Jon Burrows: Focus must be on empowering vulnerable communities, not engaging with violent paramilitary gangs

Regrettably, the IRC risks perpetuating the flawed strategy that has corroded our rule of law in Northern Ireland and which has created a duality in our criminal justice system.

The Belfast Agreement required great sacrifices from the law-abiding majority in Northern Ireland.

Terrorists were released early from prison into the jeering arms of their supporters; their terrorist leaders were hailed as peacemakers for stopping the violence that should never have started.

Largely it was these moral issues that split the unionist vote at the ensuing referendum and caused so much pain for those who stuck their necks out to deliver a deal.

But whatever one’s views on the Agreement, it was mandated by a referendum and the concessions made to terrorists were clearly defined and supposedly final. There was a strategic need after the Agreement to reassert democratic principles and the rule of law, but instead political expediency and appeasement was preferred.

This was done by both stealth and turning the Nelson eye to inconvenient violence.

The government effectively permitted loyalist and republican terrorist gangs who were ‘on ceasefire’ to mutilate working class men in their own communities, so long as they didn’t cross the sectarian or class divides.

Internal housekeeping was the stomach-churning euphemism often used to describe this acceptable level of violence.

The on the runs letters are another example of dualism. This shadowy scheme was developed at the request of Sinn Fein and applied only to their associates.

The scheme was called a ‘confidence building measure’ in secret memos, that being the confidence of terrorists not victims.

We only learned of the scheme when John Downey’s trial collapsed in 2014 after he was charged with the 1982 Hyde Park bombing.

This dualism still continues, one set of rules for ordinary criminals and another for so called paramilitaries, even when they commit the same crimes. One set of rules for law abiding citizens and another for those connected with terrorist gangs, active or dormant.

Covid fines were issued for people walking in isolation in the countryside, but none when thousands lined the streets for Bobby Storey’s funeral.

A racist poster or homophobic chant will get a swift and decisive response from the police and politicians, but if they are connected to terrorist groups they are largely ignored.

Our society is awash with symbols, songs and slogans that normalise sectarianism, reinforce paramilitarism and undermine good relations.

Memorials to terrorists are often built without planning permission, but a local council is not likely to take action. The private citizen will receive no mercy.

Council funding is provided to events where there is sectarian chanting every year, but another cheque will be written the year after. Available levers of influence are not used.

The duality is seen in our sentencing in Northern Ireland, suggesting that perhaps even the judiciary may be influenced by our prevailing culture.

This year a seasoned terrorist, Gavin Coyle, was convicted on charges linked to the attempted murder of a PSNI officer in 2008 - he will face just four years in prison.

By contrast, when the former Royal Marine Ciaran Maxwell was convicted in England for storing pipe bombs and ammunition he received an 18-year sentence.

The PSNI could have asked that he was tried in Northern Ireland where some of his offences were committed – it’s little wonder the English justice system was preferred.

There is both fatalistic and fashionable thinking here that anything less than kid gloves with terrorists will cause chaos and that paramilitaries cannot be effectively dismantled through the criminal justice system.

This is disproven every time there is a riot, which thankfully there are now fewer of. It is precisely when the PSNI move in and start making arrests and bring consequences to people’s doors that street disorder melts away.

Terrorist groups have far less support and pose far less threat than ever before.

Effective policing has decimated dissident republican groups - their capability is nothing like what it was ten years ago.

We can never be complacent as they retain lethal capacity, but they are firmly on the back foot.

Loyalists are feeling the heat of the Paramilitary Task Force and the new laws that cover unexplained wealth.

The unequivocal messaging should be that the PSNI will be properly funded to continue this work, which should always be complimented by good neighbourhood policing that tends to local community safety issues.

Absolutely, there should be more support for working class communities where paramilitary grip is tightest; but the focus must be on empowering vulnerable communities, not engaging with violent gangs.

Terrorist attacks are falling fast, riots are rare, the parading season was trouble free, now is the time to finish the job, not repeat historic mistakes.

The IRC is subject to the fatalistic and fashionable thinking that engaging with racketeers and kneecappers is the solution and in proposing it they once again validate the very thugs that we should all be de-legitimising.

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Jon Burrows is a retired senior PSNI officer