Adams denies truth and justice to the Stack family

However, my letter today is not concerning the future but instead having to highlight the incapability of Sinn Fein and in particular Gerry Adams to understand denying victims their pathway to truth and justice is not fit politics for government.

Only at the age of 47 Brian Stack was leaving a boxing match when brutally shot in the back of the neck, left paralysed to die 18 months later, leaving behind a wife and three kids.

Despite over 30 years of searching by the Stack family still this week on public record in the Dail Gerry Adams TD denies the Stack family their pathway to truth.

As a young person growing up in Northern Ireland I want to see legacy issues like the Stack case resolved, for society to move forward families deserve truth and justice.

My challenge to Gerry Adams TD is that you are not committed to a fully comprehensive way of dealing with legacy issues because of your inadequate response to the Stack case, you have information regarding an IRA leader who has further information that should benefit the live murder investigation, pass this onto An Garda Síochána and meet the standards of a politician my generation expects.

I would also challenge my generation of young people to hold our politicians to account specifically on matters of truth and justice because only then, when both Stormont and Dublin meet the needs of all victims can society move forward by having dealt with its past.

Gerard McDonald, SDLP vice chair, Belfast