Trevor Ringland: ‘Lord chief justice must set out plan to deal with unsolved terrorist murders’

There has been no response to that letter.

So let me emphasise, the lord chief justice, as the head of our justice system in Northern Ireland, needs to respond to this matter.

This should include a clear plan, with resources, to deal with these murders, bearing in mind that the law officers and soldiers gave their lives to protect the people of this island and prevented a civil war? The events that cost them their lives were an unnecessary tragedy.

Many others who were victims of loyalist and republican paramilitary violence, as well as some who were affected by police and army criminality, have stayed quiet and showed tremendous grace in order to let our peace / political process evolve. The two governments have insulted those families time and again, by pandering to those who promoted hatred and fed our conflict.

Those people, many of whom were involved in movements that used terror as a political weapon, like to act as if they gave us peace. The reality is that they gave us war.

Now they are among the clamour of voices demanding that legacy focuses on the state and a small number of incidents, some of which were admittedly very wrong.

It’s time to deal with crimes of the past in a way that remembers the forgotten victims, who have kept quiet to let the peace process develop, while protecting that peace and allowing it to bed down.

Trevor Ringland, Solicitor, Holywood

Ben Lowry: Karen Bradley has failed to defend the security forces

David Burnside: We need to be told what progress there is in solving PIRA murders under McGuinness

Jim Allister: The sentiment of what Karen Bradley said is valid