Reconciliation needs inclusion and rights in order to progress
PLATFORM: DECLAN MORGAN
IN MAY 2007, when two former inmates of Crumlin Road prison walked together into the Great Hall of Stormont, the stuttering hope of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement was renewed.
From prisoners to politicians, the participation of Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness in jointly leading the power-sharing executive reminded everyone that inclusion and rights are key to reconciliation and progress.
Three years later, policing and justice powers were devolved from Westminster to Stormont, and some people – formerly active with the IRA – were soon on the recruitment panels selecting PSNI chief constables.
These facts are pertinent in relation to publications in last week’s Irish News.
In particular, the editorial (June 11, 2025) claimed that the ICRIR is “heavily staffed” with ex-RUC or soldiers based on figures of “up to 26” staff – out of a total of almost 200 employees (and growing).
That’s akin to claiming that the pre-Agreement RUC of 1998 was “heavily staffed” by Catholics (then at 8%) or by women (then at 12.6%). This comparison is important.
The truth is that around 90% of the ICRIR’s employees have never worked for the RUC or army.
Inclusion and Rights
Inclusion and rights were the cornerstones of peace. They are the foundations of reconciliation
Around 30 of the commission’s current investigators served in Operation Kenova, and several others also worked in the Office of the Police Ombudsman.
We recognise that there are people who will not want their cases investigated by former RUC officers.
The 1998 Agreement was built on fundamental principles – a rightsbased and representative approach for promoting reconciliation: a culture of inclusion, not exclusion.
Questions of inclusion and participation raise profound challenges for a society emerging from conflict. Those challenges are heightened in the deeply sensitive arena of legacy which remains unresolved since 1998.
After the agreement, we had the Patten Commission reforming the police. We had a Criminal Justice Review Commission reforming the courts.
We have an Equality Commission, overseeing improved fair employment and equality legislation. We have a Human Rights Commission, in the context of the Human Rights Act and ECHR compliance.
If peace in Northern Ireland had required perfect histories and moral certainties, where a person’s past disqualified them from improving society’s future, or where one sector had a veto over another sector’s participation, then we would never have had the Agreement – nor the power-sharing Executive.
Inclusion and rights were the cornerstones of peace. They are the foundations of reconciliation.
“Any effort to now rewrite those rules, retrofitting agendas of exclusion in relation to legacy issues, undermines the very spirit of the agreement
The agreement brought together long-standing opponents: unionists and nationalists, loyalists and republicans, the governments of Ireland and the UK.
It created shared public institutions with laws to prohibit discrimination.
Any effort to now rewrite those rules, retrofitting agendas of exclusion in relation to legacy issues, undermines the very spirit of the agreement.
Policing, politics, culture, sports, economy, community: every part of our divided past must have an equal place in our shared future. That was the deal. And it remains the only pathway to progress.
Excluding groups is a slippery slope
Once we begin singling out for exclusion anyone (in this case, ex-police officers), we risk opening the door to wider practices of exclusion. Who next? And who decides?
If we disqualify individuals based on associations or perceptions, this could become a slippery slope that may well pick apart the whole fragile flowering of inclusion that made our peace possible in the first place.
Of course, in legacy issues, justice must not only be done – it must be seen to be done.
But justice must also be procedurally and practically fair – in how it is staffed and structured, not just delivered. The process is integral to the outcome.
What matters most is oversight, transparency and due process, and appropriate checks and balances to ensure effectiveness, and practical and procedural independence.
We are delivering such processes, practices, and ethics in the independent Commission. Our mission is to promote rights-based reconciliation, revealing the unvarnished truth.
Our staff come from every section of society and are recruited based on their merits. That includes some former RUC officers and staff of exemplary standard.
Lagacy work must help find truth andf bind wounds.
No-one can claim to advocate reconciliation while also pulling up the drawbridge behind them, or worse – seeking to rewrite the agreement’s inclusion agenda.
Legacy work must help find truths and bind wounds.
The challenge of the Good Friday Agreement was that it dared to imagine a society where divided people could help achieve such outcomes, building a shared future, by working together.
Reconciliation requires inclusion and rights.
Declan Morgan is the ICRIR chief commissioner
Eight teenage boys among 11 people arrested during 'blatant sectarian violence'
Garrett Hargan, Belfast Telegraph, June 19th, 2025
FEARS SOMEONE WILL BE SERIOUSLY INJURED OR KILLED AS BOUTCHER SLAMS 'MINDLESS THUGGERY'
A resident living close to where “blatant sectarian violence” broke out in Londonderry has said parents need to take responsibility before a young person is “seriously injured or killed”.
Eight teenage boys were among those arrested after a “shameful” night of “mindless thuggery” in the city, the Chief Constable said.
A second night of riots took place at Nailors Row beside the city's historic walls, resulting in 14 officers being injured as petrol bombs, fireworks, heavy masonry, planks of wood and bricks were hurled at police lines.
Police fired a single plastic baton round at rioters.
It resulted in 11 people being arrested, including eight boys aged between 14 and 17 and three men aged 29, 30 and 47.
Each of the teenagers and two of the males, aged 29 and 30, were arrested on suspicion of rioting. The 47-year-old was arrested on suspicion of intentionally encouraging or assisting a riot.
Violence occurred from around 7.30pm on Tuesday to 1am.
The road where it occurred runs adjacent to Alexander House — sheltered accommodation for older people — and close to the Bishop Street and Fountain interface.
Chief Constable Jon Boutcher condemned the violence “in the strongest terms possible”.
“This was blatant sectarian violence, plain and simple, and there is absolutely no justification for it in our society. These behaviours are criminal, plain and simple. We will not accept them and will pursue those responsible with the full force of the law,” he said.
He praised his “courageous and dedicated officers [who] have put themselves in harm's way to protect the local community” and promised “that we will continue to arrest and prosecute those responsible. There will be consequences to those involved. We will not stand by and allow people to attack our society”.
“Valuable police resources that should be helping victims of crime in our communities are having to be diverted to deal with this mindless thuggery. This behaviour is shameful and will have been terrifying for residents. I am aware of older residents living in the immediate area who were massively traumatised by this disorder.”
Mr Boutcher said he “will be seeking the strongest custodial sentences for those involved in the recent disorder across Northern Ireland”.
“Those who choose to be involved are taking a decision to change their futures. Do not get involved,” he warned.
Heightened tension
Fountain resident Donna Best said tensions have been heightened for months.
Her sister lives close to the “peace wall” and she said bricks, bottles and eggs have been thrown over.
Ms Best also made reference to a threatening TikTok post which has caused concern in the community.
With an Irish tricolour background and a burning Union flag, the post said: “Need as many heads in the Fountain as possible Monday, half four, getting them out once and for all. There will be no changes to this. It is going ahead no matter what. Please everyone send this around and information will be put up on where everyone should meet up.”
Ms Best said attacks are being “pre-organised” and believes it could be “fuelled by adults in the background”.
“I would say to parents, as someone who has been through this for years, where are they? Parents need to take responsibility, before a child is killed,” she said.
Ms Best was critical of all politicians, including unionist parties, who she said were in the area for interviews on Wednesday but “didn't take the time to check on residents or assure them”.
A resident whose flat faces on to Nailors Row, where trouble raged the night before, estimated that there must have been around 80 police officers.
“It was mad,” he said, while describing how bricks and fireworks aimed at police officers almost hit his own window.
The resident said PSNI officers who had hold of aggressive dogs would extend the leash to disperse the young people.
He also witnessed injured officers who'd been struck with masonry or petrol bombs being helped from the scene by their colleagues.
On the other side of an interface fence, a resident who has lived in the Fountain estate since 1985 also shared frustrations. The sinister TikTok post was at the forefront of his mind as he demanded police and the media call it what it is.
Protestant enclave
“Sectarianism,” he said. “This is the only Protestant enclave. People can't say this is not a sectarian attack. This was a threat to burn people out.”
The man was also critical of politicians and community representatives in the Bogside and Brandywell, suggesting Sinn Fein has “lost control of it”.
There are concerns that dissident elements are orchestrating some of the violence.
People on both sides said that most community workers in the area are members of Sinn Fein, which can reduce the impact they have.
Sinn Fein MLA Pádraig Delargy has condemned the incidents and appealed for calm, while the Irish Republican Socialist Party has called on young people attacking the Fountain estate to “desist immediately”, condemning those behind the violence as “wrong and sectarian and, in essence, anti-republican”.
Stormont ‘laid bare’ by insiders’ revelations
John Manley, Political Correspondent, Irish News, June 19th, 2025
A NEW report based on the testimonies of those who worked at the heart of the Stormont administration has exposed the dysfunction and ineffectiveness of Northern Ireland’s regional government.
It highlights a departmental silo mentality, an emphasis on short-termism, and a tendency among MLAs to focus on “conflict and scapegoating” rather than scrutinising policy detail.
The Executive Office – jointly controlled for the past two decades by the DUP and Sinn Féin – is described by one insider as the “department of paralysis”.
Compiled by the thinktank Pivotal, the ‘Making policy delivery a reality’ report is based on 30 in-depth, anonymised interviews with former senior civil servants, one time-ministers and ex-special advisers, along with those from the business and community sectors who regularly engage with the devolved administration.
It has identified “major shortcomings” in leadership, skills, culture, structures, data and targets, and evaluation and review.
Pivotal director Ann Watt said the report, which concludes that policy implementation often “falls short of expectations”, was not about individual blame but showed the need to “make changes in structures and in working culture”.
Insiders’ interviews lay bare a Stormont based on dysfunction
Ms Watt said the report contains lessons for the entire devolved government – the NI executive, the assembly and the civil service.
She said things were not working as they should be “for a great many reasons”.
“Executive ministers need to provide clear leadership, strive for consensus despite their differences, and stop avoiding choices that are necessary but difficult or unpopular,” the Pivotal director said.
Tick-box procedures
“They also have to learn to prioritise – Northern Ireland’s current challenges cannot all be addressed at once.”
She said the civil service needed to “focus much more on achieving change rather than tick-box procedures”.
“Accountability needs to work towards outcomes, the attitude towards risk needs to be clear-sighted and proportionate, and specialist skills need to be valued and encouraged” she said.
Ms Watt said MLAs needed to “overhaul their approach to scrutiny”, as current oversight was “neither robust nor supportive”.
“The assembly and committees need to work towards serving the public rather than party political aims,” she said.
“A step-up in MLAs’ scrutiny role is needed, including training on the role of assembly questions and committees.”
WHAT THE INSIDERS SAID…
“Other governments have much more urgency to get things done. In NI, time always slips.” (Interviewee T)
“The assembly wastes too much time on debates saying not much more than ‘good things are good, bad things are bad’.” (Interviewee Q)
“[The Civil Service is] a class system. People come into meetings and they talk about their grade. They’re not a person,” and the “NICS is very hierarchical and deferential to senior people. Certain grades don’t talk to each other.” (Interviewee V, a third sector representative)
“In the business world, people talk to you if they think they can help you, they don’t care who you are… they’re not always about the greater title.” (Interviewee I, from the private sector)
“Consultancies are making millions out of the NICS.” (Interviewee R)
“Consultants borrow your watch and tell you the time.” (Interviewee F)
“The concern of the system was as much finding their people something to do as it was having them doing something productive.” (Interviewee J)
“Northern Ireland Civil Service is delivering policy without real understanding of people, place and problems.” (Interviewee Z)
“They’re not one government, they’re a series of departments.” (Interviewee N)
“[Civil servants] ask ridiculous questions about the small things when they should be asking much more interesting questions about the policy challenges.” (Interviewee BB, feom the voluntary sector
PSNI officers probing sex crimes and domestic abuse removed to deal with riots
Jonathan McCambidge, Belfast Telegraph, June 19th, 2025
SENIOR COP TELLS MPS OF 'CHALLENGES' FOR FORCE DUE TO £21M FUNDING SHORTFALL
Twenty-four police officers were removed from duties investigating sex crimes and domestic abuse to deal with recent public disorder in Northern Ireland, MPs have been told.
A senior PSNI officer said she “cannot begin to describe the challenges” the force is dealing with within its public protection unit.
The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee held an evidence session on ending violence against women and girls.
The Stormont Executive launched its first Ending Violence Against Women and Girls strategy last year.
Detective Chief Superintendent Zoe McKee is head of the public protection team at the PSNI, which deals with sex crimes and domestic abuse.
She told the committee that there are “real challenges” for police due to the funding situation, adding: “If we do not have the dedicated resources to deal with issues like this, we are going to be in this perpetual cycle and we are going to be creating our own legacy in time.
“I cannot begin to describe the challenges within public protection arena within policing currently.
24 officers redeployed to public order duties
“By way of example, even this week alone, I have had 24 officers extracted for public disorder which actually stemmed from a violence-against-women-and-girls offence.
“That narrative has been lost in a lot of what has happened in recent weeks.
“We are facing significant under-funding challenges, a £21m gap, and we have officers at the very lowest level we have ever had in the PSNI, at 6,200, and we should be sitting at 7,500.
“They are real challenges which effect how we deliver services and support victims and prosecute offenders for all of the violence-against-women-and-girls offence types.”
More than 60 police officers have been injured in disturbances that started last week after a peaceful protest over an alleged sexual assault in Ballymena and later spread to other areas.
Dr Siobhan McAllister, senior lecturer in criminology Queen's University Belfast, told the committee that there is still a “mistrust” in some communities about reporting domestic crimes to police.
She said: “We see this being passed down within families and within communities. You don't go to the police, and paramilitaries within communities might know then if you go to the police. That still does have an impact.”
Domestic abuse victims waiting five years for abusers to be sentenced
DUP leader Gavin Robinson asked if delays within the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland was a barrier to female victims coming forward.
Sonya McMullan, regional services manager for Women's Aid Federation NI, told the committee she had been dealing with a domestic abuse victim who had waited five years for her abuser to be sentenced.
She said: “People are dropping out [of the criminal justice system]. We have this issue all of the time. It doesn't instil public confidence in people going forward.
“Are you going to put your life on hold for five years? We have had women coming forward saying: 'I am not going through this. I simply cannot put myself and my family through this.'
“People talk about the retraumatisation going through the court process and having to relive that. A lot of that doesn't encourage people to come forward.”
Teen wore full-face balaclava ‘because he did not want to be on social media’, court hears
Paul Higgins, Irish News, June 19th, 2025
A TEENAGER was dressed in a balaclava during a riot because he did not want to appear on social media, a court has heard.
Three boys facing charges over riots in Ballymena appeared in court yesterday.
The two 15-year-olds and a 17-year-old appeared at Ballymena Youth Court by video link from custody.
The 15-year-olds were remanded back into custody to appear on July 16.
The 17-year-old, facing a single count of riot on June 10, applied for bail.
According to police, he was wearing a “full-face balaclava” and was part of a crowd of youths, all of whom were wearing dark clothing, involved in “throwing debris, bricks, stones and road signs”.
The court heard how this defendant was arrested by officers in the Tactical Support Group after the officers performed a “rapid advance” manoeuvre.
Refused to answer questions
When searched, police retrieved a balaclava, a rock and a bottle but during interviews, the 17-year-old refused to give an account or answer police questions.
Under cross-examination from defence solicitor Andrew Kinney, a PSNI officer agreed it was not possible to say whether this defendant threw anything or was actively involved in the riot.
She further agreed “there was a significant number of youths in the area”, all of them wearing dark clothing and having their faces at least partially if not fully covered.
Mr Kinney suggested: “So the court has before it a person who is arrested because he was wearing the clothing of the rioters, as described by the officer, but he isn’t doing anything which would be showing that he was actively involved in the riot itself.”
District Judge Nigel Broderick asked: “What was he doing out at that time of night, when there were hundreds of other people out rioting, wearing a balaclava and then when asked about it he fails to give an account?”
Mr Kinney said it was because his client “did not want to be on social media”.
Judge Broderick refused bail and remanded the teenager back into custody until July 16.
'Pure stupidity': Teenage rioter remanded in custody after admitting part in Ballymena disorder
Liam Tunney, Belfast Telegraph, June 19th, 2025
ACCUSED IS DENIED BAIL DUE TO RISK OF FURTHER OFFENDING
A teenage rioter told police “pure stupidity” was behind his reasoning for taking part in violent racially motivated disorder in Ballymena last week, a court has heard.
Harvey Shaw (19) appeared via video link at Coleraine Magistrates Court yesterday morning charged with riotous assembly under common law.
The defendant, of Lanntara, Ballymena, confirmed his name and that he understood the charge he was facing before a police witness told the court he could connect the defendant to the charge.
The officer said police had identified Shaw from footage of the disorder on Monday June 9 when he appeared without a face covering.
Footage from further riots the following evening showed the defendant wearing the same dark North Face branded coat and trainers as seen in images from Monday night.
Police said they observed Shaw throwing two stones at PSNI lines in the Bridge Street area around 9.45pm and that further footage showed the defendant unsuccessfully attempting to break a large rock and also throwing bottles at officers in the North Road area some time later.
The court heard Shaw was arrested at his home on June 17 where he provided police with the items of clothing they believed he was wearing when the alleged offence was committed.
The police officer told the court the defendant had made full admissions at interview. Shaw told police he had gone out with the intention to riot and had followed the crowd in “pure stupidity”.
Opposing bail on the grounds that Shaw may engage in further offending, the officer said there was evidence he had been involved in the second night of disturbances last week.
Worked with migrants in local factory
They added that there was still “strong public feeling” and media coverage relating to the disorder and that if a strong deterring message was not sent out, further rioting could result in death or serious injury. Defence counsel argued that Shaw had “held his hands up” at interview and told police that there was no racial motivation for his behaviour.
The court was told the defendant worked with individuals from ethnic minority communities on a daily basis in a local factory, where he is employed full-time.
They noted their client had not attended any disorder on Wednesday night, having been persuaded to stay in the house by his girlfriend, and that he “deeply regrets” his behaviour.
District Judge King noted that the defendant's first word when apprehended had been “sorry” — something he added was entirely consistent with the admissions he made during police interview.
“The difficulty is that after Monday, he shouldn't have been in the area on Tuesday,” said Mr King.
“There was still the potential for trouble with the ongoing disorder.
“My concern is that this is not a case of being caught up on Monday. The offending took place on Tuesday after serious disorder.”
The judge remanded Shaw in custody due to what he said was the risk of potential re-offending and adjourned the case until July 10.
Asked if arrangements could be made for the defendant's mother to visit him, Mr King said that was a matter for prison staff.
Man who threatened Little-Pengelly and attacked DUP office jailed
Adrian Rutherford and Ashleigh McDonald, Belfast Telegraph, June 19th, 2025
AN EAST Belfast man who sent threatening online messages to the deputy first minister and smashed the windows of a party colleague’s office has been jailed.
Belfast Crown Court heard how the posts on Twitter left Emma Little-Pengelly so scared she considered moving from her home.
Aaron Thomas Curragh (34), from Whincroft Road, was handed a 31-month sentence and he was told by Judge Gordon Kerr KC that he will spend half in custody and half on licence.
Curragh had previously pleaded guilty to three charges of criminal damage and one of threatening communications.
The first incident of criminal damage occurred in December 2023.
DUP MLA Joanne Bunting left her constituency office on Knock Road, Belfast, at around 6.25pm on December 8.
At around 3.15pm the following day she received a text message from her landlord informing her that the premises had been damaged.
Several windows in the office including the front window pane, a side window and the outer pane on the main entrance door, had been smashed.
Curragh posted a series of messages on his Twitter feed in the early hours of December 9 2023 which indicated he caused the damage.
These messages include one he posted 15 minutes before he targeted the premises which said “ready to be a target DUP” alongside a GIF showing two men, one of whom was masked.
Around 10 minutes after the incident, Curran posted another tweet which said: “Always mark for payback DUP.”
At 10.40pm on December 10, Curragh tweeted a narrated video depicting a window breaking with the comment ‘Hi DUP remember me’ and also used an explosion emoji.
Second attack
On July 12 the following year Ms Bunting became aware of a second attack on her office.
She viewed CCTV which showed a male smashing windows both at her office and at the office of Holmes & Moffatt Solicitors next door.
The court also heard that Curragh posted a series of tweets about Emma Little-Pengelly on July 8 2024.
One tweet said: “Oh by the way Emma what ever your f*****g name is from the DUP there’s a death threat on your head because everyone keeps telling us where you live.”
He also posted a video which appeared to be pointing in the direction of Ms Little-Pengelly’s house.
In this video Curragh can be heard saying “there’s Emma from the DUP with a death threat on her head from members of her own party and the people who she goes shopping to are telling me where she lives”
Mrs Little-Pengelly was made aware of the posts on July 13 2024.
She recognised the defendant from his profile photograph and she recalled meeting him previously in a local shop when he repeated over and over again “Oh my f*****g God it’s Emma Little-Pengelly”.
Both Ms Bunting and Mrs Little-Pengelly provided written victim impact statements for the sentencing hearing.
In her statement, Ms Bunting described the “upset, hurt and fear”.
“ Oh by the way Emma what ever your name is from the DUP there’s a death threat on your head because everyone keeps telling us where you live.”
Calls for Troubles ‘forgiveness’ can be counter-productive
By Philip McGarry, Belfast News Letter, May 27th, 2025
Philip McGarry writes of the former UDA leader Andy Tyrie, who died on May 16. He argues that 'forgiveness' for paramilitaries is not always warranted
In a local newspaper’s report of the funeral of 85 year old Andy Tyrie, the minister who conducted the service is quoted as saying that the former UDA leader, in the last period of his life, believed that people should “always forgive and don’t be bitter”.
The minister added that “in our province there is a lot to be forgiven”.
It is understandable that a minister of religion will speak of "forgiveness”, but for society at large, in our local context of decades of unjustified and unjustifiable violence, the word has very limited meaning, and can be counter-productive.
As a practising psychiatrist for 40 years I have met countless people who have suffered terribly at the hands of their fellow citizens, but I never once suggested that they should consider "forgiving” someone who had deliberately done them a terrible wrong.
Firstly, forgiveness is a primarily religious construct, and my medical role is very different. My task is typically to help the person describe their emotions and cognitions about the event that has affected them, validate these (there is absolutely nothing wrong with hating people who have badly hurt you), and then work with them to manage their emotions, thoughts and behaviour.
The aim is to eventually arrive at a place where the individual, while not consciously blocking out or suppressing emotions about the past, is able to accept that it cannot be changed, and that life must go on and be lived and enjoyed as well as possible.
That is the only way to avoid “living in the past”, and becoming embittered.
Moving from the clinical to the societal/political, what is the word ‘forgiveness’ meant to imply? I recall a period after the Enniskillen bombing when naïve journalists almost routinely asked victims / relatives of terrorist violence whether they “forgave” the perpetrators. What a foolish (and hurtful) thing to ask!
In the religious context forgiveness implies that the past can effectively be wiped out. But in society at large it cannot.
Are the families of the approximately 1,000 victims of the UDA/UVF expected to “forgive” Andy Tyrie and other loyalist paramilitary leaders just because they have decided – in later life – that killing their neighbours is no longer a good thing?
And if the institutions of society at large also “forgive” them, does that not imply that the slaughter in which they engaged was both justifiable – in essence a trivial act which we should all just forget about?
Furthermore, there is a danger that the lesson for future generations in Ireland is that if you want to effect change you should consider setting up an armed organisation, and then intimidate and kill your fellow citizens as, in time, when you “generously” stop the killing, you can be seen as a “peacemaker” and a decent person!
Terrorism is by definition the use of a calibrated level of violence for a limited period of time to advance your political interests; it is usually an entirely rational and sometimes an effective project.
To "forgive” terrorists is effectively to endorse the use of violence as a perfectly acceptable option to use in a democracy (it isn’t!)
A further reason for not using the concept of forgiveness outside religion is that the large bulk of those who terrorised our community for over three decades show little to no true remorse for what they did.
Andy Tyrie never came out and said in public, repeatedly, that he deeply regretted the dreadful violence which he and his colleagues had brought to his fellow Ulstermen and women, that there was never the slightest justification for the killing, and that young people must never, ever act as he did, because what he had done was unconscionably wrong.
And even if he had said those things there is still no reason why the relatives of those he had had murdered should "forgive” him, as no words can undo the harm done.
The RTE broadcaster Joe Duffy, who has challenged a sometimes cosy consensus in the Republic of Ireland about the use of violence in the past, said: “We have to be much stronger in this country about rejecting violence; the bullets didn’t stop travelling.”
At the funeral of Garda cadet Gary Sheehan, shot dead by the IRA in Leitrim in 1983, Bishop Joseph Duffy said: “We have all sinned in glamourising the use of arms in Irish history. If we look more closely we see the gun as a tyranny, an instrument of division and hatred.”
Mr Tyrie’s family and friends are of course entitled to grieve for their loss. But the only credible moral lesson of his life for society is that the killing machine which he led was an iniquitous and poisonous outfit which unforgivably caused irreparable harm and human misery, which we must never allow to happen again.
UPDATES
Calls for Troubles ‘forgiveness’ can be counter-productive
By Philip McGarry, Belfast News Letter, May 27th, 2025
Philip McGarry, writes of the former UDA leader Andy Tyrie, who died on May 16; he says that 'forgiveness' for paramilitaries is not always warranted
In a local newspaper’s report of the funeral of 85 year old Andy Tyrie, the minister who conducted the service is quoted as saying that the former UDA leader, in the last period of his life, believed that people should “always forgive and don’t be bitter”.
The minister added that “in our province there is a lot to be forgiven”.
It is understandable that a minister of religion will speak of "forgiveness”, but for society at large, in our local context of decades of unjustified and unjustifiable violence, the word has very limited meaning, and can be counter-productive.
As a practising psychiatrist for 40 years I have met countless people who have suffered terribly at the hands of their fellow citizens, but I never once suggested that they should consider "forgiving” someone who had deliberately done them a terrible wrong.
Firstly, forgiveness is a primarily religious construct, and my medical role is very different. My task is typically to help the person describe their emotions and cognitions about the event that has affected them, validate these (there is absolutely nothing wrong with hating people who have badly hurt you), and then work with them to manage their emotions, thoughts and behaviour.
The aim is to eventually arrive at a place where the individual, while not consciously be blocking out or suppressing emotions about the past, is able to accept that it cannot be changed, and that life must go on and be lived and enjoyed as well as possible.
That is the only way to avoid “living in the past”, and becoming embittered.
Is political violence forgivable?
Moving from the clinical to the societal/political, what is the word ‘forgiveness’ meant to imply? I recall a period after the Enniskillen bombing when naïve journalists almost routinely asked victims / relatives of terrorist violence whether they “forgave” the perpetrators. What a foolish (and hurtful) thing to ask!
In the religious context forgiveness implies that the past can effectively be wiped out. But in society at large it cannot.
Are the families of the approximately 1,000 victims of the UDA/UVF expected to “forgive” Andy Tyrie and other loyalist paramilitary leaders just because they have decided – in later life – that killing their neighbours is no longer a good thing?
And if the institutions of society at large also “forgive” them, does that not imply that the slaughter in which they engaged was both justifiable – in essence a trivial act which we should all just forget about?
Furthermore, there is a danger that the lesson for future generations in Ireland is that if you want to effect change you should consider setting up an armed organisation, and then intimidate and kill your fellow citizens as, in time, when you “generously” stop the killing, you can be seen as a “peacemaker” and a decent person!
Terrorism is by definition the use of a calibrated level of violence for a limited period of time to advance your political interests; it is usually an entirely rational and sometimes an effective project.
To "forgive” terrorists is effectively to endorse the use of violence as a perfectly acceptable option to use in a democracy (it isn’t!)
A further reason for not using the concept of forgiveness outside religion is that the large bulk of those who terrorised our community for over three decades show little to no true remorse for what they did.
Tyrie’s silence
Andy Tyrie never came out and said in public, repeatedly, that he deeply regretted the dreadful violence which he and his colleagues had brought to his fellow Ulstermen and women, that there was never the slightest justification for the killing, and that young people must never, ever act as he did, because what he had done was unconscionably wrong.
And even if he had said those things there is still no reason why the relatives of those he had had murdered should "forgive” him, as no words can undo the harm done.
The RTE broadcaster Joe Duffy, who has challenged a sometimes cosy consensus in the Republic of Ireland about the use of violence in the past, said: “We have to be much stronger in this country about rejecting violence; the bullets didn’t stop travelling.”
At the funeral of Garda cadet Gary Sheehan, shot dead by the IRA in Leitrim in 1983, Bishop Joseph Duffy said: “We have all sinned in glamourising the use of arms in Irish history. If we look more closely we see the gun as a tyranny, an instrument of division and hatred.”
Mr Tyrie’s family and friends are of course entitled to grieve for their loss. But the only credible moral lesson of his life for society is that the killing machine which he led was an iniquitous and poisonous outfit which unforgivably caused irreparable harm and human misery, which we must never allow to happen again.
Dr Philip McGarry is a consultant psychiatrist and former Alliance Party chair.
Letter: Our Irish heritage is something to be embraced - it is an integral part of our nature
A letter from L Wallace, Newtownards:
Our leaders should help us welcome our heritage and not deny this inherent aspect of our being as something to be afraid of and therefore to be denied
Published 19th June 19th, 2025
As I listen to our political leaders I am disheartened by how misunderstood they must be with regards our Irish roots.
We all know and acknowledge that our Irish roots cannot be expunged from our history. For many of us our history is rooted in Ireland before the “plantation era”.
My late parents who were born in Ireland before the country was partitioned held Irish birth certificates. This would be the same for all parents born in Ireland before the country was partitioned. (Check out your own background)
I cannot understand how we have become such a divided society. I despair because our Irish heritage is an integral part of our fundamental nature.
There is a wound in our society that cannot be healed by words alone. We can only treat this wound if we all acknowledge our shared history and become healers.
Our leaders should help us welcome our heritage and not deny this inherent aspect of our being as something to be afraid of and therefore to be denied.
Our political leaders should instead use their intellects to show that all residents in Northern Ireland, whether they claim Irish or British heritage, can be faithful unionists.
WE SAY: London Kneecap hearing is a rebuke to the PSNI
The Editor, Belfast Media, June 19, 2025 10:32
THE scenes witnessed outside Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning were a microcosm of what the United Kingdom has become under this Labour government. Younger readers may be be labouring under the misapprehension that Keir Starmer’s lurch to the right in pursuit of populist favour is the first time that the Labour Party has betrayed its socialist principles. But the truth is that throughout the Troubles Labour Secretaries of State repeatedly outperformed their Tory counterparts when it came to defending the interests of the British establishment at the price of the rights of Irish citizens.
Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh was not hauled before a magistrate in the English capital because he waved a Hezbollah flag; the 27-year-old Gaelgeoir and West Belfast native was ordered there to send a message to the increasing number of English and British people rising up against their government’s complicity in the genocide being carried out in Gaza by Israel. The increasingly demented fascism of the Donald Trump Washington regime has seen migrant policing agencies and the National Guard used to harass and brutalise those protesting at the targeting and scapegoating of people that Trump and his grotesque coterie of minions perceive as enemies. In a similar way, the Metropolitan Police have been deployed to silence Kneecap’s powerful voice; a voice that is energising and empowering young people everywhere.
Locally, Wednesday morning’s hearing in London – which saw Mo Chara released on bail to reappear in August – was not a challenge to the PSNI, but a rebuke. It was not a challenge because the PSNI is simply not capable of responding to the Kneecap prosecution by getting real about displays of ‘support for terrorism’ on this side of the water as the loyalist marching season hots up. The most compelling reason for that is that there is nowhere enough Catholics/nationalists in the PSNI at all levels to make combatting displays of support for Fenian-butchering paramilitaries a priority. Senior PSNI figures like to bemoan their lack of resources. The truth is that the policy of doing nothing about the annual outpouring of summer sectarianism is much more demanding of resources and more debilitating to community cohesion than the proactive strategy that the lawlessness demands. The PSNI hoses its diminishing resources at marching season outbreaks of bigotry. Officers and vehicles are deployed reactively to areas where masked loyalists mark their territory and terrify mixed communities – and this happens because those behind the violence and hate know they have a clear run. Sectarian intimidation is a consequence-free activity.
Were that not the case, were the perpetrators made to understand that the rule of law applies, the chaotic summer free-for-all would in time abate, with a concomitant drop-off in policing demand. But when just a quarter of the PSNI is Catholic, logic and foresight get trumped by that old canteen culture that was supposed to have been dumped with the RUC.
