Exoneration closes sordid chapter

IT has taken the British Government all of 31 years to apologise to members of the Conlon and Maguire families for their wrongful imprisonment for IRA bomb attacks, but they will derive a large measure of consolation from the fact that when it finally came it amounted to outright exoneration.

Unfortunately, the manner of the public apology leaves much to be desired. It was regrettable that British Prime Minister Tony Blair did not deliver his long overdue utterance of contrition on the floor of the House of Commons. At least that would have ensured his remarks were put on the parliamentary record.

That he delivered the apology in a televised statement at his room in Westminster has taken from the sense of gravity which the occasion warranted.