De Silva report - Apology is sincere but inadequate

Desmond de Silva’s report into the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane may have added detail to what is already widely believed, but the confirmation that security forces could have intervened and saved Mr Finucane’s life still has, more than two decades later, the capacity to shock.

It has the capacity, too, to dishearten anybody who hopes that Northern Ireland can ever be fully at peace with itself because it confirms a level of officialcriminality unimaginable in any normal society.

It is more than unsatisfactory, too, that despite an unwavering campaign by Mr Finucane’s family and their political supporters, that it has taken more than two decades and five prime ministers to reach a point where the British security forces’ murderous role is recognised.