be undone by raking over its bloody past, a former senator has warned.

Senator Maurice Hayes used the Tip O’Neill Lecture at the University of Ulster in Derry last night to urge people in the North to draw a line through their history and focus on the future.

And he also criticised the £200m (€295m) spent on the inquiry into the killing of 14 people in Derry on Bloody Sunday.

“There is a lot to be said for drawing the line, in order to let politics and mutual trust develop,” he said.

“The present democratic institutions are a delicate graft on a rootstock riddled with memories of sectarian struggles, deeply rooted in centuries of animosity.

“There is a real danger that the graft might not take if there is too much scrabbling in the underground looking for evidence of the bad husbandry or the criminal neglect of yesteryear.

“The general political will that the institutions should be made to work should be allowed to do so, could easily be frustrated if we insist on picking at the sores of old wounds, raising old ghosts, revive old animosities and suspicions, and most of all shattering the burgeoning trust which is a prerequisite for peaceful co-existence and co-operation.”

He added: “I do not believe that the Saville Inquiry will unearth the essential truth, the definitive account of events on Bloody Sunday, which are so deeply incised on the psyche of this city.

“I can think of many better things to do for the families of victims and survivors for £200 million. And if Bloody Sunday, why not inquiries for every other atrocity beginning at Abercorn and ending at Omagh?”

Senator Hayes is a former Northern Ireland Ombudsman and member of the commission on police reform in the province chaired by Lord Patten.

He was commenting as relatives of the 14 Bloody Sunday victims continued to wait for the findings of the Saville Inquiry which was set up by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998.

Its conclusions are not expected until next year.