Irish Examiner view: Untampered Troubles testimonies shine a light

Truth and reconciliation in Ireland is important for the future and we will need to find multiple means of confronting the past

Martin McGavigan, 62, and his daughter Maria McGavigan, 37, in Russell Square, London, on Tuesday. Mr McGavigan's sister Annette was shot dead by British soldiers during a riot in the Bogside area of Derry in 1971. She was just 14 years old and still wearing her school uniform. Picture: PA

There is an immense power in stories being presented verbatim without heavy intervention from an editor or a dramaturge. The account, pure and simple, can be allowed to speak for itself.

And that is what MPs have been hearing in a committee room in the Parliamentary rooms at Portcullis House in London where the histories of children killed in the Troubles have been relayed by relatives and friends.