Debate contribution: The Troubles: Irish State Role

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 11 March 2025.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

11 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

The Troubles: Irish State Role

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4855839

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the fact that we are able to debate the motion. The first and most important thing is to locate everything in empathy and solidarity with the victims of Omagh and their needs. The 29 people, plus two unborn children, who were callously murdered that day in the middle of Omagh deserve nothing but justice. The public inquiry that is now happening is a reminder of the barbarity of that day, but it is also a clarion call to all of us to ensure that the victims get clarity, decency, justice and all that they are entitled to. Hume's words on that day, when he described the perpetrators of the attack as "undiluted fascists", remain as clear and resonant now as they were then. The families have been extraordinarily resilient and dignified in their campaign for truth and justice over the past 27 years. It is extraordinary that it has taken 27 years. At the beginning of my remarks, I will say that the SDLP has always been clear about the immorality of the acts that took place in the conflict and about the obligations that fall not just on the non-state actors — the paramilitaries who undertook violence — but on the two states. The British state and the Irish state must do right by the victims of the conflict. Paula Bradshaw is correct when she says that it is wrong to characterise the conflict as something that was simply cut off from the rest of this island and, indeed, the rest of these islands. Those two states — the British state and the Irish state — have a moral and legal obligation to do right by the people not just of Northern Ireland but of these islands who were caught up in that conflict. We can go back to 2001, when the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland concluded that the RUC ignored warnings before the Omagh bomb. There has been a consistent failure on both sides of the border in both jurisdictions not just to protect the interests of the families but to properly pursue and investigate the perpetrators of the Omagh bomb. Those families have been failed consistently. We are clear that both Governments need to accept their responsibilities, and that includes the Irish state. I welcome the fact that there have been new commitments from Minister O'Callaghan, but we support the call for the Irish state to do more. We have a slight concern with the motion in that it calls for the UK state to compel the Irish state to do something purely because they do not have the vires. It is not entirely clear that they would be able to compel the evidence that we all want.

I will happily give way.

There is a solution to that, which is why there is merit in the DUP amendment, which specifically calls for the Irish state to initiate its own parallel inquiry. We in the SDLP have called for that, and we have no difficulty agreeing with it. We would not have used the precise wording that the DUP uses in the amendment, but, given the importance and gravity of the issues at stake, we will support the DUP amendment. Let me also say that, when we talk about these issues, it is important that we ground all our contributions in honesty. The victims of our Troubles still today face double-talk and evasion from states, non-state actors and certain political parties, it has to be said. The Omagh bomb was a grotesque and squalid act. As somebody who passionately believes in a new Ireland, I find it grotesquely offensive that someone could think that planting a bomb in the middle of a town with innocent people around was a legitimate or effective way to achieve a united Ireland. However, it must also be said that, if that act was grotesque and illegitimate in August 1998, it was grotesque in August 1997, 1996 and for many years before that. The Good Friday Agreement was an extraordinary and transformational thing on this island, but it did not magically legitimise car bombs being placed in towns, with innocent children and shoppers. That point has to be made.

The Irish state and the British state need to do right by victims. The squalid Legacy Act passed by the previous British Government needs to be replaced in full. We need to have a human-rights compliant legacy process that does right by victims in this place. That has to include the Irish Government and the Irish state being clear and absolutely transparent and engaging in a public inquiry in relation to Omagh, but, more generally, engaging on any cross-border components of issues that have arisen. We would not have tabled this precise motion or amendment, but the gravity of the issues at stake and the seriousness with which our party takes its moral responsibilities to victims of our Troubles mean that we will support the amendment, albeit, as I said, we would not have phrased it in that precise way. We should all be attempting to move this society towards reconciliation and beyond our brutal and horrible past, but that does not mean not being honest and clear about that past, and it has to include states and state actors.

880 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:15 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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