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ANDRÉE MURPHY: Commissioners have never once delivered

IN 2001 I had the privilege of standing in the Relatives for Justice office as families received word of the legal ground shifting in Europe. The late Hugh Jordan, with his wife Theresa, came in. Parents of Pearse, killed by the RUC on the Falls Road, Theresa looked at me and asked “Did we win?” and I couldn’t speak. Yes, yes, she had won. They, with families from Tyrone, Lurgan and Castlederg had put the legal system for victims of state violence and collusion on trial and Europe agreed – Britain was systemically failing them under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. They had set up the system to fail these families. In the intervening years, families have come to use the term Article 2 as shorthand. Shorthand for fairness, justice and their rights. If a process is Article 2-compliant it will work in their interest, if it is not Article 2-compliant it will operate to deny victims their rights. While the sharp end of Article 2 is about victims of state actions, it operates to serve all victims, no matter where they come from or who killed their loved ones. Look at the inquest of the victims of shoot to kill. It has not been heard yet, but the coroner, because of disclosure he has already received, has reopened the inquest of three RUC officers killed by the IRA in Kinnego. When justice is blind it serves all. That is precisely why the British Government is acting with menace against victims this week. Their determination to deny victims a participative, rights-compliant investigation is an attempt to revert to their good old bad days. The days when families turned up to inquests, without legal representation, to hear the state ask for public interest immunity certificates, to not hear those responsible compelled, to hear regurgitated lies proposed as official accounts, to come away feeling like they had been whitewashed with state impunity. Make no mistake this new process to “deal with the past” is state impunity whitewash, with the insult and spin of being “in victims’ interests”. Of course, Stormont House was imperfect – it left victims in the south and those with serious injuries out in the cold, for God’s sake. But this is worse. Serving no-one is worse. Pretending that the worries about Stormont House were unfixable with goodwill and a victim-centred approach serves the intentions of those abusing those failings to introduce this slap in the face to victims. In the coming days the pup will be put on sale. We will be asked to trust appointed commissioners. We will be told they will investigate. We will be told that reconciliation will be built. Appointed commissioners have never delivered to victims and survivors. None of them. The proposed investigations lack police powers or mandates, their purpose is to provide paper-based reports – families are sick to the back teeth of impunity-framed paper reviews instead of truth and justice. Reconciliation will never be built through the denial of basic human rights and the abuse of memory and truth. Families have been left behind in this peace process. There were given cursory acknowledgement in the Good Friday Agreement. They have since been cast as the uncomfortable visitors. This legislation perpetuates that treatment. It cannot stand.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: A historic opportunity to reimagine agreement

THE fierce and powerful Maya Angelou came to mind this week as last week’s election results transformed the political landscape. We have lived a painful history,we know the shameful past,but I keep on marching forward,and you keep on coming last. Our two islands’ future was changed by the results last week. Irish and British citizens in this jurisdiction voted incontrovertibly for the Good Friday Agreement and all of the international agreements upon which our peace relies. Stormont House, the NDNA and yes, the Protocol. A republican party led the way. Citizens voted in hundreds of thousands for a future based on human rights and equality, where we resolve our differences in negotiation and through law. Sadly, there is currently a disproportionate focus on the convulsions of those who refuse to face the present or the future. The DUP, TUV and LCC axis of the past resides in the place where they think saying NO and NEVER will garner them a better future, despite the lessons of the past 25 years.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: A new Executive post-election is possible

IT’S very strange when the calm before the storm is an election campaign. In fact, the election campaign calm seems to have been between the political storms. This time last year the DUP was in the middle of its nervous breakdown, ousting Arlene Foster, electing Edwin Poots, ousting Poots and anointing Jeffrey Donaldson. Simultaneously Michelle O’Neill became the de facto First Minister as poor old Paul Givan was shoved into the First Minister role that neither new leader wanted. Which now seems kind of strange given the way the election debate has unfolded and the DUP’s focus on Sinn Féin achieving that very role. Violence hit the streets as the rhetoric on the Protocol ratcheted up. But the violence was quickly dealt with and ordinary people gave it short shrift. Any allegations that there are fever pitch tensions were quickly disproved as young people did not join in and went about their business. Protocol marches on Friday nights were mooted as being the sign of Carson’s second coming. It turns out it was only the second coming of weird fringe English Brexiteers and wannabe cowboys and no momentum came from it. The context could have led us to believe that the election campaign would be a bit of a nightmare, but it wasn’t to be. Political unionism continued to get media attention and concerns regarding the Brexit Protocol were inflated to epic proportions. However, all of the opinion polls demonstrated that much of that media was missing the electorate’s emphasis.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Maria and Willie’s 25 years of broken promises

THERE are some weeks when perspective is handed to us, and we are granted the opportunity of genuine reflection. This was one such week, but it brings great pain.Willie Loughran and Maria McShane passed away within days of each other. From very different backgrounds they did not have an obvious connection, but those of us who knew them have been heartbroken at the untimely passing this week of two citizens whose joint enterprise inspired us. Willie’s brother, John, was killed with five other men by the British Army in the New Lodge in 1973. Both Willie’s mother and John were heroes trying to save the men who were being shot at by British army snipers and killed in their own streets that night. John was killed just feet away from safety. Willie Loughran spent his entire life seeking justice for his brother. Despite the ineffective investigations and outright lies in the media Willie remained optimistic and was instrumental in a community inquiry into the deaths of the New Lodge Six, as they are now known, and worked to secure the fresh inquest into the killings which was ordered after he was part of outlining the failings of previous investigations to the Attorney General. Willie would regularly speak at legacy events but he would not speak about himself or even his own case, he would speak to encourage us all, families, supporters and friends, to keep going. He would take the time to thank those who created spaces for victims and survivors and those who participated in those spaces. His motivating contributions gave many courage and positivity when things were bleak – and God knows Willie saw bleak times. Willie wanted equality for all victims. He wanted all victims to have equal human rights and equal access to truth and justice. He made us all want to be better and those of us lucky to know him were always glad to have had him at our side. Maria McShane’s son Gavin was 17 when he was killed on his way to school by the Mid-Ulster UVF. The eldest of three, Gavin’s loss was to define the rest of Maria’s life. She was to become one of the most steadfast campaigners for truth and justice on this island, even travelling to the White House to speak with Bill Clinton. She was ferocious in her quest for justice for Gavin. She lost an eye in the Step Inn Bar explosion, a bomb planted by the infamous state death squad, the Glenanne Gang. She miraculously survived, as did her unborn baby, Gavin. To lose what she called her miracle baby 17 years later to the latest incarnation of state collusion was cruelty beyond repair. Willie and Maria supported the Good Friday Agreement, yet our peace did not deliver the most fundamental of human rights to them in their lifetimes. They were to live 25 years supporting a peace agreement that did not secure truth and justice for their brother and son. Willie and Maria deserved to be beneficiaries of our peace, instead they were treated as second class citizens with second class human rights. Those of us who bore witness to their courage and example have only one choice now, we must see through the campaigns to which they were forced to dedicate their lives, securing equality of truth and justice for all families.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Lay the ghosts of the past and ensure hope wins

HOW important is your vote next week? It is the difference between hope and despair, my friends. Imagine if on the night of the sixth of May a rainbow of inclusive politics has defeated the tawdry hopelessness of political unionism? And imagine the opposite. Our votes will change which night we have. The island of Ireland is in a period of change, unseen since partition. But this peaceful revolution has had foundations built from a process of 30 years of the Irish people reclaiming their identity after the consequences of the trauma of 1916 to 1923. Like the Gaelic Revival period was needed before 1916, the past 30 years have been needed for the context of today. Whether we think about the social revolution on this island over the past 30 years, where we have gone from a place where divorce was unavailable to those trapped in marital misery, women and girls went on boats and planes to England for healthcare in lonely heartache, the LGBTQ community lived lives of inequality and illegality, and single mothers were asked to consider going into laundries; or we think about the peace process, where we have gone from a conflict raging on the island where the “Long War” seemed more like the unendable war, and the policy of collusion wreaked escalating destruction. Only the brave few spoke of peace, voices which risked being drowned out by the sound of gunfire. The journey of the past 30 years on this island, where the light was at last let in, while undoubtedly imperfect, sometimes seems miraculous. And, it has led us to today, where fundamental change is possible. Will we self-determine our future, or will we be forever tied to the yoke of Westminster? The vote next week will not be the last say to that question – far from it – but it could be defining. If next week the parties that stood up to the Tories and said no to Brexit come out in the majority, that will change the conversation regarding the Protocol and the future trading arrangements of this island. If next month nihilistic unionism is relegated to the minority elected position many of us think is the will of the people, we will govern ourselves in our own interest and will not be dragged back to the past. The Friday night marching seances in unionism’s market town’s trying to waken the ghost of Carson and his army will be given their democratic answer. Unionism will be forced into the realisation that its future lies not with a perpetually betraying London, but on this island with friends and relations and shared history. If there is a majority vote for the progressives, those who want to engage with current day challenges, and a shared future across this island and with our partners in Europe, with human rights protecting us all, if we vote for those parties who defend our rights, rather than allow London to tear them up, then the future is ours to grasp. The island of Ireland is ready to make lasting peace based on mutual respect, make compromises secure in its people’s talents, build anew with all of our identities, old and new. In many ways the hard miles have been run. All we have to do is vote for it, and let hope win.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Yes, crossover conversations are possible

I AM consistently amazed at the idea that politics and political aspiration are reduced in some commentary to a zero sum game. If you were to believe some of the commentary you would believe that there are only three political conversations happening here and that the three have no crossover or parallel capacity. If you are unionist then apparently you are either interested in British identity affected by the Brexit agreement protocol or you are interested in the cost of living and the health service. If you are nationalist/republican you are only interested in a border poll or you are interested in the cost of living and the health service. This is of course an old trope, dressed up in 2022 clothes and bears little resemblance to political reality or challenge. For how many years were we told day-to-day “bread and butter” politics mattered more to “the people”, so Stormont had to survive to meet these needs and ignore the denial of basic cultural and civic human rights by DUP veto? We woke up in 2017 to find out that actually people cared about all of those things and that they crossed over. Stormont became unsustainable under the weight of the denial of human rights and when the Stormont camel’s back was collapsed by the straw of the RHI scandal all of those basic matters bubbled to the surface. It was not that the centre could not hold – it was that extremist DUP bad faith was taking a daily kango hammer to foundation stones of the peace agreement, hollowing out all centrist positions. In 2022 we are being told to put aside all chat about constitutional change because there are bigger crises. Indeed, some interpreted Michelle O’Neill’s comments about her immediate focus being on the challenges facing the poorest in our society as being a move away from Irish unity. It is interesting that many of those who used her words to say Irish unity has suffered a setback, are pro-British union. Often the motivation of those who ask us to choose between “cost of living and health” and the constitutional question are adamant that the constitutional status quo is maintained. They wish to pretend that pursuing constitutional change is wrong, rather than a protected part of the Good Friday Agreement, or indeed the potential answer to many of the challenges we face. The truth is that the Health Service is broken in the North. In the South there are systemic problems. Bringing an all island, best practice and patient-focused approach to health care on the entire island is an answer. The cost-of-living crisis on both sides of the border requires immediate intervention. London will not protect our poor, they never have, as the “UK” list of most deprived areas routinely evidences.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Hypocrisy hangs heavy as the world speaks out

THE news from Ukraine is unrelentingly grim. At the weekend the experiences in Bucha, outside Kyiv, were revealed to include the most serious crimes. There are bodies of civilians lying on streets and in mass graves to suggest the systematic targeting, torture and execution of civilians and there are repeated and credible testimonies of sexual violence. These are all war crimes and rest under international law. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky held an emotional press conference where he made claims of genocide. Of course, if you are standing in a small town seeing the horror of what unfolded there it must feel justified to run the claims to the max, but hyperbole doesn’t help.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: We all know where Protocol trajectory lands

BEFORE the van was driven in, nothing seemed particularly different. Irish Ministers for Foreign Affairs have long come north to speak to building peace. Catholics have, even at the height of conflict, always been able to attend Mass, undisturbed, in Holy Cross on the Crumlin Road. A family had just arrived to say their goodbyes in a sacred funeral ritual inside the church. The peace centre was hosting a meeting with the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney. So ordinary was this entire scene there was little security presence or measures in place. The eyewitness reports talk of a man, shaking and distressed, driving his van into the consecrated grounds. He believed that his van contained a bomb after he had been hijacked at gunpoint and a gas canister placed inside. The peace centre in those grounds was the apparent target of those who told him to drive there, or his family would be hurt. All of a sudden, everything changed. The Minister was silenced and driven away. The good people who had come to listen and contribute to peace and reconciliation were evacuated. The elderly priests who call Holy Cross their home were evacuated and a grieving family had to change how they said goodbye, as Father John Craven heroically turned the pavement outside the security cordon into a Mass Rock and continued with what could be salvaged of the funeral mass. No one really needed to ask who. We all knew that this was the rhetoric of hate morphing into inevitable violence. Simon Coveney, and the Irish Government, have become totemic for the baying mobs of anti-Protocol nihilists; this crowd that want the benefits of a peace agreement without owning the responsibilities that accompany it; that promoted Brexit, despite our peace agreement; that pursued the hardest Brexit possible, deaf to the consequences of any such actions; that now wish to pretend that the Protocol was devised in Dublin to harm ‘Britishness’, rather than recognise it for what it is – an imperfect trade agreement between the UK Government and the EU to protect peace on the island of Ireland. An agreement which was a last resort as a direct consequence of Britain’s hard Brexit. The Irish Government, Irish Ministers, the peace agreement and Irishness itself have all been wrapped into one big straw man for this brand of unionism to attack. The reasoning bears little scrutiny, but that does not stop the rhetoric or the incitement. Last Friday night, hours after the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs was silenced through the use of threat and violence, there was a speech delivered in Ballymoney by a loyalist without a mandate. “As for the Irish Government, keep your covetous nose out of the internal affairs of our country. You are neither wanted nor welcome in this sovereign territory.”

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Donaldson report deserves our attention

THE Police Ombudsman released a report last week which did not get the attention it deserves.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: How fake news led to loss of my Israeli friendships

FOLLOWING World Wars I and II many European Jews found refuge from discrimination and pogrom in Ireland. They also found plenty of anti-semitism and sometimes violent resistance to their search for refuge.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Women need more action and fewer memes

INTERNATIONAL Women’s day has been happening every year since the days of the Suffragettes but really has only come to common currency in recent years. As the third wave of feminism became trendy, with T-shirts and merchandise opportunities everywhere, wishing people a happy International Women’s Day has become a great day for memes, words of intent and all round aren’t-women-great sentiment. All of which is fine. Except women’s actual experience and lives kind of make it all a little shallow. The sentiment and lovely sharing of values is genuine. But the companies that send out the merch are often paying women really rubbish wages on really rubbish unpensioned salaries. Women coming to retirement age can expect company pension schemes to be 41 per cent of what their male colleagues will retire on due to the compromises women make in their careers to raise their families. COP21 barely mentioned the impact of climate change on women. Women are worse affected by all economic, health and environmental crises and yet there is no dedicated approach to scrutinising these impacts through gender lenses. Women affected by conflict are particularly disadvantaged. Due to the nature of armed conflicts and the traditional roles we adopt, women and men will often experience the same conflict, and even the same incidents, very differently. Just look at Ukraine at the minute for the most obvious and depressing example. Images of men putting women and children on to trains in their thousands are being broadcast across the world with little question of why this gender differential is happening. Hundreds of thousands of women in a moment are becoming sole parents and carers for elderly or disabled relatives, and homeless refugees.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Current refugee crisis exposes some ugly truths

IN this past week there have been many references to World War II. Many of the takes centre on justification for military actions in the face of a military invasion of one country by another. Some of these even try to co-relate 2022 politics in Ukraine and Russia to Operation Barbarossa and its aftermath. It is clearly an era some relish and revel in. What is not so focused is the outcome of a war that would change geo-political landscapes and the sense of ourselves as co-habiting human beings forever. The Second World War was to see a barbarism never witnessed before, in terms of military capacity to target and annihilate civilian populations. Whether it was the use of Zyklon B to facilitate mass exterminations in Auschwitz or the use of firebombs over the city of Dresden or the use of atomic bombs against the civilian populations of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, that war created an environment which saw in its aftermath an emergence of international laws so that civilian populations could be protected and disputes, no matter how intractable, would be settled through law.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Last stand at the snowy Markethill Alamo

HAVE they no torch lights in Markethill? On a cold Friday night marching with the brethren surely they would have given a great and fitting glow to the pageant of anti-Protocol unionism gathered in large numbers. Most of us not of an Orange Order persuasion awoke on Saturday morning to social media scenes of the East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson being booed off the stage. With the eerie ghost of the UUP office behind the stage, as Sammy got up to speak about the need for unionist unity in the face of the “Irish Sea border”, Sammy was subjected to taunts of “traitor”, “Lundy”, “disgrace” and “Away back to Sinn Féin”. Such was the ire of the crowd, Jim Allister had to jump in and appeal for calm. It is always hard to tell when Mr Allister is smiling, laughing or snarling, so his tone was too enigmatic to discern. But suffice to say Mr Wilson has not been so lost or exposed since the day he lost his boxers in a field in France.

BOOKS: Groundbreaking work writes women back into Irish history

Unmanageable Revolutionaries by Margaret Ward. Published by Arlen House.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: US solidarity must be a lesson for Dublin too

THIS week marks the 33rd anniversary of the murder of human rights solicitor Pat Finucane by loyalists acting on the direction of the British state. It is easy to take those words for granted but look at their enormity. In 1989 a sovereign state, a founding nation of the international human rights covenants, procured and covered up the murder of an officer of the courts who was causing them discomfort. In that attack his wife Geraldine, the mother of their three children, was also shot. From that moment on Geraldine became a warrior for truth and justice, taking on the might of a British Government, coping with the effects of her own trauma and raising her young family whose home and safety had been violated by this evil. It was entirely fitting that Geraldine Finucane should be at the heart of this week’s United States Congressional hearing on dealing with the past, where the United States are standing up and listening to the cries for support of victims and survivors. It stands in marked contrast to Leinster House where a weird climate prevails of policy support for the Stormont House Agreement, but alongside a wariness of victims and survivors themselves. This caginess creates a less than effective defence of victims’ rights.

Gaelic Games: Antrim U20 hurlers set for Laois test in Leinster

Gaelic Games: Antrim football divisions beginnning to take shape with full programme on Sunday

United Rugby Championship: Ulster fix gaze on Bulls after Stormers frustration

Irish Cup: Cliftonville and Crusaders target their place in the final

WE SAY: Violence was entirely inevitable

IRISH MUSIC SCENE: Lemonade Shoelace experience the musicians’ high-life in Mexico

MIKE TOMLINSON: Fall-out from war will be felt keenest by less well-off

ARTS: Past rears ugly head as communities gather to build bridges

Andrée Murphy

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