A Letter from Ireland
a Chara,
Next week, a court case will begin in London. It is a crowd-funded civil case, seeking limited compensation, being brought by several victims of the IRA against Gerry Adams. Previously, victims of the British state had brought such cases and won, which led the last British Government to ban victims from bringing civil actions.
No doubt a line of spooks, spies, and so-called “intelligence experts” will be called in to give evidence against Gerry Adams. The same agencies that failed in every attempt to use similar evidence to secure a criminal conviction.
The conflict in Ireland was brutal and bloody. We all must acknowledge and learn from the past in the name of reconciliation. It is central that victims are acknowledged and have the right to access justice and truth.
In 2014, Sinn Féin, then led by Gerry Adams, along with other parties and the Irish and British governments, signed the Stormont House Agreement. This agreement provided victims with the option to seek criminal convictions through the justice system or pursue a pathway to information recovery that could not be used in future criminal cases.
Decades on after the conflict, the likelihood of convictions is low, and many of those involved are dead. The vast majority of victims welcomed the agreement to learn more about what had happened to their loved ones.
Twelve years later, the British Government has still not implemented its own agreement. Despite the court cases and exposures, the British Government refuses to acknowledge its role as a protagonist in the conflict.
They prefer to maintain the obvious lie that they were referees in a centuries-long sectarian conflict rather than the truth that they were defending British interests by any means necessary.
For the British, Bloody Sunday was soldiers confused in the “fog of war,” collusion in the killing of citizens was down to a few bad apples, evidence was destroyed in mysterious fires or was destroyed by mistake, and killings done by their agents were the actions of rogue elements.
These actions are not isolated or ad hoc; they are part of a well-rehearsed and public strategy. Actions that were refined in other British colonial conflicts. That included using counter gangs, assassinations, and subverting the rule of law as an arm of repression. Throughout the course of the conflict, tens of thousands of Irish republicans went to jail, arrested under special powers, in many cases tortured and convicted in non-jury courts.
Others, like Gerry Adams, were interned without trial for years. The British had not even abided by their own rules when interning Gerry Adams, rendering his detention illegal; they recently changed the law to ensure that he could not seek redress. Over the same period, only a handful of British soldiers or their police were investigated or convicted of any offence.
These issues are not in the past. The cover-up continues, with legislation to hold back on vital information and at every point, cases from victims of state violence are stalled by endless appeals and delays.
The concept of British justice in Ireland was at the service of British interests, and with a few notable exceptions, it still is.
How can Britain talk about reconciliation when they refuse to acknowledge their role as a protagonist?
Have a great weekend,
