Jeffrey Donaldson: SF demand legacy inquest funds yet fail to help IRA victims get truth

It is a feature however of how Sinn Fein will repeat something often enough so that the initial context is lost.

Whilst the new Sinn Fein president mentioned in passing the legacy mechanisms agreed previously, there is only ever one aspect of those which Sinn Fein wish to see progressed.

Their focus is, as ever, entirely on the state and allegations of wrongdoing by those acting on behalf of the crown.

We hear little from Sinn Fein about the mechanisms by which terrorist crimes can be re-investigated.

This one-sided approach to the past is nothing new.

Whilst demanding the release of funding to progress legacy inquests, republicans could, at no cost, assist families still searching for the truth about their loved ones.

Will for example, the new Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Belfast meet the family of Robert McCartney and discuss his brutal murder?

All they want to know is what she did or did not see on the night of that brutal murder and forensic clean-up.

Similarly, will Sinn Fein retract the slur levelled against Paul Quinn following his torture and murder?

Dismissing such an act as a feud amongst criminals heaped further pain and distress on a family already suffering so much.

Action to ease some of the pain of these families doesn’t require the release of funding or any legal process.

It requires Sinn Fein to step forward and show that the pain of those who suffered at the hands of the IRA is even a fraction as important to them as their desire to see the state held to account.

It is also a disgrace that Sinn Fein have failed to produce a single piece of information to the Independent Commission seeking to retrieve the remains of Captain Robert Nairac, a brave soldier abducted, brutally tortured and murdered by republicans.

They speak of respect for all victims but fail miserably to assist the return of the remains of a loved one for Christian burial.

Such inhumanity and insensitivity is appalling.

There are countless examples of other atrocities carried out by the Provisional IRA which either directly involved members of Sinn Fein or for which there is information that could assist families still seeking justice and truth.

Even those which might fall outside these categories are still justified and defended by Sinn Fein and the perpetrators are hailed by their leaders as heroes and an example to be followed.

Ninety per cent of the deaths during the troubles were because of the actions of paramilitary groups.

Even the figures most regularly used to claim an even-handed approach to dealing with the past show at least a threefold imbalance in legacy investigations.

Sinn Fein will no doubt continue only to focus on the actions of the state and attempt to whitewash the actions they perpetrated and lauded from history.

Together with others, we will ensure there is no rewriting of history in this regard.

The questions can and must continue to be asked of republicans, chief among which is the vexed issue of how long families must wait for Sinn Fein to ease their pain.

In the words of Mary Lou McDonald, “this outrageous foot-dragging is entirely unacceptable … there is no excuse, no reason, no decent rationale for delaying”.

• Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is DUP MP for Lagan Valley

• See Morning View,opposite