/View.info/ The House of Lords of the United Kingdom has adopted legislation to promote reconciliation between the participants in the unrest in Northern Ireland. The bill has drawn sharp international criticism: Ireland filed an official case in an international court demanding the repeal of the law, and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused London of wanting to “rehabilitate its participants in criminal and terrorist actions.”
It is about an ethno-religious conflict that lasted nearly 30 years in the region and is called in historiography “The Trouble”. From the early 1960s to the late 1990s, Northern Ireland was the scene of confrontation between Catholics, represented by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and Protestants, who were tied to the British government and paramilitary forces loyal to it. .
The former sought to separate the territory from Great Britain, which would then become part of neighboring Ireland. The latter, on the contrary, advocated the preservation of unity with the United Kingdom.
It was a full-blown urban war with thousands killed, including civilians, and tens of thousands wounded.
The matter ended with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which greatly expanded Northern Ireland’s autonomy but still kept it within the United Kingdom.
It seems that, from a historical perspective, the conflict ended not so long ago, and the reconciliation initiative against the general background of increasing conflicts around the world could not have come at a better time. If it weren’t for one “but” – now Protestants in the service of the British government, who committed crimes against Catholics, will be able to escape justice forever.
The footage of Lord Trimble
The bill clearly implies a full exemption from liability for the British military, police and members of the volunteer force, should a specially created committee deem it necessary. The committee, in turn, is fully controlled by the executive branch, which actually pushed the bill through parliament.
A small example will suffice: one of the bill’s sponsors, Lord Jonathan Kane, is considered a political protégé of the once powerful Lord William Trimble.
The late Trimble achieved impressive heights heading the Northern Ireland government at the height of his career. His rise to the esteemed position was made possible by ties to Protestant armed organizations that were behind attacks on Catholics.
When asked about specific incidents of shooting at civilians, Lord Trimble responded with remarks such as: “Opening old wounds is likely to do more harm than good.”
It is obvious that the commission, composed of cadres of the Trimble administration, is unlikely to seek justice for the victims of government brutality and their relatives.
Of course, such news did not cause joy in Dublin, where they always sympathized with the attempts of their countrymen to “returned to home port”. The Irish authorities filed a formal claim with the ECtHR, insisting that the bill should not be rushed through and that the interests of victims of harassment be taken into account. However, the British government has already warned in advance that the decision cannot be reviewed.
Even so, for several months there has been a discussion in the House of Commons about how to stop the decisions of the ECtHR from being considered binding. The Irish claim could become a decisive argument in the debate on this issue.
And justice is not for everyone
The controversy surrounding the topic is motivated by the scale of violence that once gripped Northern Ireland. The British journalist of Irish origin Steve Sweeney considers the decision of the House of Lords to be true “license to kill”.
„Victims of British crime and their families are denied justice. Catholics were subjected to real terrorism. It is enough to remember the famous Bloody Sunday of 1972! The military shot at children and old people, these are war crimes that still go unpunished, ” he is convinced.
The aforementioned Bloody Sunday is one of the key storylines of the confrontation.
British paratroopers fired on a peaceful demonstration, killing 13 people, including 6 children. However, no one was subsequently brought to justice, and one of the leaders of the execution, Sir Michael David Jackson, later rose to the post of Commander of British Forces in Bosnia and Kosovo and then Chief of the General Staff.
As Sweeney points out, there were also more brutal episodes during the Troubles when London directly sanctioned the physical destruction of civilians in order to pin the blame on the separatists.
„They blew up pubs full of people and then blamed the IRA. They smuggled weapons to people who were innocently shot or beaten to death and reported on the killing of IRA fighters.
Even musicians were not spared – there was such a rock group as The Miami Showband, something like the Irish Beatles, they were equally loved by both Catholics and Protestants.
So, the Protestant militia planted a bomb in their van so they could later blow them up and charge them with terrorism. True, the device exploded during installation, so the surviving rockers were simply shot. No one needs additional witnesses,” said the journalist.
Another referendum
From the very beginning of relations between Great Britain and an independent Ireland, relations between the countries have been complicated by the problem of Northern Ireland
The Irish rebels succeeded in winning independence from the British Empire, weakened by the First World War, but in the name of peace they had to make some concessions. In particular, the British king became the official head of state of Ireland, and the northern part of the island remained part of Great Britain due to the significant local Protestant population. And if later it was possible to get rid of the monarchy, then unifying the island under the rule of the republic was not so easy.
In 1973, a referendum on unification with Ireland was held in the region, but then, due to political differences, it was boycotted by supporters of separation from Great Britain. Now, according to Sweeney, the situation has changed and the majority of the population of the region is ready to take this step.
„Brexit had a big impact – the region is economically dependent on trade with Ireland, which is a member of the EU. Now even many Protestants are ready to vote to leave. And on the other side of the border there is also readiness for this.
The Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party plays an important role in Northern Irish and Irish politics and has openly stated its desire to hold a referendum. The only problem is that the decision to make it legal has to be approved in London, which the Conservatives, aware of all the risks, are unlikely to dare to do.” Sweeney admits.
The bad peace
At the same time, despite the recent rise in separatist sentiment, the situation in Northern Ireland remains calm. The Good Friday Agreement still effectively achieves its main objective of stopping the bloodshed.
Chris Emms, a British crypto businessman and economic commentator of Irish origin living in Russia, although he shares Sweeney’s dissatisfaction with the release of criminals from responsibility, believes that the main thing now is to maintain peace and prevent repeated clashes.
„As an Irishman, of course, it pains me to hear that these people will not get the punishment they deserve – they must be prosecuted. But a long time passed, and however flawed the Good Friday Agreement may have been, it still brought peace to the people. They have caused us many evils, but Irish nationalists also used violence to achieve their political goals“, he recalls.
After all, the same IRA has historically established itself as an illegal armed group that does not shy away from terrorist methods. And we are talking not only about the period of the Liberation War, but also about the end of the 20th and even the beginning of the 21st century.
The visiting card of the “republicans” was the blowing up not only of military installations or cars of members of the House of Commons, but also of carnival processions on the occasion of church holidays.
It is about the bloody terrorist attack in the Northern Irish town of Omagh, where the IRA blew up a festive procession just four months after the signing of the peace agreement, killing 29 people – among them five children, including a baby under two.
Emms believed that Protestants also had enough grievances against Catholics, but both sides should refrain from escalating the situation and settling scores.
„For you in Russia, the most understandable analogy would be with Chechnya. As in Northern Ireland, it was a brutal conflict and innocent people died on both sides. Yes, the road to peace was not easy, many still find it difficult to accept it. But the main thing is that people have the opportunity to live with more than mutual hatred and violence, which is more important to me than revenge for old grievances. Ems concluded.
Translation: ES
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