Policy Exchange whining over our legacy costs really sticks in the craw

12 Feb

Suzanne Breen, Political Editor, Belfast Telegraph, February 12th, 2025

The authors of a new report by the right-wing think tank Policy Exchange need to come to visit Belfast, the Bogside, and Omagh if they plan to continue to pontificate on our toxic Troubles fallout.

They claim that the cost of dealing with the legacy of the conflict could be as high as £2.7bn.

In his foreword to the report, former Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said there had been “little consideration” about what the cost of legacy could end up amounting to, especially considering that government departments in London and Belfast are facing increasing financial pressure.

We all know the crises engulfing health and other critical public services here. Part of the blame lies with our politicians and their stop-start record on devolution, but much is also down to decades of Tory austerity.

If the UK economy is in ruins, responsibility falls at the feet of Hunt and his mates. He's held many of the top jobs in Cabinet: Chancellor of the Exchequer, Health Secretary, and Foreign Secretary among them.

I met him when he visited North Down in the summer of 2019. He was at the Culloden Hotel for hustings in the Tory leadership contest.

From our brief chat, it didn't seem like he knew Northern Ireland very well. He was familiar with DUP politicians, but admitted he'd never met a Sinn Fein representative in his life.

I don't know if he's been on a learning curve since, but I'd like to see Hunt and the authors of this report sit down with those bereaved from Bloody Sunday and Ballymurphy, the Omagh bomb, and Kingsmill Massacre, and make their arguments on spending.

The report estimates that the Finucane Inquiry will cost £55m and the Omagh Bomb Inquiry £70m.

There wouldn't have been any need for either if the security services and the Government released everything they knew to the families from the start.

There'd be no need for decades of upset and expensive, lengthy legal battles. “Transparency costs nothing,” says solicitor Kevin Winters. Mark Thompson of Relatives For Justice correctly notes that the state squandered money “defending the indefensible” in legal actions around collusion and murder.

‘We have had to fight tooth and nail every step of the way’

It took the Finucanes 35 years to get their inquiry. “Every single bit of progress we have had as a family had to be fought for, it's never been handed to us,” said John Finucane. “We have had to fight tooth and nail every step of the way.”

Pat Finucane was shot dead as he ate Sunday dinner with his family in their north Belfast home in 1989.

His three children hugged each other tightly as their mother curled up in a ball. The lawyer died on his kitchen floor with a fork in his hand.

The murder is not simply about the act of the gunmen, it's about everything that happened before and after — and the state agents involved.

The Omagh Bomb Inquiry is certainly not a waste of money. Former Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan has stated her “firm” belief that the explosion, which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, could have been prevented.

It would be impossible not to hold an inquiry when someone as respected and knowledgeable as O'Loan comes to that conclusion.

Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aiden was killed in the 1998 atrocity, described it as “the most significant intelligence and security failure in the history of the state”.

In its first few weeks, we have already seen another significant side to this inquiry. It's putting victims front and centre, and giving the bereaved the opportunity to publicly remember their loved ones.

It's a real-life version of the Lost Lives book. There is heartbreaking testimony day after day.

‘The silence is still there’

Among the most poignant witnesses for me was Edith White who described how she'd drive around town looking for her dead husband and son for years, because she couldn't accept their deaths.

Fred (60) and Bryan (27) had gone into Omagh to shop that Saturday.

“I just couldn't accept that they were gone. I don't understand why they had to be murdered,” Edith said.

“For a number of years after the bomb, I would still go in the car to look for them, thinking that they must be somewhere.

“Whenever I saw a black Ford car I would look to see if it's the number plate of Fred's car.”

Edith left their clothes, toothbrushes and diaries untouched for years after the bomb. “I regularly changed the sheets on Bryan's bed. But they never came home, and the silence is still there,” she said.

She visited their grave twice a day for many years. She is angry over the delay and failure to secure answers about how the atrocity could have happened.

The state failed Edith and all the others. It can never put that right, but if it has to pay millions to give victims some form of truth and transparency, so be it.

Benn rejects 'equivalence' claims over IRA and SAS

Belfast Telegraph, Our Political Staff, February 12th, 2025

The Government has rejected calls to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as it denied the agreement ensures “equivalence” between the IRA and British soldiers.

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn also responded to concerns from MPs by insisting the findings of the Clonoe inquest had “nothing to do” with the convention.

MPs from the Tory benches and Reform UK were among those to criticise the ECHR, which requires the UK to abide by final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights based in Strasbourg.

Presiding coroner Mr Justice Michael Humphreys last week ruled that SAS soldiers who shot dead four IRA men at Clonoe in 1992 used lethal force that was not justified.

Four IRA members — Kevin Barry O'Donnell (21), Sean O'Farrell (22), Peter Clancy (21), and Patrick Vincent (20) — were shot dead by the soldiers minutes after they had carried out a gun attack on Coalisland RUC station.

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice told the Commons: “Based on the Secretary of State's earlier comments, is it not now clear the Secretary of State believes the Government cannot stand behind our brave soldiers in this instance because of our membership of the European Convention on Human Rights and therefore surely that is a perfect reason why we must leave the ECHR?”

Mr Benn replied: “That is not the Government's position. The Government's position is indeed to stand behind our brave armed services personnel by, indeed, repealing the (Legacy) Bill which has been found repeatedly to be unlawful.

The European convention applies to ‘every single citizen’

“And I make no apology for saying to (Mr Tice) and to the House that this is a Government that upholds the European Convention on Human Rights, I recognise there's some people who say we should leave, which would put us in the same position as some other countries around the world that I would not want the United Kingdom to find itself associated with.

“The point about the European convention is that the rights there are for every single citizen and there may accord a decision to people that members of the House disagree with today, tomorrow they may protect the rights of every single one of us and that is why we're committed to the ECHR.”

Conservative MP John Cooper described the IRA as a “murder gang”, adding: “Is it not the case that the ECHR now skews the balance in their favour? That we are hidebound now by the idea that there's an equivalence between the IRA and the brave soldiers of the SAS who stood up and did what they had to do to protect innocent lives?”

Mr Benn replied: “There is no equivalence at all, none whatsoever.”

He added: “There's nothing in the European Convention on Human Rights that says there must be equivalence. Our armed services personnel, the RUC, the security services and others were doing their best to protect the citizens of Northern Ireland from the murderous onslaught that they were subjected to over the years of the Troubles.

“And that is why there's no equivalence between them and those who chose in those circumstances to use violence to try and advance their cause.”

Tangible anger

DUP MP Sammy Wilson labelled Mr Benn's responses “mealy-mouthed” and suggested the minister had said he would defend the ECHR “even though it has been abused by terrorists”.

He asked: “When is the Secretary of State going to take the side of the soldiers who fought in Northern Ireland and not be afraid that whatever he says here might offend Sinn Fein and the IRA and their supporters?”

Mr Benn rejected Mr Wilson's characterisation of his remarks, adding: “I make no apology for telling the House about this Government's support for the European convention because this set of findings by the coroner has nothing to do with the European Convention on Human Rights.

“The coroner was faced with a case, a set of circumstances, considered those and produced his findings as inquests do all of the time. People are entitled to criticise the outcome but it is an independent coronial process.”

TUV leader Jim Allister said there is “tangible anger” over the inquest's findings and accused Mr Benn of delivering a “limp response” in the Commons.

Ulster Unionist Party MP Robin Swann asked if Mr Benn agreed the SAS soldiers “acted inside the rules of engagement”.

Mr Benn said: “I wasn't present at the time, I'm not the coroner, I've not looked into the circumstances of the case and therefore I am not in any position to answer the question that he has put to me.

“But I have read the summary of the coroner's findings and they raise serious matters, which is why the Ministry of Defence is considering them.”

OMAGH INQUIRY

Omagh survivor tells inquiry he placed sheets over victims

Jonathan McCambridge, Irish News, February 12th, 2025

A SURVIVOR of the Omagh bombing has told how he placed sheets over victims’ bodies during the carnage in the aftermath of the explosion.

Ian Ferguson, who was working in his family business on the day a massive car bomb devastated the centre of the Co Tyrone town, told the Omagh Bombing Inquiry that his life was changed for ever.

The probe has moved into a new phase and is hearing from witnesses and people who were injured in the 1998 Real IRA attack.

The public inquiry was set up by the British government to examine whether the explosion, which killed 29 people including the mother of unborn twins, could have been prevented by the authorities.

Giving evidence, Mr Ferguson said he was working in the Spick and Span dry cleaning business on the day of the bombing.

He said it was a “typical Saturday morning” and people in the street outside his shop were “happy and joyful”.

Mr Ferguson said that following an alert he was preparing to leave his shop when the bomb exploded.

“The rails with the garments at the back of the shop fell to the floor. The smoke alarms and screaming started,” he said.

“The two girls I had working with me, they started to panic.

“I have a back yard so I took them out to ensure they were safe.”

Mr Ferguson said he took his staff members away from the scene and left them in the care of a police officer before returning to his shop.

‘It was just carnage’

He said he noticed that the engine of the car which had exploded was still on fire.

“I went back into the shop and took two fire extinguishers,” he said.

“Me and another gentleman, I don’t know who it was, started to put the blaze out.

“From that, it was just carnage, the screaming and crying, the smell of smoke, it was just terrible.

“I started then to help people, lifting them off the ground.

“I remember lifting a lady on to a piece of wood and using it as a stretcher to take her down the street.

“I don’t know how long but I spent most of the day carrying people.”

Mr Ferguson said he then went back to his shop to let his parents know he was safe but was so disorientated he could not remember their phone number, so called a friend to contact his parents.

Me and another gentleman, I don’t know who it was, started to put the blaze out. From that, it was just carnage, the screaming and crying, the smell of smoke, it was just terrible

“I went back out to help again. There were people bleeding, so I brought towels, blankets, anything I could get from the shop to use as bandages to help people,” he said.

“I don’t know how long it lasted. I met the late Fr [Kevin] Mullan on the street. He was giving people the last rites and I was putting sheets over them.”

Ian Ferguson gave evidence to the Omagh Bombing Inquiry about his efforts to help victims

He added: “I went home that evening, I can’t remember what time.

“I felt so thankful to be home. A lot of people went to town that day and never came home.”

Fighting depression ever since

Mr Ferguson told the inquiry he had been fighting against depression ever since and does not like to be in large crowds.

“That day changed the whole layout of the street,” he said.

“I lost so many friends and colleagues who never came back to work.

“On a Saturday evening we would have met up after work and had a drink and talked about how our week went.

“That has never happened since because people have left.”

A barrister then read statements to the inquiry provided by two women, Valerie Hamilton and Edel Doherty, who were in Omagh when the bomb exploded.

Ms Hamilton was working in a shop when she was told by police she needed to evacuate.

Recalling the moment the car bomb detonated, she said: “There was a flash and an immense heat. I put my hands up to my head and I shouted ‘no!’.

In foetal position

“The bomb had exploded. The next thing I knew I was sitting at Shop Electric on the pavement, in the foetal position with my hands still up at the side of my head.

“I don’t know how I got there. “When I opened my eyes all that I could see was the smoke and debris everywhere and the smell of burning.”

Ms Hamilton suffered serious eye injuries, a fractured hand and multiple shrapnel wounds and still suffers from hearing loss and anxiety.

Her statement said: “I take medication to help with anxiety caused by what I saw that day because what I saw can never be unseen.

“It causes me so much stress and tension that I have chronic pain as I relive that day every day.”

Ms Doherty’s statement said she had been shopping in the town.

After the explosion, she made her way towards the centre to search for a family member.

“I was approached by a policeman – he asked if I had any first aid training,” she said.

“I followed him into Boots chemists where he directed me to lift anything which would absorb blood, like nappies or sanitary products.

“I proceeded to run, carrying the products towards the area of the bomb.

‘I could only see their eyes’

“It was chaos. People were screaming, crying and I remember meeting ash-covered faces. I could only see their eyes.

“There was a horrible smell and alarms were ringing constantly.”

Ms Doherty said she found a young boy lying in the street.

“He was lying on his back, he was conscious, his eyes were open but he was not talking,” she said.

“I knew his injuries were severe and beyond my skills to fix.

“There was a door lying nearby. We used this as a stretcher.”

She said she placed the boy in the rear of a police Land Rover.

“The sights that I saw that day remain with me to this day,” she said.

“They were horrendous, body parts, pieces of flesh, broken bodies and water and blood gushing down the street.

“Casualties with clothes blown off them, the walking wounded wandering around like zombies.”

I was on fire, trapped under bomb car’s engine

Kindness and courage in face of ‘barbaric violence’

Jonathan McCambridge, Irish News, February 12th, 2025

A WOMAN has described how she was left on fire after becoming trapped underneath the engine of the car which had carried the bomb.

After Pauline Harte gave evidence, inquiry chairman Lord Turnbull said he doubted whether he had ever “heard of such an attitude of kindness and generosity being expressed in the face of barbaric violence”.

Ms Harte was a teenager when she sustained life-changing injuries including having part of her left leg amputated.

Giving evidence supported by her husband Ronan, she said she was a 19-year-old arts student who had got a summer job in the town.

She described being part of the crowd which was moved away from the courthouse area by police during the security alert and how this resulted in people being unwittingly moved towards the vehicle which contained the bomb.

She said: “I thought I should move a bit further back just in case the courthouse did explode.

“At this point I ended up standing beside the car.

“My last memory of this time, before my life changed, was reaching into my pocket to check if I had 95p for the bus fare home.

“Then the bomb went off. The engine of the car used for the bomb landed on my legs with the axle resting on my waist and it was on fire. I was on fire underneath it.”

‘I knew I was trapped’

Ms Harte said she could hear screaming.

She added: “I knew I was trapped and reached my hand down to see what was stopping me.

“I touched the bar across my stomach and that was my first memory of the pain.

“The tar was melted around me and my elbow was sunk into it.”

She said around eight men, including members of the public and police officers, attempted to free her.

She told the inquiry: “Along with the other men the officers were able to rock the engine to pull me free, burning their hands in the process.

“These men didn’t stop and tend to their injuries. They kept on helping other people until there was no one left to help.

‘My skin melted into his hands’

“One of the men told me later he went home with my skin melted into his hands.

“I can’t imagine the trauma they went through that day. I have found and met some of them, but not them all.

“I remember the profound devastation they felt because some of those they were helping did not survive.”

Ms Harte said she was taken to Omagh hospital before being transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

Along with the other men the officers were able to rock the engine to pull me free, burning their hands in the process. These men didn’t stop and tend to their injuries. They kept on helping other people until there was no-one left to help. One of the men told me later he went home with my skin melted into his hands

She had suffered broken ribs, a collapsed lung and had third-degree burns below the waist.

She said: “My family were searching for me at this time.

“The fear and heartache of this period has never eased for them.”

Ms Harte added: “Being burnt is horrific.

“I have many memories of screaming in pain and my voice has never been the same since this time.

“I remember the pain of the burns being so acute I could feel the vibrations of someone walking in heels. It travelled up through my body until I could feel it in my teeth. It was an agonising, searing pain and when I closed my eyes, everything was white.”

Lost leg

She told the inquiry she had undergone multiple operations and countless skin grafts.

Two weeks after the bombing, part of her left foot was amputated. After a further two weeks, the bottom part of her left leg was amputated.

She said: “I can’t describe the horror of the word amputation.

“I couldn’t and wouldn’t accept that it was going to be a reality.

“I think I still have this feeling.”

Ms Harte added: “My mum came with me to the doors of the theatre and was told she could wait outside. She did this quite literally and took a seat right outside the theatre doors.

“She could hear the saw being used to amputate my leg but stayed because she knew I wanted her to be near me. I can’t imagine what this did to her.

“She has never stopped being my backbone for what I have had to face.”

Ms Harte stayed in the burns unit in hospital for four months.

She told the inquiry: “Now, 26 years later and looking back, my overriding feeling is being in awe of what was done for me by so many people and I think of them all often.

“They are the reason I exist and walk tall.”

Ms Harte said she still lives with constant pain.

The bomb reverberated through everyone

But she added: “The bomb reverberated through everyone that tended to me. “It left its mark on them. “They absorbed my pain and I’m so grateful yet so sorry they did this for me. I could never have done it on my own.”

Ms Harte praised her husband Ronan and her four children.

She said: “My body is broken but I will be forever thankful that I don’t have a broken heart.”

Addressing the witness, Lord Turnbull said: “There will be few people, if any, either in this room or listening or watching elsewhere who will ever have heard an account of such appalling physical suffering as was inflicted upon you as a 19-year-old young woman, or of the suffering you have endured in the many years since.”

He said: “In listening to your evidence, just as I have been, I am sure others will have been humbled by the extent to which, in the middle of your own suffering and pain, you have so frequently expressed concern for those who came to your rescue and for those who cared for and looked after you, both at the time and the years since.

“I doubt whether I have ever heard of such an attitude of kindness and generosity being expressed in the face of barbaric violence of the sort which was inflicted upon you.

“Yours is truly an account of survival, not just of you as a person but also an account of the survival of the qualities of humanity.”

‘Some of the strongest people I have met’

Jonathan McCambridge, Irish News, February 12th, 2025

A WOMAN who sustained life-changing injuries in the bombing said she lives with guilt because she survived whereas her sister was killed.

Nicola Marlow told the inquiry she was unable to attend Jolene’s funeral due to her injuries.

Last week the inquiry heard a commemorative statement about 17-year-old Jolene Marlow, who had three younger brothers and a younger sister.

Nicola Marlow was standing next to her when the bomb exploded. Her statement was read to the inquiry by solicitor Emma Fox.

It read: “August 15 1998 should have been a normal day. I went to Omagh on my own for the first time ever to buy concert tickets after earning money babysitting over the summer.

“My sister had made arrangements to take a late lunch so we could meet. Following the events of the Omagh bomb I’ve had to live with the guilt of my sister being in the town at that time because I was as well. Had I not been there at that time, she wouldn’t have been either. This is a burden that I have carried for years.”

Ms Marlow said the events had changed her and her family’s world for ever.

She said: “Not only did I lose my only sister but my parents and brothers lost their first-born daughter and elder sister.

“For me personally, I sustained life-changing injuries that would define the rest of my life.

“I was airlifted to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast on August 15 and spent the next few months undergoing multiple gruelling surgeries and therapies to try to survive and recover.

“Due to my injuries being so bad I was unable to attend my sister’s funeral, meaning I never got the opportunity to say goodbye.

“The last time I saw my sister was standing side by side behind the car that would ultimately kill her and maim me.

“My parents, my brothers and I were robbed of the ability to grieve properly as a family.

“I was robbed of my only sister, my mentor and a friend to help me navigate through the normal challenges of life.

“In the years following the bomb, I have had to overcome the pain and suffering of my physical injuries, the emotional grief of loss, the guilt of having survived while also the resentment of having been left behind to endure the suffering.”

Ms Marlow was “reluctant” to be classified as a victim.

She said: “The word ‘victim’ somehow suggests a vulnerability and a weakness.

“However, I believe that the victims, survivors and families of those involved are some of the strongest people I have met.”

She said she hoped the public inquiry would enable some to get the “closure they need to overcome some of the challenges they have faced in the past 26 years”.

Inquiry chair Lord Turnbull said: “It is already becoming clear to me that Nicola is correct in identifying the extent of the strength exhibited by the various victims and survivors of the bombing.”

being expressed in the face of barbaric violence of the sort which was inflicted upon you.

“Yours is truly an account of survival, not just of you as a person but also an account of the survival of the qualities of humanity.”

I carry guilt because I survived blast that killed my sister (17)

Jonathan McCambridge, Irish News, February 12th, 2025

A WOMAN who sustained life-changing injuries in the bombing said she lives with guilt because she survived whereas her sister was killed.

Nicola Marlow told the inquiry she was unable to attend Jolene’s funeral due to her injuries.

Last week the inquiry heard a commemorative statement about 17-year-old Jolene Marlow, who had three younger brothers and a younger sister.

Nicola Marlow was standing next to her when the bomb exploded. Her statement was read to the inquiry by solicitor Emma Fox.

It read: “August 15 1998 should have been a normal day. I went to Omagh on my own for the first time ever to buy concert tickets after earning money babysitting over the summer.

Life-changing injuries defined rest of her life