Finding a new victims’ commissioner will not be easy but it was time for change in the post

This was because, to appease terrorists, a neutral definition of a victim was put in law by Tony Blair’s government in 2006.

Difficulties that exist now over the pension for Troubles victims flow from that moment. It was absurd for Lord Hain, then secretary of state for Northern Ireland, recently to criticise current ministers for the delay to the payments.

The neutrality approach to victims has infected the enire discourse, and led to a situation in which Jackie Nicholl, whose son was murdered by the IRA, found he was serving on the victims and survivors forum alongside a former bomber.

Ms Thompson presided over that saga. While in her role she could not, and should not, have taken sides between different categories of victim, she made other serious mis-steps.

She failed utterly to absorb and reflect that fact that many victims of republican terror were increasingly turning against the Stormont House legacy proposals, as the shape and details of those structures became clearer (and the looming scandal of perhaps even the mooted Historical Investigations Unit focusing disproportionately on state killings).

It would not have been appropriate for Ms Thompson to denounce that plan but she could have piped down her support for it and begun in her utterances to reflect the fact that the largest number of victims are of republican terror, and say that she understood the concerns of many of that group.

When last year the commissioner should have been at European Victims of Terrorism Day at Stormont, her excuse was that “unfortunately this year it coincided with the launch of the commission’s policy advice” on addressing legacy. Why did they not schedule their launch for another day?

In any event that advice reflected the pro Stormont House view that increasingly rankles with many innocent victims.

Finding a new commissioner won’t be easy given that keeping republicans happy seems an aim of public life today.

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