Late August 1994, the Irish Republican Army announced a ceasefire after twenty-five years of armed conflict. A few days later, Michael Longley’s poem, Ceasefire, was published in the Irish Times, the final lines (I get down on my knees and do what must be done/ And kiss Achilles’ hand, the killer of my son) poignantly capturing the challenging, for many unimaginable, path that lay ahead. How do you live in peace after years of violence? What does it look like? What does peace sound like? How do you learn to trust ‘the other’? How is confidence restored within communities among people who feel betrayed by their ‘own’? Must the violent past be faced in order to secure peace, coexistence or forgiveness? And what role, if any, must there be for acknowledgement, responsibility, blame, punishment or justice?
Last week, I was in Northern Ireland working with staff members from WAVE Trauma Centre who are designing a course on peace-building. On Friday, their phones started ringing all at once. It was the press, seeking comment on leaks of the Eames –Bradley Report. Lord Robin Eames and Denis Bradley co-chair the Consultative Group on the Past. Their awesome task is to consult across the community to figure out how to deal with the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland. The report comes out this afternoon, but based on leaks the responses have already started. They are not encouraging.
Representatives of Sinn Fein plan to skip the event. On their website, they write:
"When the Eames/ Bradley Group were first established we expressed serious reservations about the fact that it was being formed and funded by the British government. Any report it makes will go to the NIO (Northern Ireland Office) and they will make decisions on what would happen next. Despite these reservations we did meet the group and encouraged others to do likewise.
"Nationalists and Republicans will not accept the British government attempting to portray themselves as innocent bystanders in this conflict. The British government directly and indirectly through their surrogate murder gangs were active participants in the conflict and any process of truth recovery must reflect that reality.
"The fact that the Eames/Bradley group have decided to exclude the families of those killed through British State violence from today's event adds further to the sense of unease within the broad nationalist community at the direction of this group. Given this snub Sinn Féin will not be attending today's event."
Peter Robinson, the current First Minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said in anticipation of the report:
"As yet, I have not seen a copy of the group's recommendations but media reports on the issue are both disappointing and disturbing.
"Dealing with the legacy of the past is a monumental task. It must to be handled with sensitivity and due care for the needs of innocent victims with the maintenance of justice at its core. We will not allow any whitewashing of the past in order to absolve those guilty of heinous acts carried out against innocent people.
"We will not give our support to any proposal which would blur the line between the terrorist and the innocent victim nor will we accept or endorse the work of any process which would seek to absolve murderers and criminals of their guilt.
" He added: "This process has been a waste of time. The group was urged by the DUP to recognise that Northern Ireland needed an innovative approach to deal with the past, not an imitation process from other conflicts. We will be ensuring that the Government does not insult the innocent victims of terrorism by giving any weight to
these offensive recommendations."
The launch of the report today was met by more anger, primarily focused at the proposal of a £12,000 payment for families of all those killed. Lord Eames refers to the sum as a “recognition payment.”
At the news conference, Eames said, it’s "time for society to take the final step out of conflict by dealing with the legacy of the past." "We know that one size does not fit all and we are not imposing a one size fits all approach.” "But we are recommending... one package that offers many different options for individuals and communities."
Other recommendations include:
- An independent Legacy Commission to last five years with a £100m bursary to tackle the tasks of securing reconciliation, justice and information recovery
- Reconciliation Forum to help the Legacy Commission and the existing Commission for Victims and Survivors for Northern Ireland (CVSNI)
- The nearest relative of each person who died in the conflict should receive a £12,000 "recognition payment"
- A new Review and Investigation Unit to replace the police Historical Enquiries Team and the Police Ombudsman's unit dealing with historical cases
- No new public inquiries
- The Group did not propose an amnesty for crimes linked to the conflict, but recommended the Legacy Commission should make proposals on how a line might be drawn
- An annual Day of Reflection and Reconciliation and a shared memorial to the conflict
It’s far easier to break things than to put them back together. Reconstruction and repair require imagination, hope and a leap of faith as well as a huge dose of patience and pragmatism. So, after mass violence, what do you think it takes to “make things good again”? What are the necessary ingredients? What would you recommend?
--Karen Murphy, Facing History
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