Senator Gerard Craughwell - speech from 2 Dec 2020

Leader, following the controversy over Brian Stanley's tweets, a person I believe to be a good and decent man, I've thought long and hard about what I'm about to say this morning. In 40 years of the Northern Irish Troubles, over 3,500 people were killed in conflict. 52% were civilians, 32% were members of the British Security Forces and 16% were members of paramilitary groups. There is no hierarchy in murder. All were needless, all were brutal. Many victims were simply people going about their daily business, just like you and I do on a daily basis. Was the murder of Pat Finucane in 1989 any more terrible than the senseless killing of Jean McConville in 1972? Did the Ballymurphy killings by the Parachute Regiment justify the Narrow Water killings by the Provisional IRA? Collusion is dealt with by the University of Portland Pilot Scholars Report on British Collusion in the War on Terror. It analyses the legal and ethical implications of deploying collusion tactics to defer terrorism. Innist historians such as Ed Maloney and Matthew Teague both discovered by their independent research that British efforts at collusion were arguably illegal and morally unethical. Both found that the British authorities would go to extreme lengths to maintain undercover agents' identities, even to the extent of allowing agents to kill innocent civilians or other intelligence agents in order to remain undercover. British intelligence adopted counter-terrorism measures which included the recruitment and handling of the Provisional IRA and UDA informants. This is collusion in order to infiltrate the paramilitary group's commands' networks. So it seems there was state collusion and state-sponsored collusion. The lawyer Pat Finucane was shot dead in front of his wife and children in Belfast by the UDA hit squad, which included British police and members of the intelligence service. A public inquiry has been denied into this senseless killing. However, was he the only one killed in this way? Is his family the only family entitled to a public inquiry? Members of the security forces were gunned down by members of the IRA. And if we believe the evidence above, I've already adverted to, some of those were British agents. I believe there will never be a public inquiry. No government anywhere in the world will allow such an inquiry, for to do so would be to expose them as terrorists themselves, and similar to the brutal regimes they condemn publicly. Let's not forget there was collusion by the security forces in the Republic. Judge Smithick adverts to the collusion between members of the Gardaí and the IRA, which is most regrettable. It was only a limited case, but nonetheless it happened. If we accept that there will never be a public inquiry, then we must demand the establishment of a truth commission, with full amnesty for all who give witness. We can no longer allow the pain of what went on in Northern Ireland for 40 years to contaminate future generations. Here in the Republic we must move on. We cannot demand that Sinn Féin participate in government in the North, while at the same time describing them of dubious credentials in the South. I've had to put aside my own deep personal hurt with respect to the terrible intimidation my mother and father were subjected to in 1974 as a result of my service in the Royal Irish Rangers. I have to move on. We have to move on. Here in the Republic we must move away from the brand Sinn Féin IRA. We must see Sinn Féin as just another political party, born out of a conflict just like Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. I, and all who seek full reconciliation, must learn to stop thinking of Sinn Féin as being run by an army council, saying that they have not gone away. For their part, Sinn Féin must learn just how deeply offensive some of the poorly thought out statements, comments and tweets that they make, they too must move into the normal political discourse like the rest of us. Leader, I know you and I know Cahirnach, you've done quite a lot of work in this area yourself. We must move on. We must grab peace. Believe me, when I think back to 1974 and how my mother was treated at three and four o'clock in the morning, been walking out of her bed to be told I was shot or I would be shot or they were coming to get me. And it wasn't something trivial because they did take one of my colleagues out of his house in Derry and shot him in Donegal. So, I find it deeply hurtful when I see statements like the statement Brian Stanley put out. I spoke to him about it and I actually fully understand what he was trying to say now. But me fully understanding what he was trying to say in a 180 character tweet is not good enough. They must stop that and we, for our part, must try and put the deep feelings we have about what went on in this country over 40 years behind us. And we must learn to grab peace because if we don't, we'll go back to where we came from. Thank you very much for your forbearance, Cahirnach.