Sir, – Andy Pollak (Weekend Review, October 26th) writes, “The Government of the Republic should stay out of thorny issues such as ‘dealing with the past’,” and that any “compromise” was merely for the satisfaction of “tribal leaders in the North”.
In doing so, Mr Pollak ignores the fact that Dáil Eireann passed an all-party motion in 2006 calling on the British government to establish an independent public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane and collusion between Britain and loyalist paramilitaries in the killing. To date, this remains Irish Government policy. It is affirmed at every opportunity by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to their British counterparts and rightly so.
The failure to hold an inquiry is a broken promise by the British government and it is right that Ireland should involve itself and hold it to account. Britain would like nothing more than to be rid of its responsibilities. It behoves the Irish Government to ensure they fulfil them.
What is evident here is the extent to which efforts made to address other all-island issues such as energy, health, tourism and investment contrast sharply with the absence of imagination and industry when it comes to the legacy of the past conflict. Despite the position of the British government on the Finucane Inquiry and recent comments by Theresa Villiers MP, the past is unresolved and must be dealt with; and unlawful British state involvement was a significant contributor.
In the era of external management consultancy, it is unsurprising that Britain chooses the option of bringing in Richard Haass from the US to find a solution to this problem. However, this risks abandoning the issue of the past to a process internalised to Northern Ireland and its “tribal leaders”, letting both governments off the hook.
Ignoring the past and simply giving it to an outsider who can be readily blamed for any shortcomings is worse than failure. It is cowardice. It is an abdication of responsibility by all of those involved in and affected by what is undoubtedly the most important issue of the peace process that remains unresolved.
Matters cannot be left as they are; more ingenuity must be shown in how this problem is tackled. The potential consequences of failure are simply too monstrous to calculate. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL FINUCANE,
Arran Quay,
Dublin 7.