Only if victims get justice will there be real peace in Northern Ireland

Really Colum? ‘At all costs’ — even at the expense of those innocent victims that seek justice for their murdered loved ones, at the cost of those maimed in terrorist attacks that seek justice?

This is statement is a slap in the face to innocent victims that have suffered at the hands of terrorists here in Northern Ireland and the wider British Isles.

Without justice, will we ever have real peace?

Peace and justice go hand in hand, they are interdependent with each other.

Ideally, peace would be the outcome of justice, but here in Northern Ireland, we have those that planned and committed such atrocities as the Omagh bomb elevated to the highest political positions within our government with impunity for their crimes all the while innocent victims of such atrocities are left without justice.

What Colum and all other political leaders, councillors, MLAs and MPs should be calling for is justice for the innocent victims.

Also for the definition of a victim to be changed so that it clearly differentiates between those that went out to kill and murder and the innocent victims.

Only by bringing those terrorists that committed such atrocities like the Omagh bombing to justice will there ever be real and meaningful peace.

John Brennan, Ballygowan