Spy scandals: let’s have the true story now
Republicans were angry and many others were dismayed by what they were witnessing.
Then we had the abrupt ending of the Stormontgate trial as “it would not be in the public interest” to proceed. Unionists were angered and many other were dismayed.
More recently we learn that a leading Sinn Féin official at Stormont has been a British spy for some 30 years and, not surprisingly, people want to know precisely what has been going on at the centre of government in Northern Ireland.
It sounds quite rich for Northern Secretary Peter Hain and Foreign Minister Noel Ahern to imply that to deny us the truth is a means of ensuring the peace process will not be knocked off course. The effect is further compounded when we are told that “the past is the past, so let us get on with the future”.
For a long time now the New Ireland Group has been emphasising the recurrent nature of the Anglo-Irish/Irish sectarian conflict. We believe that obscurantism creates falsehoods which sow seeds of further conflict in generations to come.
Let the truth reign supreme in 2006, and let there be an end to the refusal to disclose it.
In short, let us strive to expose the truth about the killings of Pat Finucane, and Billy Wright and the truth about Stormontgate.
Is it too much to expect the British government to restore public confidence in the integrity of its work as the colonial power here in Northern Ireland - or are there indeed ‘dark forces’ behind government which dictate what it may or may not do.
John Robb
New Ireland Group
59 Hopefield Ave
Portrush
Co Antrim
