When the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, politicians did not have the luxury of hindsight to question the ‘legacy’ issue. Today it is one of the most pressing concerns facing Northern Ireland in the wake of the Troubles: What do you do about 30 years’ worth of killings?
The UK government’s “new approach” to legacy was announced in March 2020 by the then secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis. This became The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act, which outlined what the government claimed would be a “victims first” approach to reconciliation. It achieved Royal Assent in September of this year, but not without opposition.
Ian Jeffers, the Commissioner for Victims and Survivors, said that the act represented the government wanting to “draw a line under the Troubles” a sentiment that many victims struggled with.
What is the Troubles legacy act?
Under the act, no new Troubles-related criminal cases, civil cases or inquests will be held. Instead, a new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) will take on any Troubles-era investigations that have not been concluded by May 2024. This new commission says it will seek to provide answers for families still questioning their loved ones’ murders and serious injuries.
However controversially, perpetrators who provide information under this Act will be given conditional amnesty and their evidence cannot be used in future criminal prosecutions.
Jeffers explained to Brig that the commission had concerns about the Troubles Legacy Act since the initial bill was introduced. They suggested six amendments but two of their most pressing worries, the inclusion of conditional amnesty and the removal of inquests, fell on deaf ears, Jeffers said:
“We as a commission tried to engage, and we had fairly receptive approaches. In terms of, yes, they were quite happy to come to meetings whether it was the Secretary of State or the officials or what have you.
“But actually, as we’ve seen through the whole passage of the bill, they might have come up to meetings, but they didn’t really listen to what was being said.”
One of the six amendments suggested by the commission was the protection of inquests. These are legal inquiries into who, when, where, and how a person has died. They can be vital pieces of evidence in criminal trials.
Inquests
An inquest carried out in 2021 investigated the 1971 Ballymurphy massacre in which 10 people were shot dead during a British army operation. Just over 50 years after the deaths were recorded with open verdicts, Mrs Justice Keegan found the victims “entirely innocent”. Under the act, inquests like this will come to an end for any Troubles-related incidents.
Similarly, Jeffers spoke about the verdict of the Kathleen Thompson inquest from July last year. Thompson was shot in 1971 in Derry/Londonderry after banging a bin lid to warn neighbours of soldiers in the area.
Jeffers said: “The inquest 50 years later recorded an unlawful shooting. The soldier who fired the bullet had no justification to fire as they couldn’t prove that he felt threatened. For the family, It was a huge relief because it proved the innocence of their mum. But for some of the family, it wasn’t enough, understandably, because they want justice. But the inquest gives them the opportunity that they could then effectively take a case against that particular soldier.”
This highlighted the purpose of inquests, which Jeffers saw as a mechanism for healing. For many families, justice might be the only option for closure, but for others knowing the truth is enough.
“I think if we have a little appreciation of what victims and survivors have gone and continue to go through, we start to look at it in a slightly different way.
“I meet families, children, grandchildren, that lost loved ones during the troubles that may not have even met them. But they have a level of grief and trauma that is really hard to comprehend. A lot of that is because they still to this day don’t really know all the facts of what happened.”
Jeffers said that the issue with the act lies in not listening to the victim’s concerns. “Many victims understand that they won’t get justice in the classic sense. If you reflect on the Good Friday Agreement that was a massive ask for victims, we asked victims to put up with the early release of prisoners.
“But one of the things that does still unite victims is knowledge and acknowledgement: ‘I want to know what happened and I want people to acknowledge the pain and suffering we’ve been through as a family or as a community or as an individual’. They are the missing pieces in some ways and the bill arrived almost to say, ‘Listen, get over yourselves. Yeah, forget about it.’”
Jeffers continued by saying that although he isn’t yet sure how the ICRIR will operate without inquests, he wasn’t hopeful of the results:
“Consider it took 50 years to get that inquest, but at last it provided the families with some information. We don’t yet know whether the new commission, the ICRIR, will deliver similar results. What appears clear is that it wouldn’t then allow for a prosecution.
“So, if the inquest said ‘yes, this was clearly murder and X Y Z was the perpetrator’ then there doesn’t appear to be any means to seek any other form of justice.”
support
Speaking about the Troubles Legacy Act in a statement, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton Harris, recognised the difficulty some may have with the new legislation, but trusted in its goal:
“I know that this approach is challenging for many, but we must address the legacy of the past in a different way if we are to achieve better outcomes for many who have waited for decades.”
There has also been support from Veteran groups such as The Northern Ireland Veteran’s Movement. Robin Horsfall, a representative of the organisation told the BBC back in 2021 that they hoped the bill would “offer a way forward for those who served in Northern Ireland”.
Jeffers ended by highlighting it was a cross-community issue. One that required an open conversation.
“Some people talk about our victims, and our victims are better or worse than your victims. The best description I can say is a mother’s pain is a mother’s pain. Whether that’s the mother of somebody who was in the provisional IRA or the UVF, or the army or the police. That lady is still going through the same pain, and we need to have a more informed debate about that.”
Featured Image Credit: BBC
Film and Tv Editor at Brig Newspaper. Currently studying Journalism and English at the University of Stirling
