Letter: Terrorists watch with glee as the government lets the truth of the Troubles be turned on its head

​Terrorist glee as the truth is being turned on its head

The recent comments from the Northern Ireland Secretary of State Mr. Heaton-Harris on the government’s Troubles Legacy and Reconciliation Bill are laughable.

Mr Heaton-Harris has said that if any perpetrator does not co-operate with the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) or perjures themselves or lies to the commission then there are penalties commensurate with that.

When I heard him utter the word penalties, the ludicrous image of a queue of perpetrators lining up and being nominated to take penalties in the latest world cup matches came into my head.

I’m sure perpetrators must be quaking in their retirement boots and losing sleep in their cosy beds.

The possibility of getting a knock on the door and there on the doorstep is Mr. Heaton-Harris dressed in his referee outfit, whistle in hand and fumbling in his shirt pocket. Will he produce a slap on the wrist yellow card or will it be the dreaded red card. Or will he ask for VAR clarification.

That is how shambolic this whole approach to legacy has become under this government who treat victims and their families as just insignificant spectators and fools.

Well, Mr Heaton-Harris we are not fools and we are not mere spectators. We are long-suffering grieving families who are determined that the truth must be told. Not some sham amnesty that will allow manipulating devious perpetrators to come forward with some half-truth to be handed a yellow amnesty card and know that they will never see that dreaded red card ever produced during the remaining years of their cosy lives. They will know that they literally have got away with murder.

And let’s be realistic. Do you think any self-respecting terrorist is likely to worry about not co-operating with your ICRIR Truth Commission?

I’m sure many of them have watched your government’s shambolic attempts with glee over the years. Watching truth and justice being twisted and turned on its head to ensure that the lid on the Troubles legacy can of worms is kept firmly shut.

I am realistic enough now in my 73rd year to know that the likelihood of me seeing anyone stand in a courtroom or sitting in a prison cell for the murder of my brother John in 1988 is remote.

I am also realistic enough to know that I may not live long enough to see the killer of my brother ever charged and indeed that person could also die of natural causes before he gets any knock on his door. I can reluctantly accept those facts of life.

What I will not accept and no decent democratic government should ever accept is that someone can be granted an amnesty for killing another human being no matter what the reason or who carried out that murder.

If evidence can be found that any person wilfully and deliberately killed someone else then the full force of justice should be used to charge that person. No matter who that person is. No-one should be above the law.

And there can be no time limit ever put on when a perpetrator gets away with murder. That knock at their door must live with them until their own dying day.

Mr. Heaton-Harris has stated that he is still thinking about this legacy bill and that it is incumbent on him to get it right.

Let me help you Mr. Heaton-Harris. Scrap this disgusting, shameful amnesty and treat victims and their families with the dignity they deserve and stop pandering to perpetrators.

George Larmour, Author, ‘They Killed the Ice Cream Man’