After commissioning the Consultative Group on the Past (Eames/Bradley), the last Labour government refused to implement independent legacy proposals recommended by the group. The Tory government reneged on the independent legacy mechanisms reached with the Irish government and the executive parties in 2014, under the Stormont House Agreement (SHA).

Then Irish government minister, Charlie Flanagan, was highly critical of the unilateral insertion of a ‘national security’ veto by the British after the agreement. He told the Irish News it was a ‘smothering blanket’ to conceal information. He also referenced the need for the British to provide information on the Dublin/Monaghan bombings, the largest loss of life in the conflict on any single day and described by an Oireachtas Committee as an act of state-sponsored terrorism.

Despite widespread support, the Tories binned the agreement and set about a series of unilateral steps centred on immunity and amnesty to shield multiple crimes committed by its forces, intelligence services, and their agents. This resulted in the Legacy Act.

Labour came to power on the promise to ‘repeal and replace’ the Legacy Act and its so-called independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR). This has not happened. Instead, they are tinkering around the edges, dressing up an irreformable........

© The Irish News