Secret deals betray IRA victims

THE issue of secret deals is still a live issue in Northern Ireland. We have the sham of the Weston Park secret deals, the secret deals that surrounded the appointment of the Interim Victims’ Commissioner, with all the trouble that has caused, and the whole issue of the location of the new sports stadium.

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) and its fellow-travellers are up to their eyes in secret deals in every aspect of the state’s affairs.

The matter of the new stadium is causing profound concern among Northern Ireland football supporters. Getting a stadium at the Maze in Lagan Valley meant they had to acquiesce in the demands of An Coiste, the republican prisoners’ group, for a hunger strike memorial, aka a republican shrine, in the same complex.