Good Friday Agreement: Daughter of murdered garda sergeant does not want return to dark days

Sergeant Patrick Morrissey was killed when giving chase to two INLA men who had stolen £25,000 from the Ardee Labour Exchange.

The 49-year-old was downed with a shot to the leg, then murdered with a shot to the head.

The two men – Noel Callan from Cullaville, Co Monaghan and Michael McHugh from Crossmaglen, Co Armagh – served 30 years in prison for his murder, being released in 2015.

His daughter Aideen, the youngest of four children, was just 12 when her father was killed.

She said: “The peace that the Good Friday Agreement brought for the last number of years has to be protected and sustained.

“Nobody wants to go back to the time when the Troubles were actively destroying lives, destroying the region.

"Our lives were absolutely torn asunder, devastated. We still have that impact in our lives, our children who never saw their grandfather, they’re carrying that too – it goes on for generations.

"I lost my dad when I was 12. I’ve had more of my life with the legacy of my father’s death than I had with him in our lives.

"He was a big, gentle, thoughtful person. For violence like that to visit our family is absolutely devastating.

"It’s still a very present pain.”

Aideen, who lived in Belfast as student, added: "It was something that we never saw coming. We could never have anticipated or prepared for the scale of devastation to use. I know we’re not the only family who lost someone.

"From our perspective a return to anything like that for any family is something that would not be wanted.

"Northern Ireland has so much good to offer, so many positives. Peace has got to be preserved.

"When you see discussions about the fragility of peace, the precarious situation where peace may be under strain – it’s a reminder again that nobody could wish to return to that time.”

Kenny Donaldson, SEFF's director of services said that victims of the Troubles who live in the Republic of Ireland often find themselves discriminated against. He said there were around 90 innocent victims of the conflict in the south and scores of others who were injured.

He said: "For eight to 10 years SEFF has been providing support to a significant percentage of these innocent families and we are acutely aware of the strong sense of abandonment which many feel. There has been little to no acknowledgement by the authorities in the Republic of Ireland and they have found themselves on the wrong side of policy decisions. They have often been discriminated against through a form of victim's postcode lottery.

"The Republic of Ireland state and its agencies needs to up its game in acknowledging this cohort of people and of engaging in a genuine process of engagement to respond to their unmet needs around justice, accountability, reparations and other practical supports."