Just over a week ago the main Unionist party’s representatives, past and present, lined up to make scathing and crass attacks on the family of Pat Finucane. It followed the secretary of states’ decision that a full public inquiry would not be held at this time.
Whilst Nigel Dodds focused on well-rehearsed “whataboutery”, Peter Robinson was “concerned about the cost and its impact for other local schemes” – money and “schemes” of course are always a primary focus for the DUP.
Sammy Wilson on the other hand directed attention to other members of the Finucane family and their links to “terrorist activity”. Sammy seemed to be blissfully unaware that until recently one of his fellow MP’s was Emma Little Pengelly – whose father was a convicted loyalist terrorist. I wonder would he apply the same logic if she was murdered?
Sammy & Nigel’s own links to Ulster Resistance would be well worth a detailed look also. Self-deception appears to be the only thing that separates “terrorist activity” and some of DUP figures.
But most offensive of all was all three representatives’ reference to other victims of violence who have never been able to get any justice. Indeed, Nigel went further and listed several high-profile deaths including solicitors and judges who were murdered by the IRA.
A little bit of research, however, will show that never once in all the time
over the years since those murders have the DUP called, or indeed fought for, any kind of additional inquiry or
investigation into any of those atrocities.
Furthermore, in nearly all the cases listed by Dodds in the House of Commons, not one of the families were consulted or asked for their opinion on the Pat Finucane case. Mr Dodds may be surprised to learn that some of those victims’ families totally oppose the DUP’s position on the Pat Finucane case.
But rather than seek their opinion the DUP reps, not for the first time, jumped on the backs of innocent victims to try and gain some sort of political victory over “themuns”.
Even by Northern Ireland standards, it was deplorable.
Despite Dodds’s attempts, there are few that would argue Edgar Graham’s murder was any less grotesque and wrong than Pat Finucane’s. And both deserve full truth and justice. The only difference is the DUP have failed their electorate in fighting for that truth and justice.
Neither the DUP, nor any of its party members seek today or any other day inquiries into what happened on any side. Why? Because the TRUTH would have the potential not only to destroy power-sharing at Stormont but the very Union itself.
How would people feel if they were to know that the State oversaw the planning and execution of hundred of murders throughout Northern Ireland via their State agents? How would they feel if it emerged that people were sacrificed – policemen, soldiers, civilians – so that state agents would remain protected?
It is a common belief that by the early ‘90s the state had infiltrated all the
paramilitary groups here to a significant level via informers and agents. In
fact, many Unionist reps wear it as a badge of honour.
But flip that around – what does that mean? Were people “allowed” to die to protect agents?
Could Enniskillen have been prevented in the same way Loughinisland could have been? Could Edgar Graham’s death have been prevented in the same way as Pat Finucane’s could have been?
The DUP have a long record of blackening the names of innocent victims through “parliamentary privilege” and through the media over the years – it makes their case for blocking justice at a later stage more justifiable and ensures their followers follow suit.
These same Unionist reps dragged the families of Bloody Sunday, Ballymurphy, McGurk’s Bar & the Reaveys through the mud in futile attempts to generate support for blocking truth and justice and add a cloud of suspicion over innocent people.
It is the same with the Finucane family today.
The
truth though, as difficult as it may be, has a habit of emerging. Even in
Northern Ireland. Perhaps there is some foundation in the quote “The first
reaction to truth is hatred”.
Perhaps If the DUP and other senior Unionists sat down and spoke to these
victims and indeed to the wider Unionist community and began fighting for truth
and justice for those people, maybe they would not be left on the wrong side of
history and justice time and time again.
It is fast becoming less about dealing with the past and more about dealing with the present. Truth never damages a cause that is just.
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