Mick Clifford: Hierarchy of victims will not aid healing process in the North

As the Northern Ireland Legacy Bill passes through the House of Lords, the objections from many players with vested interests is rank with hypocrisy

The British House of Lords is expected to approve the controversial Northern Ireland Legacy Bill.

THE Northern Ireland Legacy Bill is going through the House of Lords this week, an expected formality before being written into law.

The bill will stop any further inquiries, particularly civil actions and criminal prosecutions, for Troubles-related violence and killings.

There is a widespread consensus that the stated premise for enacting it is bogus on the part of the British government.

It says the bill will ease the efforts of victims to access justice by removing it from the courts.

In reality, nearly everybody believes it is designed to prevent any further criminal or civil actions against former British soldiers for potential crimes committed while stationed in the North.

The enactment shows an utter disregard for those who were bereaved, or traumatised, by the actions of British soldiers.

In pursuing this action, the London government is demonstrating that its priority is protecting the actions of state forces, and therefore relegating the right of access to justice for the victims of state forces.

This quite obviously creates a hierarchy of victims.

As might be expected, the move is opposed by all political parties in the North, the Irish Government, and elements of the US Congress.

There is, however, a breathtaking hypocrisy in the opposition as expressed by the main entities opposed to the bill.

The Irish Government, the DUP, and Sinn Féin are presenting themselves as standing shoulder to shoulder with victims, being on the side of truth and justice.

This is entirely bogus.

All three entities are approaching the issue of legacy and victims in a manner that subscribes to a hierarchy of victims just as much as the British government is.

In their respective analyses, each wants justice for their victims and wants to ensure that justice is avoided for those on their side who may have perpetrated crimes.

The Irish Government

Take the Irish Government, which is considering taking the British government to the European Court of Justice over the bill.

In this, Leo Varadkar and his colleagues want to hold the British to account for possible crimes committed during the Troubles.

This is being done despite a determination of successive Dublin governments over the last 40 or so years that it not be held to account for how it created victims during the Troubles.

One obvious example is the investigation and prosecution of individuals for the Sallins mail train robbery in 1976, which left a stain on democratic standards in this state.

There is copious evidence that confessions were extracted from individuals in custody using violence.

These individuals, who included Nicky Kelly and Osgur Breatnach, were financially compensated, although it was never made clear on exactly what basis.

Osgur Breathnach at his home in Dublin. Picture: Moya Nolan

The conduct of elements of the judiciary during the trial of these men raised serious questions about its independence and conflicts of interest.

Breatnach has been attempting for decades to have a public inquiry into how democracy failed him and others. His campaign has received backing from a retired judge, human rights experts, and a range of voices across society.

Continually, the government has ignored him.

Two years ago, I asked the Department of Justice whether there would be an inquiry.

“The department is not aware of any matter of public interest which would warrant reopening the matter, given that the courts have adjudicated on the cases in 1980,” a spokesperson said.

Nobody died over Sallins, but decades of trauma were inflicted on innocent men.

And now the Irish Government wants to hold its British counterpart to account for lapses in democratic norms, such as a state inflicting violence on its citizens or subjects?

The DUP

A greater level of hypocrisy informs the DUP’s objections to the Legacy Bill.

In 2021, DUP MP Clare Lockhart accompanied former British soldier Dennis Hutchings to court in Belfast.

He was on trial for attempted murder and grievous bodily harm of a 27-year-old mentally impaired man, JP Cunningham, in 1974.

Dennis Hutchings arrives at Laganside Courts, Belfast, in 2021. Picture: Mark Marlow/PA Wire

Mr Cunningham ran away from an army patrol at Benburb in Northern Ireland and was fatally wounded.

Ms Lockhart issued a statement on the opening of the trial: “Ninety per cent of deaths in the Troubles were the result of deliberate actions by terrorists to take innocent lives.

“No amount of legal actions against the soldiers who defended democracy will rewrite the facts of history.”

She went on to say that “bravery and sacrifice are reflective of the commitment amongst our armed forces family to stand tall against the vexatious prosecutions brought against them by those who have an insatiable lust to see soldiers in the dock.”

Quite obviously, like the British government, this DUP MP does not want to see soldiers in the dock.

Dennis Hutchings died before his trial was completed.

Sinn Féin

The hypocrisy of Sinn Féin in respect of the legacy bill dwarfs all others.

Last June in the Dáil, Mary Lou McDonald made an impassioned plea to Leo Varadkar for the Irish Government to go to Europe on the matter.

“The proposed legislation will shut the door on families’ efforts to achieve truth and justice through the courts and give amnesty to those responsible for their deaths,” she said.

Heartbroken families have been fighting for years, determined to get truth and justice for their loved ones.”

Which heartbroken families? Certainly not those bereaved by the Provisional IRA, which killed more people than any other entity during the Troubles.

What truth and justice through the courts?

Certainly not that which might hold to account the Provos who were responsible for creating victims.

Theologically, the so-called “republican movement” does not believe that any victims created in pursuit of their aims are entitled to justice through the courts.

Through such a lens, those who died did so in acts of political killings rather than murder.

Their deaths were deemed necessary as part of an “armed struggle”.

Therefore nobody who killed during the struggle should be held to account in a criminal court.

This philosophical stance dictates that the family of an unarmed Provo member who was shot dead under dubious circumstances by British forces should be entitled to justice through the courts.

Yet the family of a child blown up by an IRA bomb is not entitled to the same access.

It is difficult to see any difference in substance between the attitudes of Sinn Féin and the British government to preventing access to justice for victims.

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The near-universal condemnation of the Northern Ireland Legacy Bill is entirely justified.

All victims of violence should be entitled to pursue justice through the courts, on behalf of themselves, on behalf of loved ones.

But there is rank hypocrisy hidden in the objections coming from some quarters.

Maybe one day, all those who are currently claiming the moral high ground will actually deign to treat all victims as one.

Not yet though.

For now, as far as entities like the British and Irish governments, the DUP, and Sinn Féin are concerned, the plight of victims of the Troubles must be filtered through their own political imperatives.