The Irish State has “never stood up” and been accountable for its failure to stop IRA cross-Border attacks during the Troubles, a former leader of the Ulster Unionist Party has said.
Speaking as the British government published its legacy legislation, Lord Tom Elliott, now a member of the House of Lords, said: “The Omagh bomb victims are calling for a parallel inquiry in the Republic of Ireland.
“That’s where the bomb was manufactured, that’s where the bomb was transported from, and that’s where those who left it in Omagh went back to. So, there is a huge failure of the Irish on their responsibilities.”
He doubted that the legacy legislation – which has been agreed between Dublin and London – will get cross-community support in Northern Ireland “until there is some fairness and equality” in the law.
RM Block
“There’s one thing you’re always sure of when you’re dealing with the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland, and that is that you will never get agreement,” he said, adding “90 per cent of the killings during the Troubles were carried out by terrorists”, not by British security forces.
Families in Enniskillen have asked him where is the inquiry into the 1987 bomb that claimed their loved ones, he said. “There isn’t one, and this process will not bring it about either,” he told the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Weybridge, Surrey.
“Where is the fairness for people that were murdered in Teebane, or the Narrow Water killings? Where is the fairness and equality? There isn’t one. Until there is that, we are not going to see agreement,” said the Co Fermanagh-based politician.
[ Narrow Water massacre, 1979: The bombmaker’s storyOpens in new window ]
Many of the Troubles’ killings in Co Fermanagh, he said, “were carried out by people from the Irish Republic. They went back to the Irish Republic when they had carried out their dastardly deeds.
“I served on the security forces for 18 years, so I know that is what some of those people did. I know the names of some of them. I know where they live, but you can’t do anything about it.”
Former Sinn Féin Stormont economy minister, Conor Murphy said he had “two concerns” about the legacy legislation agreed between Dublin and London after more than a year of negotiations.
Three times before, the governments have tried to get agreement on legacy but they did so together with Northern Ireland’s political parties: “In this case, they collaborated together, and they didn’t work with all of the parties.
“They presented their own findings for their own reasons. I worry about that. I don’t think it’s the way that the Good Friday Agreement and all of the agreements and all of the developments from it were done,” he told the BIPA meeting.
Meanwhile, the British Labour government has tried “to satisfy some sense of pushback” from former British soldiers concerned that more of their number could face prosecution for actions carried out during the Troubles.
“I don’t think you can have two systems, one for people who are in the British army and one for everybody else, so I’m not sure how they’re going to square that circle. It worries me that they will dilute what needs to be done by attempting to do that,” he said.
Former Conservative Northern Ireland secretary of state Karen Bradley said there has been “an increased disconnect” between Westminster politicians and Northern Ireland since the Belfast Agreement.
Before then, MPs from all parties were taken regularly to Northern Ireland: “It was almost a compulsory thing that MPs [from Britain] would visit because their constituents were serving there. So, it became the norm.
“The MPs understood what was happening and they understood the sensitivities. And that simply stopped. After 1998, there’s been more and more of a disconnect between Westminster and Northern Ireland.”
Today’s crop of Westminster MPs do not share the same level of knowledge and they represent the views of veteran soldiers who served in Northern Ireland and who live in their constituencies before anything else, she said.
“That is what MPs prioritise. Rightly or wrongly, but that is the way that our democratic system works. The people that MPs are hearing from are their constituents who served, not the victims.”
