Jamie Bryson: The Legacy Bill has been drafted as a nationalist and Irish government wish-list

It is essentially a bill drafted as a nationalist and Irish government wish-list. Whilst all this is going on, the government – not content with the appeasement of nationalism and the Irish government within the proposed new legacy framework – continue to oversee public inquiries, such as Finucane, and pseudo-inquires such as ‘Operation Denton’.

Operation Denton, in how they describe themselves, were set up to probe ‘collusion’ and what was labelled by the Pat Finucane Centre and nationalist campaigners as the ‘Glenanne Gang’. It is trite to point out, as Operation Denton have themselves had to acknowledge on their own website, no group of that name ever in fact existed, and instead was a label created by nationalist legacy campaigners.

It has been reported that on October 8 2025 the Operation Denton team travelled to Dublin to meet campaign groups. In this ‘briefing’, Operation Denton disclosed their ‘findings’ that was, on their own analysis, information gleaned from ‘top secret’ UK intelligence material from the security service, Ministry of Defence and PSNI. This reportedly included naming ‘suspects’ in relation to alleged loyalist killings, by virtue of detailing the identify of those referred to by ciphers.

It is an extraordinary situation if we have a body set up under the statutory framework of the PSNI, who are going to a foreign jurisdiction and disclosing UK intelligence material to persons who are not security cleared, and in many cases not even UK citizens. This at a time when Dublin continue to refuse to hand over material in regards legacy, including in respect of the Omagh bombing.

There are yet further questions around Operation Denton. They are not a criminal investigation and operate under the PSNI. That being so, it is difficult to see what the lawful basis for their existence is at all, given PSNI have no statutory powers to conduct non-criminal investigations. This is further confused by the fact that Operation Denton on one hand emphatically are not a criminal investigation, but simultaneously if they discover any material which could assist a criminal investigation, would have a statutory duty to provide it to the PSNI for that purpose, given they have the same statutory duties as the PSNI to “bring offenders to justice”. That being the case, what is the lawful statutory basis for any ‘information recovery’ Operation Denton has engaged in?

In regards the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recover (ICRIR), there is a full statutory framework to govern information recovery and the publication of reports. Operation Denton has no such framework, raising serious questions about safeguards and lawfulness.

The concern at Operation Denton is compounded by the fact that the new Legacy Bill proposes at Clause 5 two new heads of investigation, with one being required merely to have “policing experience in Northern Ireland”. This could mean someone who served in Stevens, Kenova or Denton – all inquiries set up to investigate the state. This would be patently absurd, and cleanse the RUC from legacy work via the backdoor.

In trying to placate nationalists, the government has lost unionists and the veterans. The ICRIR is a workable framework, it should be left as it is, not scorched on the altar of yet more appeasement of nationalism and the ever-hostile Irish government.

Jamie Bryson, Donaghadee