Sinn Fein demand a probe into the murder of the lawyer Pat Finucane but have yet to condemn murders of lawyers such as Edgar Graham

Anne Graham asked it of Peter Doran, a one-time Sinn Fein candidate and lecturer at Queen’s University, where Edgar was shot dead aged 29. She asked it of Michelle O’Neill, at a talk the latter gave at Queen’s University.

Ms Graham is reduced to this, when millions of pounds have been spent probing the murder of Mr Finucane and she did not even get an Historical Enquiries Team (HET) investigation, but rather a letter saying there was no new evidence.

Her horrifying experience gives the lie to the claim that spending yet millions more on a public inquiry into one murder, that of Mr Finucane, will be balanced by investigations into many other of the 3,700 Troubles killings under the proposed Historical Investigations Unit (HIU). They will not. In most cases the former HET and the proposed HIU will draw a blank. Terrorists, unlike state forces, did not keep records.

John Finucane MP experienced the hell of seeing his father shot dead at home in 1989. It is no wonder that he has campaigned for justice and truth ever since. But he said yesterday on radio that inquiries were suitable for some killings, such as his father’s, and criminal investigations for others.

It will be a scandal if the UK government agrees with this assessment. It will mean more millions spent on a case that has had far more scrutiny than almost all other killings.

Campaigners for a Pat Finucane inquiry rejected one being held under the 2005 Inquiries Act and so London gave them a review by an internationally admired human rights QC, Desmond de Silva. He found no over-arching conspiracy.

John Finucane was asked yesterday on radio if he condemned Mr Graham’s murder. He said he rejected ‘selective condemnation’. Pressed, he said that all killings were wrong.

If the government grants the demand for a Finucane inquiry it will worsen an already grave legacy imbalance. The very least society can get from republicans is an answer to Ms Graham: will you explicitly condemn the shooting dead of a lawyer rather than just saying all killings were wrong.

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