Sir, – The arrest of Gerry Adams undoubtedly marks a very significant moment in Ireland’s history, but it has consequences far wider than Irish history alone.
The PSNI’s successful legal battle in the US to gain access to the Boston College tapes sets an extraordinary precedent. Although the IRA interviews were given under a strict agreement of confidence, not to be released until the interviewees were dead, the information contained within them has now been handed over to police and the police have acted on that information.
In the conflict over our desire to see guilty parties prosecuted for a brutal murder and our duty to preserve the historical record, which is more important? The US courts have decided that justice takes priority over history. But that means that our ability to gain such information in the future has been massively compromised, since no soldier, veteran or freedom fighter can ever give evidence to academics now without fear of being discovered.
In law it is sometimes said that it is better for many guilty men to go free than for one innocent man to be wrongly imprisoned. Would it have been better to let these guilty people go free so that the historical record can be preserved in the future? Yours, etc,
RUTH LAWLOR,
Newtown Hill,
Tramore,
Co Waterford.