Two loyalist youths who firebombed a Catholic church and school for special-needs children were made to repair the damage they caused and meet, for the first time in their lives, the local priest and the schoolchildren, a conference in Dublin heard yesterday.
The conference on "restorative justice" (RJ) was told there was growing support for the concept - which seeks to help victims and make offenders confront and make retribution for their crimes - from government and the churches.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, opening the conference, said he had approved funding of £275,000 for a three-year pilot project on restorative justice. It is being operated by the Tallaght Mediation Service and the Probation and Welfare Service. Another pilot scheme is under way in Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, also welcomed development of the concept of restorative justice. He said there was a trend towards vindictiveness, as a response to crime, rather than a forgiveness which could lead to healing.
A speaker from Northern Ireland referred to a case before a Crown Court where two teenage loyalists responded to the killing of nine Protestants by the IRA in the Shankill Road bombing in 1993 by fire-bombing a Catholic church and special needs school.
Both youths were from respectable families in Co Down and had no criminal records. The court imposed a suspended sentence on the condition that they carry out repairs to the church and school and use money from their own wages to buy toys destroyed in the school. Two Protestant clergy, who gave references in court, were asked to make contact with the local parish priest, the first time there had been any such contact between them.
As a result, the conference heard, the youths escaped lengthy custodial sentences and both benefited from their experience. The head of the school also reported that the children, who had been badly affected by the destruction of their classrooms, benefited from knowing that the youths who were helping to carry out repairs were responsible.
The Minister told the conference that the application of RJ concepts to the area of juvenile justice "is particularly relevant" and the concept would be an important part of proposed new legislation following a fundamental examination and re-evaluation of criminal justice.
"Definitions abound and it is important to seek an agreed set of core values. Whatever those final values may be, my personal view is that they must include dimensions which focus on making sure that the rights of victims are addressed and that offenders are effectively made to confront the consequences of their behaviour."
Dr Connell said: "Restorative justice offers an antidote to the despair which often descends when one talks about crime and punishment. This reflects a widespread acceptance that the traditional response to wrongdoing, namely prison, which is essential in some measure, is itself the cause of many harms."
The one-day conference also heard from Mr Justice Smyth of the Northern Ireland Crown Court. He described the RJ philosophy as one of responsibility, restoration and reconciliation. It required the offender to appreciate the true effect of the crime on his victim; enabled the offender to make good the loss to the community or victim and helped victim and offender accept that the damage had been repaired as well as ensuring that both were re-integrated into the community.
Mr Jim Considine, a leading proponent of RJ from New Zealand, referred to the retributive model of criminal justice as one of the "most failed" processes in history.
Mr Considine said that RJ had been practised in New Zealand since 1989 in the juvenile criminal justice system and results indicated improvements in almost every area from reduction in reoffending to victim satisfaction.