Letter: Too many in nationalism and republicanism are using legacy matters to maintain hatreds

The decision raises the important question as to how does a democracy protect its people against such a terrorist campaign? Mr Justice Humphreys should be invited to set that out including the use of interim custody orders, which would have been effective, or the Supergrass trials etc.

Perhaps we should have declared it as a war, so possibly enabling a ‘seek and destroy’ approach inside Northern Ireland and across the border. Surprisingly, we have never really had that debate. We did though manage to avoid a civil war, which was the aspiration of some.

There are some 1,400 outstanding murders requiring investigation and at least two of those were carried out by our elected former deputy first minister, and minister for education, Martin McGuinness.

It is truly remarkable what the ordinary people here have accepted to hopefully build a peaceful future for ourselves and our children and we should appreciate that more.

Too many in nationalism and republicanism are using legacy matters to maintain hatreds and this decision feeds the victimhood they rely on for to further their strategy. That needs called out.

Everything the security forces did, rightly or wrongly, was to try and bring an end to the violence. Having achieved that, we should not waste the opportunity we currently have to ensure such violence never returns.

Such decisions will continue, as the judges reflect on individual incidents, rather than the greater picture, which is what the rest of us should focus on.

The unnecessary and unjustified war waged and inspired by the extremes is over and so the rest of us should continue to focus on building the peace in our shared home place, which is what we did, even during the worst of times.

Trevor Ringland, lawyer and reconciliation campaigner