Irish Republican News · November 20, 2021

Tories to hire mercenary academics for history ‘update’

A plan by the British government to craft its own “official history” of the conflict is being described as an Orwellian attempt to cover up the truth of its actions in Ireland.

It was reported at the weekend that British Direct Ruler Brandon Lewis has drawn up proposals to establish a new “historical record” from the 1960s to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

The Telegraph newspaper in London, which has close links to the Conservative Party, reported that the plan being discussed in Downing Street “would help to guard against what some ministers believe to be creeping revisionism”.

The proposals emerged as the Westminster government prepares to introduce an amnesty in order to end criminal prosecutions of its soldiers, police and agents. It appears Britain is now looking to further cover up its actions in Ireland with its “official” revision of the historical narrative.

In recent decades, the internet has seen tens of thousands of articles published by new media organisations, including this one, which used the internet to successfully overcome official censorship of the conflict.

Reports on Britain’s involvement in collusion, torture, assassinations and the murder of innocent civilians are now available for all to read. More recently, film and video projects have made information on British war crimes even more accessible to the public.

“Under the plans, a group of historians would be appointed by the British government on privy council terms to undertake the project,” the report stated.

But ‘privy council terms’ means agreeing to keep secret details secret, noted political journalist Brian Walker, who said professional historians should be wary of the terms of getting involved.

Those employed in the controversial ‘Northern Ireland centenary’ project are thought to be first in line for the appointments, which will require MI5 clearance.

The plans have already received a cool response among Irish academics.

Diarmuid Ferriter, asked on BBC The View as to how he’d respond to an invite to be involved, said: “I think I’d tell them to get stuffed.”

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