Some key questions for the RoI over its role in Troubles

(‘UK has failed to defend its record against terror in Northern Ireland’, September 9)

Reg rightly argues that Dublin has yet to come clean about its role in the Troubles. Irish ministers have demanded a string of inquiries and investigations from the British side. Someone should remind them that Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights requires all signatory states to take positive steps to protect individuals from unlawful violence.

Since the Taoiseach is unlikely to respond positively to Reg’s request, I suggest that as a first step the Unionist parties commission a dossier summarising the evidence already in the public domain and identifying the key issues to be addressed. This should begin in 1969 and include the following questions:

~ If Dublin genuinely wanted reconciliation, why did it take so long to amend its constitutional claim to jurisdiction over Northern Ireland, adopted in contravention of international law as enshrined in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1925?

~ As a friendly neighbour, why did it not support the NI authorities in restoring order on the streets in August 1969, but instead move soldiers to the border and demand that London begin negotiations on ‘reunification’?

~ How is it that funds allocated by the Irish government in 1969 were used to import weapons for the IRA and provide its volunteers with military training in the Republic?

~ How did Dublin exploit the Troubles for its own political purposes? In 1970 the Irish government set up an inter-Departmental committee to work towards reunification.

This developed a three-pronged strategy: reforming Stormont in favour of the Nationalist minority; expanding north/south contacts; and negotiating a united Ireland. The threat of IRA violence was essential to the implementation of this strategy.

~ Why did neither Dublin nor the SDLP make any attempt to negotiate a solution with the Unionist government of Brian Faulkner?

~ Why did Dublin take the British government before the European Court in 1971 over internment? Was this a deliberate attempt to put pressure on London and to thwart any solution other than reunification?

~ Why did Dublin periodically refuse to cooperate with the British Army along the border unless the British offered political concessions in return?

~ Why did Dublin not change its legislation to prevent its courts from refusing to extradite suspected terrorists to the UK on the ground that their offences were ‘political’?

Irish ministers will perhaps respond by arguing that they had to stay on the right side of Irish public opinion, which has always included a strong republican tendency. That is not good enough.

The British state has accepted responsibility for its actions, whatever their motivation. It is well past time for Dublin to reciprocate.

WB Smith is a political analyst, public servant and author of ‘The British State and the Northern Ireland Crisis’ (US Institute of Peace 2011).

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