Pleas to heed victims as Northern Ireland Troubles Legacy Bill battered

Ahead of the debate on The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill, people whose loved ones were murdered unveiled banners at Westminster expressing opposition to the bill.

Aileen Quinton, whose mother was killed in the Enniskillen bombing, said: “My mother's murder shouldn't be anybody's ‘free go’.”

Pam Morrison from Co Fermanagh lost three brothers in separate IRA attacks.

“If you commit a crime you should do the time, no matter who you are,” she said.

At its heart, the bill seeks to create an amnesty for Troubles-era crimes.

It was drawn up by Tory figures in the wake of concern among the party ranks about the prosecution of old soldiers for alleged crimes carried out during their tours of duty in Northern Ireland.

The amnesty would apply to all parties to the Troubles though, meaning paramilitaries would be the likely main beneficiaries.

As it stands, the bill calls for the setting up of an Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

This body “must grant a person immunity from prosecution” if the following conditions are met:

l That person has requested the ICRIR to grant them immunity (generally speaking, they should do so within a five-year window);

l And an ‘immunity requests panel’ is satisfied that they have given an account of their role in the Troubles which is “true to the best of [their] knowledge and belief”.

Much of the debate centred on how to make sure the ICRIR is both independent of government influence, and is staffed by people who are sufficiently clued in about the Troubles.

DUP peer Nigel Dodds said that peers must remember that while they sit and “debate independence and appointments and all of that”, as far as victims go the bill as a whole is “irredeemable in its fundamental aspects as a piece of legislation”.

He also complained that there are some people who are behaving like this bill is a unique case of justice coming under attack, apparently unaware of the Province’s recent history.

“It's as if it's the first time there's been any attack on the equality of justice,” he said.

He recalled “the letters of comfort, the royal pardons which we never had a proper explanation, and – let's be frank – the 1998 agreement itself”.

That deal “released after only two years some of the most hardened criminals who'd carried out some of the most obscene atrocities ... that was a grievous body blow to to the victims”.

Lord Cormack, a Tory MP for 40 years and a Tory lord for the last 13, used this analogy when it came to efforts at “fixing” the bill by adding on amendments.

“It's as if you're confronted with a cake made of poisonous fruit,” he said.

“Any amount of cream, any amount of icing, any amount of titillation will not make it anything other than a poisonous cake.”

Meanwhile, DUP peer Lord McCrea recalled his meetings with victims in his role as a Free Presbyterian churchman.

“I can still see a boy standing at the side of a street, and everyone around this little child was crying – his father had been murdered,” he recalled.

“And the words he said were this: ‘Why is everybody crying?’

“He didn't realise they were crying for him, because that father would never lift him again, cuddle him again, touch him again, kiss him again.”

This scenario “has been replicated over and over and over again,” he said.

“I've heard a lot of people saying the whole of the Northern Ireland community are against this bill,” he added.

“Now, I can accept that – partially. But let me say this: I will not accept the total hypocrisy of Sinn Fein in this whole situation.

“Because make no mistake about it, Sinn Fein are quite happy to have legislation pass so their terrorist colleagues will escape justice. Very happy!

“The only reason why they'll come out with their words of condemnation of this is because they've a hatred against members of the security forces, the young soldier-lad who patrolled the streets of Northern Ireland.”

The bill’s passage through parliament is ongoing.