Trevor Ringland: Across this Island we need to challenge our hatreds better and those who continue to promote them

The government’s recent Legacy Bill understandably caused anger, because it made it clear that justice would be difficult to deliver for many victims of the Troubles.

I believe we should all make an effort to engage with the proposals though. They merely reflect aspects of the ‘peace process’ that were never formally acknowledged, but we already knew existed.

In fact, in the majority of cases, the proposals offer honesty about what is achievable, as well as attempting to restore some balance to the way we deal with legacy.

For example, there are not a relatively small number of inquests outstanding as is sometimes asserted, but over 1400.

These cases, including those involving the deaths of over 700 members of the security forces, all deserve the scrutiny currently being afforded to too few deaths.

The current structure simply could not cope with this workload, and therefore it cannot provide a process that is even remotely fair. The same is true for investigations by the Police Ombudsman’s office.

The most controversial of the government’s proposals relates to immunity from prosecution. Perhaps these measures would be more morally and legally acceptable, if, as well as the current stipulations, to qualify when a crime had been committed, an unconditional apology was required acknowledging that the action was wrong and unjustified.

In addition, the significant number of civil actions aimed at the state have effectively become a state-funded Troubles compensation fund, but available only to those injured by the security forces. This is grossly unfair, given that 90% of deaths and injuries were caused by paramilitaries and none of these were justified or understandable.

Perhaps, the money that this costs could be invested in a more equitable scheme of compensation or in promoting reconciliation rather than deepening divisions. The Republic of Ireland could contribute to this fund too, given that it has drawn a line under legacy issues since 1998, including some very questionable aspects of the role it played in our conflict, and yet is so quick to condemn the actions of others.

Across this Island we need to challenge our hatreds better and those who continue to promote them!

I frequently quote the poet, Michael Longley, and his poem about our past, ‘Ceasefire’. He captured powerfully the morally troubling compromises of our peace process with the lines, “I get down on my knees and do what must be done. / And kiss Achilles’ hand, the killer of my son.”

The protagonist, King Priam, symbolises victims, but you could also cast him as the whole of Northern Irish society, having to accept that the people who destroyed our peace could cast themselves as peacemakers.

We might have expected more humility and grace from the perpetrators of violence and those who inspired it, in return for those messy and horrible compromises.

That hasn’t come to pass and while our society is in a much better place than in 1998

it is incumbent on all of us to try to make more progress in the next 25 years, including stopping an unbalanced legacy process from being used to refight and distort the battles of the past and as a consequence attempt to chain our future to it.

Trevor Ringland, Co Down