Cross-border support for Irish premier’s Sinn Fein ‘truth’ call

During an exchange in the Dail earlier this week, Sinn Fein TD Mairéad Farrell told the taoiseach that the Irish government was not doing enough to have the Stormont House legacy mechanisms implemented.

Ms Farrell – a niece of her namesake shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in 1988 – said a truth recovery process must be established.

Last month, Relatives for Justice published an open letter to both Micheal Martin and Boris Johnson calling for the implementation of Stormont House proposals – that were drafted as a possible way forward in dealing with outstanding Troubles legacy issues.

Around 3,500 people signed the letter.

However, the much larger Innocent Victims United (IVU) umbrella group has dismissed the Stormont House proposals as being “unworkable,” and “loaded” in favour of those who perpetrated violence.

Ms Farrell said: “Taoiseach, I am asking you to meet with Relatives for Justice and bereaved families, and to commit to me here today, and to the other 3,500 bereaved relatives, that you will do all you can to ensure the full implementation of the Stormont House Agreement without delay.”

Mr Martin responded, saying: “I think maybe your party could do something as well. Maybe it’s time for you to help and assist in truth recovery in relation to the terrible atrocities.”

Interrupted by heckling from the Galway West TD, Mr Martin said: “Why is that shocking? Why is it shocking that the relatives of those who were murdered at Kingmills...that they should get transparency and some truth of what happened?

“You generically call it ‘the conflict’ as if the Provisional IRA, the Provisional Movement, had absolutely nothing to do with it. That people got killed by accident seems to be the assertion. But we know the reality”.

Ms Farrell later tweeted that Mr Martin had engaged in “hurtful commentary” when addressed by “a bereaved relative of the conflict”.

Her aunt was on an IRA bombing mission in Gibraltar when she was shot dead along with Sean Savage and Dan McCann. There were unarmed at the time.

The bombers’ target was the band of the Royal Anglican Regiment due to perform at a changing of the guard ceremony in the British Overseas Territory.

Responding to the Sinn Fein TD’s comments, the son of a Dublin prison officer murdered by the IRA in 1983 said Mr Martin was right to demand answers from the Provisional Movement.

Austin Stack, whose father Brian Stack was shot by an IRA gunman as he left an amateur boxing tournament, tweeted: “Taoiseach @MichealMartinTD stands up for the relatives of Provo terrorism & refuses to pander to Provo narrative that seeks to ‘disappear’ the murder, maiming & torture of thousands, the bombings, armed robberies & community intimidation. Provos must provide truth to our families.”

IVU spokesman Kenny Donaldson has also praised the taoiseach for his intervention.

“Micheal Martin is to be commended for not allowing himself to be used as part of an anti-UK State campaign driven through ideological motivations,” Mr Donaldson said.

“The reality is that there are many innocent victims who come from nationalist/republican backgrounds, they need to divorce themselves from those political elements who care little of their human suffering but rather seek to exploit them for narrow political and ideological reasons.

“All criminal violence was wrong and unjustified and if Mairead Farrell or any of her Sinn Fein colleagues want to be taken seriously as advocates for justice, truth and accountability then they belatedly need to recognise the illegitimacy of criminal violence, including that perpetrated by the Provisional IRA.”

The Relatives for Justice-organised letter, which appeared in four newspapers in Belfast and the US, called for the implementation of proposals agreed between Sinn Fein and the DUP at Stormont House in 2014 – including a new independent investigation team to re-examine all unsolved Troubles killings and a separate truth recovery mechanism to enable families to get more information in cases where prosecutions are unlikely.

The letter states: “We are writing to you as relatives bereaved during the conflict to seek your assurances that our human rights as victims will no longer be disregarded or denied.

“The peace process has repeatedly failed to deliver on our rights to truth, justice and accountability.”

While a large number of Sinn Fein elected representatives and supporters expressed support for the party’s TD, several IRA victims were unhappy at Ms Farrell’s contribution to the debate.

Alan Black, the son of 1976 Kingsmills massacre survivor Alan Black snr, challenged Ms Farrell to state which part of Mr Martin’s response “wasn’t true,” and said the taoiseach had “today raised more awareness about Kingsmill than any Sinn Fein politician has in an official capacity either side of the border”.

One comment said there is “no justice for the majority of IRA victims in Northern Ireland,” while another added: “I wonder if Mairead has ever asked any of those in Sinn Fein who were active in the PIRA campaign to provide truth to their victims?”

READ: Impact of IRA deaths on the Rock at the hands of the SAS still reverberates

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