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The Government has been urged to appoint a victims\u2019 commissioner and set up a body to investigate Troubles-related killings in Ireland.<\/p>\nThe Government has been urged to appoint a victims\u2019 commissioner and set up a body to investigate Troubles-related killings in Ireland.<\/p>\n
A senior researcher on the legacy of Northern Ireland\u2019s Troubles said the government should also establish a Victims Forum for victims and survivors.<\/p>\n
Dr Thomas Leahy, a British and Irish politics lecturer at Cardiff University, appeared before an Oireachtas committee today.<\/p>\n
He laid out a number of recommendations following his research into how the government has dealt with Northern Ireland and the conflict legacy.<\/p>\n
Among those was for the State to set up a mechanism similar to the Historical Investigations Unit (HIU) in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
He said that the research suggests that the Irish government has taken some steps towards dealing with conflict legacy since 1998, but added that more needs to be done to meet the needs of victims and survivors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland has faced external challenges to progressing specific legacy cases,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese include Brexit, the UK authorities\u2019 lack of cooperation at times and the collapse of power-sharing in Northern Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n
He urged the Irish government to assist victims and survivors in their search for justice, truth and closure, ensure public confidence in the government and enhance British and Irish relations by co-operating on conflict legacy.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe Irish government should parallel the Historical Investigations Unit in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlternatively, they should create an oversight committee, body or appoint and reappoint a victims\u2019 commissioner for the Republic of Ireland; create a Citizens Assembly or Victims Forum in Ireland to ensure maximum engagement with victims and survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also recommended that the government should hold an annual remembrance day related to the Troubles alongside the British and Northern Ireland authorities.<\/p>\n
Margaret Urwin, of Justice for the Forgotten, said the campaign group has \u201cconsistently argued\u201d that the government\u2019s failure to establish its own HIU or a similar body discriminates against families of victims here.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Oireachtas committee on the Good Friday Agreement, she said: \u201cAll victims of the conflict should be treated equally.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also said that Dr Leahy\u2019s recommendation to reappoint a victims\u2019 commissioner \u201cwould be a very positive move\u201d as it would provide victims with an opportunity to discuss all issues of concern.<\/p>\n
Dr Leahy told the committee that people in Britain have taken an interest in Northern Ireland\u2019s conflict again because of Brexit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an interest again in the Troubles and about affairs and relations between Ireland and the UK because of Brexit and I think there\u2019s an opportunity there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also expressed concern about amnesty for British troops who served in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
He said that none of the victims and survivors groups he spoke to supported this move.<\/p>\n
He added that amnesty could \u201cdisempower\u201d families and \u201cre-traumatize\u201d people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not good that organisations who are supposed to abide by the rule of law can therefore have amnesties in place, it would set a precedent,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you start passing amnesties for some groups and not others you are going to end up with second-class victims and survivors and also a hierarchy of perpetrators.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important in public confidence and relations between these isles that there\u2019s a whole process where victims have an opportunity to hold people to account if they wish to do so or at least find out the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said that providing services to support mental and physical health should be the \u201cabsolute priority\u201d for both governments.<\/p>\n