Doug Beattie: Security force veterans should sue IRA leaders, because the government isn’t stopping terrorists using court to distort history

In ruling that Gerry Adams’ detention in July 1973 had been unlawful because the interim custody order used to detain him had not been “considered personally” by then Northern Ireland Secretary of State William Whitelaw, it delivered a legal victory based on a technicality, nothing more.

In essays and comments to the think tank Policy Exchange, a raft of distinguished and experienced figures in law and governance have made clear their view that the ruling utterly misunderstood both the explicit law around internment and the workings of government, including a former attorney general for England and Wales, Geoffrey Cox, a former head of the UK civil service, Lord Butler, a professor of constitutional law at Oxford, Professor Richard Ekins, the man who was in charge of drafting government legislation, Sir Stephen Laws, and a former NIO junior minister Lord Howells.

It is now anticipated that another that an additional 230 fellow internees will pursue legal action against the UK government on what I consider to be the same spurious grounds that Gerry Adams is reported to be considering legal action.

We also know that Gerry Adams was granted £106,478.49 of legal aid alone, just for the Court of Appeal stage of his internment case.

One can only imagine what the legal aid bill will be for a much larger action, if the same methods and legal advisers are used again.

At a time when public finances are already under enormous pressure, Sinn Fein and their supporters clearly feel no sense of embarrassment whatsoever at this scale of ‘lawfare’.

This case has distressed and angered victims of PIRA terrorism but also the veteran community of security force personnel — the police officers, prison officers and soldiers, who fought so hard throughout the Troubles to maintain order, to protect lives and property, while the Provisional IRA sought to do the opposite by murdering, maiming and destroying everything it could.

Anyone observing the activities of Sinn Fein on a routine basis can see that Gerry Adams’ internment case is part of an ongoing campaign to rewrite the history of the Troubles. This isn’t just a unionist observation.

The mainstream political parties in Dublin can see it too. Whether they choose to act is another question (the new Irish coalition deal has a section on legacy which refers to the Stormont House Agreement but completely fails to acknowledge that the SHA legacy proposals are entirely discredited as far as unionists and many victims groups are concerned).

The same agenda has pushed for amnesties for PIRA terrorists and comfort letters, whilst aggressively pursuing criminal investigations into allegations of wrong-doing by police officers or soldiers during the Troubles. There is no balanced approach.

As far as Sinn Fein are concerned the propaganda objective is to sanitise and romanticise the legacy of PIRA terrorism and smear the legacy of the security forces.

Sinn Fein/PIRA activism around re-writing the history of the troubles is most strategically evident through their use of court cases and inquiries.

They’re happy to abuse the generosity of our legal aid system to generate countless cases, all of which have politically aligned policy objectives.

The UK government (and certainly not the NIO) has neither the interest nor the backbone to do anything pro-active to stop this.

A number of victims’ organisations are doing great work to tell their stories, but the largest responsibility to counter this propaganda offensive falls on the security force veterans, who during the Troubles faced down PIRA.

Our security force veterans must ensure the moral compass of history does not portray the terrorists as anything other than the parasitic and murderous plague on society they were.

The question for our veterans throughout the UK is what can be done to respond to this Sinn Fein/PIRA propaganda?

A Truth Commission is clearly unworkable given the litany of lies that have emerged from republicans over the decades, and it would inevitably degenerate into a freak show for all the worst elements of our society to showcase and eulogise their terrorist pasts.

It would provide an invaluable source of grievance propaganda for Sinn Fein, cost the UK taxpayer (and possibly even the Northern Ireland block grant) hundreds of millions of pounds, and make a lot of lawyers very wealthy.

There would be no justice for victims but it would simply re-traumatise tens of thousands of people highlighting further their feeling of abandonment.

The veterans of Operation Banner number in their hundreds of thousands across the UK and Ireland.

They have the ability and organisational capacity to collectively generate substantial financial resources to protect their own members and to preserve and promote their legacies and sacrifices. They have the ability to tell future generations the truth about what really happened in Northern Ireland, during the Troubles.

It is time for these veterans to take control of this situation. It is time to get on the front foot and push back against the lies and propaganda of Sinn Fein.

As I see it, there are three key strands to this:

• 1. Protecting security force veterans by stopping vexatious prosecutions.

• 2. Preserving and promoting the legacy and sacrifice of veterans.

• 3. Taking civil actions against PIRA leaders as was the case with the Omagh bombers.

It is often said that history is written by the winners, but in the case of Northern Ireland it is in danger of being written by the losers.

Sinn Fein and PIRA supporters use every day to try to twist and rewrite the history of the Troubles.

The time has come for Northern Ireland’s security force veterans to comprehensively take control of this situation, face down the liars and defend the truth.

• Doug Beattie MC MLA is Ulster Unionist Justice Spokesperson

• Other reaction to the Gerry Adams ruling:

• Lord Howell: After the Adams ruling, Parliament must act to reaffirm its clear intention on internment orders

• Prof Ekins: A summary of the Policy Exchange paper

• Ben Lowry: The far-reaching scale of the scandal on legacy still seems not to be properly understood

• Trevor Ringland: Supreme Court ruling on Adams walked on graves of judges murdered by IRA

• Jeffrey Dudgeon: Supreme Court ruling on Adams didn’t reflect violent context of the time

• Jim Allister: We should be told why anyone thought that Adams was deserving of legal aid

• Brian John Spencer: If we are to stop the rewriting of history, we need to say what IRA did during internment

• Kenny Donaldson: Victims of terror are dismayed by the Supreme Court ruling

• Morning View: Lord Howell’s paper reiterates need for MPs to make clear the legal position on internment

——— ———

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Alistair Bushe

Editor