Former popular Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Julian Smith recently said to Boris Johnson in PM’s questions in the Commons that Northern Ireland was a “fragile and delicate part of the United Kingdom”.
This is a very accurate summing up with the implication that Northern Ireland has to be handled carefully and demands much sensitivity. The comments came of course in light of the new Bill which will prevent further Troubles victims investigations.
This of course is the last thing victims and their families want. However, is the notion that justice can be done in every case stretching practicality beyond where it will reach?
Some people will have to let go and accept that justice may never be done and of course will never bring their loved one back. In lieu of it however, the development of the Troubles Pension is probably the best way forward.
It is something rather than nothing – an acknowledgement of pain and suffering caused rather than being forgotten about and fobbed off. It’s probably and likely to be the case that the British government cannot investigate and prosecute to exhaustion, every single killing in Northern Ireland to the total satisfaction of victims in the light of viability for the taxpayers which would cost billions and may produce inadequate or no results in many cases.
No government could really if we think about it. Can every single death be painstakingly investigated with the death of hundreds of witnesses and loss of other evidence with the passage of decades? A war took place in Northern Ireland involving thousands of people. Of course Stormont is not there to lobby for legacy initiatives to take place and must wait for the SoS to take decisions, or the lack thereof, because Stormont has gone into blockade mode again.
So cries for justice will almost certainly be far down the priority list. It would seem that the recent fate of Troubles victims and their families in pursuit of justice have fallen into the category of lost causes – with Northern Ireland being the biggest lost cause of all because of failed devolution.
Northern Ireland will continue to degenerate as long as Stormont is idle, or direct rule is not good enough and not so interested in legacy matters. Are the powers that be happy to see the province die from total political suffocation and strangulation while taxpayers get the bills, while their cost of living soars?
MAURICE FITZGERALD
Shanbally, Co Cork
Distorted comments
Obviously stung by my exposure of Sinn Féin’s hypocrisy once again, Tomas O Dubhagain (May 30) attempts to distort what I actually said which was and I quote: “While I would support any other leading Northern Ireland politician’s right to criticise Jeffrey Donaldson in this way, I never fail to be amazed at the hypocrisy of Sinn Féin.”
The number of times that Sinn Féin issues hypocritical statements is endless. They criticised the DUP for collapsing the last assembly institutions, yet prior to the DUP’s irresponsible actions, they had also collapsed the institutions for three years.
The harsh reality is that Sinn Féin and the DUP are both sides of the same extremist coin and both bear direct responsibility for consistently undermining Northern Ireland’s political institutions when it advanced their selfish interests.
The St Andrews Agreement, although well-intentioned, was a fundamental error as it ensured that both the DUP and Sinn Féin would inevitably be the joint first ministers and both would have the powers of veto resulting in the marginalisation of the centre parties.
I hope in the current negotiations that the British and Irish governments in cooperation with Northern Ireland’s political parties replace the St Andrews model with one that facilitates the election of a stable executive involving a coalition of parties that are able to command qualified majority support (on a cross-community basis) from members of the assembly.
JOHN CUSHNAHAN
Lisngry, Co Limerick
Blatant breach of executive competence
Education Minister McIlveen’s conscientious initiative to resource £12 million funding for the ‘school holiday food grant’ is a serious intervention. It blows apart the nonsense that executive ministers cannot spend money when necessary. Bartering the Northern Ireland Protocol for the release of funds to relieve hardships and reduce hospital waiting lists is unethical and verges on political corruption. Under no circumstances can Stormont lurch into the summer recess with parties abdicating their ministerial responsibilities.
Former ministers inform me that there are ‘no legal impediments established which restrict ministers from exercising executive authority under a ministerial directive to draw down funds from the public purse’.
Why therefore is the excellent Health Minister Robin Swann not issuing a directive for funds to reduce waiting lists? Why is the sympathetic Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey not drawing down funds to help the needy and desperately hard pressed? Times are tough for everyone with no apparent easement on the horizon. The pertinent question in people’s minds is which is more important to some ministers, people’s health and recovery and relief for those caught up in devastating hardship or the silly self-perpetuating dictum drama denying funding to be distributed urgently?
When it comes to the public naming those responsible for causing unnecessary suffering to the vulnerable and the sick, people know the culprits and whether they are for or against the protocol, none see any reason for playing politics by withholding £600m in the Department of Finance vaults and messing around with the Chancellor’s £400 autumn hand out. Why is this blatant breach of executive competence not being challenged in court with the Finance Department in the public dock?
DAVID McNARRY
Strangford, Co Down
Dublin’s housing shortage
In order to create space and develop a blighted landscape – that basically is serving no productive usage – can I suggest that the powers that be use the legislation of the state to clear all the lands on either side of the road from the Bluebell Luas stop up to the Red Cow Hotel. They should build public housing and apartments at a reasonable level - say five or six storeys high - to the highest architectural and building quality with all the necessary environmental standards that would surpass anything this state has done since the 1932 government and be the envy of any country. This would enable all who would live there a good transport network to travel into the city.
PAUL DORAN
Clondalkin, Dublin 22
Secretary of State should take control
It is time the Northern Ireland Secretary of State took control of the cost of living problem. The two large parties are the same – stubborn mules – although it is the DUP who are the real villains, out to save Boris Johnson’s skin.
PETER McMANUS
Belfast BT12
