Raymond McCord and two other victims of paramilitary violence tell Benn why they reject ICRIR

Statement by Raymond McCord,

The meeting in Belfast with Secretary of State Hilary Benn finally happened on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, after waiting 16 months since I was promised the meeting.

For over 90 minutes, Hilary Benn saw and felt the emotion of myself, two other victims, and my solicitor when we told him that we totally rejected the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) and the Legacy Act.

We told him that the victims had been promised by the Labor government that both the ICRIR and the Legacy Act would be scrapped, not tweaked. I told the Secretary of State at the beginning of the meeting to be honest and truthful even though we would probably disagree with his comments.

Secretary Benn clearly wants the ICRIR to deal with the murders of the Troubles, including my son’s murder in 1979. However, the ICRIR was set up by the British government, and the families of those murdered will still not have access to disclosure documents naming those who carried out the murders, and the British state security agencies who covered up the murders.

I explained to Secretary Benn several times that the vast majority of victims reject ICRIR, but he's determined to push it through. If he does, it will be unacceptable to victims. I made it crystal clear that, as collusion was proven in my son's murder, the only real way forward in young Raymond’s case is a full independent Public Inquiry.

He made no comment. As we left the room, once again I called for the Public Inquiry and said I would leave that with him and for him to come back with an answer.

I made my son a promise at his grave that I would get him justice and despite what happened at Wednesday’s meeting I intend to keep that promise. It'll be a Public Inquiry. Both Protestant and Catholic victims are supporting me on this. The British government will not defeat the unity of victims.

One of the other victims with me was Cathy McIlvenny from the Shankill area, whose sister Lorraine was raped and murdered by UDA members, while her sister's son Craig was murdered by the UVF. The other victim with us was Hugh McCormick from North Belfast, who was shot eight times by the IRA.

We were accompanied by my solicitor, Paul Farrell from McIvor and Farrell.