Editorial: Documentary into IRA Niedemayer murder brings some balance to the catalogue of films about the Troubles

There are many reasons why the story of the Troubles has been turned away from the truth that calculating Irish republican terrorists killed by far the most people.​

There has been an educational failure to bring balance to the past, a legal failure, a political failure and a governmental one. But a key factor in how legacy has been distorted is the proliferation of documentaries and other media investigations which have focused on allegations against UK state forces rather than on terrorists. It is no wonder that young people increasingly think the IRA was necessary.

Now a documentary brings some balance to the catalogue of films on the past .It is called 'Face Down', and it looks at the murder of a German businessman in west Belfast, Thomas Niedermayer, 45. He was abducted from his family, killed and his body dumped.

David Blake Knox’s film, which screens at the Queen’s Film Theatre this coming week, tells the story of the managing director of the Grundig factory in Belfast, a civilised man who made Northern Ireland his home, also becoming West German honorary consul for NI.

We have reported on other little-known consequences of IRA killings, for example the story of Isobel Beckett, who stopped eating after her RUC husband Harry was shot dead in 1990, and she died months later of a broken heart. This new film charts how Mr Niedermayer's wife Ingeborg killed herself, then their daughters Renate and Gabrielle, then Gabrielle’s widower Robin Williams-Powell.

Niedermayer's murder was orchestrated by Brian Keenan, who worked under him. Keenan would not have faced proper justice if he was still alive due to the UK-Ireland de facto amnesty for IRA leaders. Many fine people were killed by their order or even their hand. The makers of this film do a service to history by telling the story of one such victim.