The Floral Hall at Belfast's Bellevue Zoo was a particularly ironic place to dump the body of a child. But that oasis of tranquillity was where, in November 1973, a UDR patrol found Bernard Teggart with a bullet in his head and a placard, scrawled with the word "Tout", pinned to his chest.
He had been left there to bleed his young life in pain and loneliness and indignity. He was still alive when he was found, but died in hospital in the early hours of the morning. He was 15 and had a mental age of eight. The IRA didn't even bother to acknowledge responsibility for his murder. He was a piece of human trash, not worth claiming. Putting a gun to the head of a mentally handicapped kid and pulling the trigger was just another day's work for the vanguard of the armed struggle.
Last week's edition of An Phoblacht carried a statement from the IRA. It is worth reproducing its full text: "Following a request from the family of 15-year-old Bernard Teggart from Belfast, the IRA has carried out an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death on 13 November 1973. At the time, no formal claim of responsibility for his death was issued. We can now confirm that Bernard Teggart was shot by the IRA. We offer our sincere apologies to the Teggart family for the pain and grief we have caused. The killing of Bernard Teggart should not have happened."
A mentally handicapped boy was murdered almost 31 years ago, reportedly because he had been unfortunate enough to witness an earlier IRA operation. The IRA, presumably in the last few months, carried out an investigation of the murder. Its conclusion is what, exactly? Here we have to pay attention to the language. Bernard Teggart wasn't murdered. His death was a "killing". This killing wasn't discussed, planned and put into operation. It "happened". Things that "happen" are unfortunate accidents or careless oversights. Sorry, sir, the appearance on your phone bill for calls you didn't make should not have happened.
Two years before Bernard Teggart was dumped in the zoo, his father was murdered by the British army. As with his son, Daniel Teggart was smeared by those who shot him. The army initially acknowledged that he was unarmed, but later claimed that he had "cleverly hidden bullets" on him. As with his son, his death was treated as a matter of no account. He was murdered and lied about with impunity.
Imagine, however, that the British government had issued the following statement last week: "Following a request from the family of Daniel Teggart, the Government has carried out an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death on August 9th 1971. We can now confirm that Daniel Teggart was shot by the British army. We offer our sincere apologies to the Teggart family for the pain and grief we have caused. The killing of Daniel Teggart should not have happened."
The explosions of outrage would still be echoing through the body politic. How dare they conduct a private investigation rather than a public inquiry? How can they insult a man's memory with a bland statement that his killing should not have happened? Who killed him? Who knew about it? Who covered it up? Who will take political responsibility? The murder of Daniel Teggart would become an international scandal. And the loudest voices of outrage would be those of Sinn Féin.
There is a case to be made for simply drawing a line under everything that happened during the Troubles. That is not Sinn Féin's line. Consider some recent stories from An Phoblacht. "A British soldier may be charged with the killing of Derry mother of six, Kathleen Thompson, who was shot dead in the back garden of her Rathlin Drive home during a British Army raid in the Creggan Estate in 1971." "The British Government's response to the demand for the truth about collusion has consistently been one of denial, cover-up and concealment. We want the truth, and we won't stop until we get it." A Civil Rights Forum was held "on the theme, Unfinished Business - Murder, Racist Violence, Collusion, Public Inquiries and family struggles for truth and justice". "The British Government must say what it did, admit it was wrong and make sure it can never happen again. That's the bottom line." The Colombian peace process is a disgrace because "the government wants to provide immunity to the paramilitaries for their crimes in exchange for a deal".
In the game of nod and wink that is being played by Fianna Fáil, in which one Ahern flies the kite of coalition with Sinn Féin and another pulls it down, there is no attempt to address this increasingly surreal double-standard. Sinn Féin's inability to apply to itself the standards of truth and justice it demands of others is deeply pathological. What happens to IRA arms is vastly less important than what happens to the IRA mindset. The sickness that allowed the IRA to murder a mentally handicapped child in the name of Irish freedom won't be cured until the so-called republican movement is willing to confront, in an open and democratic way, the crimes it committed. Until that happens, Sinn Féin is not fit for government.