News that MI5 withheld files from an inquiry into Agent Stakeknife was met with justifiable and widespread criticism.
The PSNI chief constable himself said “there continues to be an unhelpful protectionist approach to disclosure” about the legacy of the conflict. That protectionist approach is not limited to British State agencies.
My father Denis Donaldson was murdered 18 years ago in Donegal. The journal in which my father wrote his final words continues to be withheld by the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, despite An Garda Siochana promising to return it to my family.
Mr Harris has refused point blank to meet with my family. Even today, a two-year old investigation by An Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission into failings by Gardaí in circumstances surrounding my father’s murder is being held up because the Garda Commissioner withholds information from that inquiry.
More: Irish government rejects Denis Donaldson judge-led probe call
The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland concluded a similar investigation in 2022, upholding my family’s complaint under Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights. It declared a “corporate failure” by the British State in relation to my father’s murder.
While an Tánaiste Micheal Martin has insisted that a new approach to legacy cases should be compliant with International Human Rights Law, that has not been my family’s experience since my father’s murder.
Ireland’s Coroner’s Act (1962) predates the European Convention of Human Rights. It is not Article 2 compliant. Under its provisions, the Coroner has postponed my father’s inquest 27 times.
In 2011, both the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) publicly stated their concerns about the conduct of my father’s case. Earlier this year, the NIHRC wrote again to the Coroner to reiterate its concern about my father’s inquest.
For years, letters on behalf of my family to An Taoiseach, An Tanaiste and the Minister for Justice have been ignored.
Only this week, the Irish government finally replied, rejecting the request for an independent cross-border inquiry into the conspiracy surrounding my father’s murder.
No minister has ever met or engaged with my family. A senior Irish parliamentarian told me that there is no political interest in amending the Coroner’s Act to make it Article 2 compliant.
Many families bereaved during the conflict have had similar experiences, managing their loss while also pressing statutory agencies to do their job.
My family’s experience is not exclusive. But others exclude my family’s experience. In my father’s case, the difference is that he was murdered eight years after the Good Friday Agreement. His is one of 164 conflict-related murders since that time.
Neither the Stormont House Agreement nor the ill-fated Legacy Act make any provision for these victims. This is one fact many victims campaign groups and others vocal on the legacy of the past neglect to mention, or continuously and inexplicably ignore.
No Irish Government Minister or Minister in the Northern Ireland Executive wants to tackle the asymmetry in inquest systems and disparity in rights of victims between the south and north.
A victims’ hierarchy already exists. At the bottom are those who were murdered as State Agents, murdered post-Good Friday Agreement, or murdered in the south of Ireland.
My father’s murder meets all three criteria. But contrast his treatment with that of another. Agent Stakeknife was shielded in Belfast before being shepherded to safe haven.
My father was forced to flee and thrown to the wolves. No-one involved, in either jurisdiction, has come clean on this yet.
Where is the evidence of honesty on which truth recovery depends?
Any new process which entrenches that victim hierarchy is one which is bereft of all integrity. The time has come for a complete reset on this island.