Guildford bombing one of first cases for Troubles commission

Four people were killed and over 50 injured in an IRA bomb attack on the Horse and Groom pub in Guildford in 1974.

The first findings from investigations carried out by a truth recovery body examining Troubles deaths could be delivered in the first half of 2025, Declan Morgan has said.

The chief commissioner of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) also said he believed there is a "changed atmosphere", which could see the commission gain access to information which would have been hidden in the past.

The commission confirmed on Monday that it had received 85 inquiries since becoming operational on May 1, and that so far eight of those had been moved into the information recovery stage.

Mr Morgan said it had been very difficult in advance to know what the engagement with the commission would be.

He said: "Clearly there were serious concerns about the [Legacy] Act and some problems within the Act, which caused people to not see the commission in a good light and not to accept it could do for them what we think it can do.

We didn't really have an expectation as such as to what would come through.

"We do think the 85 cases that we have got through is certainly a start which enables us to do the thing that we want to do, which is to demonstrate that we do what we say."

Asked about timescales for completing their first investigations, the commission chief said that it would be unlikely to happen this year.

He added: "But I think we will have findings in the following year, and it may be in the first half of the year rather than at the end of the year.

"I think that process will increase as we go along.

"When we get to that stage, then that is the stage that people will begin to scrutinise if we have done what we said we were going to do."

Mr Morgan also stated that it was clear from the beginning that the most contentious element of the Legacy Act, conditional immunity from prosecution, "was dead in the water".

Facing opposition

The commission was created by the Britian's Conservative government's Legacy Act, which halted scores of civil cases and inquests into Troubles deaths.

It has powers to look into more than 3,500 killings and can accept requests for the next five years.

Labour has said that it will repeal the Legacy Act, but has pledged to retain the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery.

However, the commission has faced opposition from political parties in the North and some victims' organisations.

One of the first investigations will be into the Guildford pub bombings on October 5, 1974, in which four soldiers and a civilian were killed. An IRA terror cell later claimed responsibility.

Mr Morgan, a former Lord Chief Justice for Northern Ireland, said all of the 85 requests would be or are being dealt with by case recovery teams using a trauma and resiliency informed methodology.

He said: "We have been quite conscious of the fact that the people we are talking about are all the people who have endured really pretty horrific trauma one way or another.

"The commission and everything around it, the dispute over the Act, has actually led to retraumatisation in some instances, and I am aware of that from the contact I have had with some of the [victims'] support groups."

The chief commissioner-designate of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), Declan Morgan said that the commission has to be conscious of the trauma that people endured. File Picture: PA

Mr Morgan said that he understood that some people still had concerns about the work of the commission, but pointed out no other route currently exists for the families of Troubles victims to receive answers.

He said: "Despite the rhetoric we have actually put together something which is different.

"The problem is, for understandable reasons, people either don't believe that we really have achieved it or some people don't want to listen, because they feel what happened with this Act was so bad it is almost like a process of exorcism, that the magic wand has to make it disappear.

That could be a problem for some people who are maybe in end of life situations and who want to get answers to things that have happened

"There is no legislative programme in place to do anything about legacy at the moment, we simply don't know how long it would take if legislation were required to make changes.

"At least we are there for people who do want these answers delivered by people who are independent and going to respect their trauma. At least there is somebody there to do that, and that is us."