SIMON Harris’ ascendancy to the position of Taoiseach was an unlikely rise. The third Taoiseach in one administration in its final months would, on the face of it, deem him a lame duck. But Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have a knack of making the unlikely and improbable likely and probable as they reimagine their position in post-Civil War Irish politics.
Harris had big shoes to fill with Leo Varadkar. Himself a once unlikely Taoiseach, Varadkar was at the helm as modern Ireland faced the existential threats of Brexit, Covid and international inflationary chaos. In that time, he set the standard for a confident Irish patriotism, uninterested in tipping any caps to anyone.
One of the standout moments was taking the interstate case in response to the British government’s Legacy Act. The Irish government recognised the bad faith of the British government, which has acted with disparagement towards the Stormont House Agreement, the European Court of Human Rights and its own Supreme Court in relation to the rights of victims and survivors. They acknowledged the Legacy Act as the ultimate act of betrayal of sovereign obligations.
In the years from 2020, when the Act was first announced, to December 2023, the Irish government, with Simon Coveney, Leo Varadkar and Mícheál Martin, used extensive diplomatic efforts to persuade London to shift its position and outlined that it would have no choice other than to seek remedy on behalf of bereaved families. The idea of an interstate case, promoted early on by Irish America and RFJ, was undoubtedly a last resort, but in December Mícheál Martin announced that this was the course of action which his administration was now forced to take. There was no more tipping of the cap.
What the Labour Party @UKLabour promised to do with the Legacy Act. https://t.co/i53pne9YxO pic.twitter.com/fh8TXGjf2L
— Colin Harvey (@cjhumanrights) August 20, 2024
The administration in London has now changed and there is a manifesto commitment and repeated statements from Keir Starmer and Secretary of State Hilary Benn that the Act will be repealed and replaced. Kind of. That red hot commitment is becoming cooler and cooler, as Hilary Benn has begun to defend Declan Morgan’s ICRIR, is unclear about the inquests which might be allowed to proceed, or restart, and is obscure to say the least about what a consultation on the past will look like.
What exactly does “getting back to the principles of Stormont House” look like if national security prevents independent investigation? Amnesty appears to be off the table, but if the state can protect its own interests throughout any process, there will be little transparent accountability for state actions or, in particular, collusion. The state won’t need an amnesty. The picture is simply outrageously unclear for families and their rights to truth, justice and accountability.
At the weekend Simon Harris told the Irish Times that his administration will withdraw the interstate case in “due course”. That is worrying and premature. Every single British administration has a selfish and strategic protective interest when it comes to the past. It was after all a Labour administration that introduced internment and provided impunity for Ballymurphy and Bloody Sunday. Until there is a coherent, rights-based approach to the past, which includes the Irish government and the parties and has victims and survivors at the heart of a process, the Irish government must remain steadfast in the defence of families’ rights.