Calls to scrap London’s failed ‘truth’ body

There have been calls for the British government’s conflict legacy body to be wound up after it emerged that it has only opened files on eight cases to date.

The ironically titled ‘Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR)’ is the most recent British attempt to draw a line under the conflict since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Every other cover-up initiative has encountered serious difficulties, and the ICRIR, established under the former Conservative government’s deeply contentious Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act of 2023, is no different.

The commission employs 86 staff members, believed to be mostly members of the PSNI, the Police Ombudsman’s Office and other police agencies.

It is headed by Declan Morgan, a former ‘Lord Chief Justice for Northern Ireland’, and former Special Branch police chief Peter Sheridan (pictured, left and right).

The ICRIR has refused to say how many of its employees are former members of the PSNI and/or its previous incarnation, the RUC.

In June a bid to recruit “intelligence officers” with knowledge of “Northern Ireland Terrorism” was widely ridiculed as exposing a cover-up agenda.

All victims groups have called for a boycott of the body, believing it to be part of British government attempts to protect itself and its forces from accountability, and even the 26 County Tánaiste Micheál Martin has expressed his doubts.

He said at the weekend that it required “root and branch reform”, while the former police ombudsman Nuala O’Loan, has gone further and demanded that it be scrapped.

Following an international welcome for the announcement of a public inquiry into the state-orchestrated murder of Pat Finucane, London is being urged to scrap the ICRIR alongside the already doomed 2023 Legacy Act.

Daniel Holder, from the Committee on the Administration of Justice, said it was clear the ICRIR is “grinding to a halt”.

“Four months in the ICRIR has only eight cases. Compare this to the hundreds being dealt with by the Police Ombudsman, Inquests, civil litigation and police teams that have all been shut down by the Legacy Act.”

He added: “No amount of spinning on the numbers of general enquiries can disguise that very few requests for investigations have been received.”

Urgent Appeal