Debate contribution: The Troubles: Irish State Role

Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on 11 March 2025.

MLA

Mr Robbie Butler

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

11 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

The Troubles: Irish State Role

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4855885

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. This is the final debate of the day. It is serious, and it is incumbent on all of us to remember those whom we are here to represent and speak on behalf of. I am a bit nervous: to be fair to those who have spoken thus far, the debate has been respectful. I hope that those who are watching will understand the intent of our motion in respect of seeking truth and justice for innocent victims of terrorism. I will touch very briefly on the amendment. I thank the DUP for tabling it. It is useful, except that it is a bit clumsy towards the end. In reality, when we bring a motion to the House and are looking at the vires that we have for instructing any other legislature, whether that be Westminster or the Republic, it is important that we do that with a collective voice — that is accepted. The Justice Minister, however, has no more of a fist in this game than the rest of us. I believe that she set out quite well that she has been on record previously on the matter. I was looking through and listening to some of the testimonies at the inquiry in Omagh so far. I make no excuse for this, but a former colleague of mine gave testimony at the inquiry. I joined the fire service in February 2000, and Paddy Quinn, who was a retained firefighter in Omagh, joined on the same day with me. Unbeknown to me — it was a long time before Paddy shared his story — he was one of the first emergency responders to attend the Omagh bomb site on that day. Much of his story — he told it to us in broken fashion — was not revealed until this year. He revealed, for instance, that, on that day, when he turned up to the site, he found that his mum had been caught up in the explosion. She was standing with a toothbrush and the shards of a plastic bag that had been ripped out of her grasp in her hand. As they looked around the scene and saw what looked like, in Paddy's words, "a scene from Vietnam"; it looked as though a napalm bomb had destroyed the centre of their town. The horrors that those people faced — this was four months after the Good Friday Agreement and the work that had been done to deliver peace — showed that there were still those who were so bound by fear and hate that they would perpetrate such a violent act. I thought that Doug Beattie proposed the motion very well. He laid down a lot of irrefutable facts about that fateful day. He explained where the vehicle came from, where the explosives were, perhaps, made — certainly where they were stored and where the timer was attached — where they were assembled and where the plan of escape was made from and to. All of that is irrefutable.

A stat was fired out that had never struck me before. I think that it was from Timothy Gaston, so I thank you for that, Timothy. I think that it was you, but perhaps not; maybe it was Paula Bradshaw. The statistic was that 15% of the violence over the period of the Troubles was related to the border, but the reality of that was that, if you lived on the border, 100% of the violence was perpetrated in your area. If the violence happened in Belfast or Lisburn, you were slightly detached, but, if you lived in a border area, your life was completely different from that of someone who lived in a town or city.

For anyone who has any recollection of the Troubles and can remember what it was like, Omagh, because of its scale and ferocity, is simply unimaginable. There were 29 deaths and over 200 people injured, and many more lives were shattered. The people who died in that bombing were from not just Omagh. There were international visitors and people from different towns, so the legacy spread way beyond Northern Ireland. The fact that that legacy of pain spreads beyond Northern Ireland means that the Government in the Republic of Ireland need to act. A number of years ago, I wrote to the Justice Minister in the Republic about the matter, and I got a response. The words were warm, and the ink was dry, but it was very evident in the response that there was no intention of entering into a meaningful recovery of truth for the innocent victims in Omagh. Much like some of the calls from Members today for active engagement, that is not enough. It is simply not enough, and one of the reasons why we are here today still talking about it is that active engagement is not enough. We need to tie this down; it needs to be codified; and that needs to be done in an agreement between the UK Government and the Irish Government. I will run through some of the points that were made, because I genuinely appreciate that Members of all the parties represented today spoke and spoke so well. Nicola Brogan of Sinn Féin said that she had attended sessions of the inquiry, met family members and recognised their pain and anguish. She also recognised the persistence of the victims' campaign. I was reading some of the work that was done in 2010, 2011 and 2012 when false hopes were raised. I think that it was Theresa Villiers at that time who declined to hold a public inquiry. However, persistence does and will pay off, because the situation has to change and the Irish Government will have to act. However, it is not enough that there would be warm words and dry ink. It needs an inquiry in the Republic of Ireland. Paula Bradshaw paid tribute to the victims of the Omagh bombing. I agree that the First Minister, the deputy First Minister and the Executive Office absolutely have a role to play in this, as do all the politicians in the Chamber. Matthew O'Toole talked about the immorality of terror. He said a number of times that the two states had a moral and legal obligation to do the right thing. Someone talked about a contested narrative for the past. I am sorry, but I cannot accept that Omagh has anything to do with a contested narrative of the past. There is nothing contested when it comes to the murder of innocent people. Matthew O'Toole also talked about the "squalid Legacy Act". It just shows that, sometimes in the Chamber we can get it right. Sometimes we can coalesce around doing the right thing, and the move to reconciliation is needed perhaps more than ever so that the failures of our past can be learned and evidenced. Stewart Dickson spoke of the bravery and the testimony of victims and about prioritising our victims. That should be at the forefront, so that point is absolutely welcome, Stewart. He also said that the UK and the Republic of Ireland need to take further steps. We need to be clear, however, that the message that we send out from the Chamber is that there needs to be either a parallel inquiry or stand-alone inquiries. Warm words will not cut it. Timothy Gaston reminded us that today is European Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorism. It is absolutely appropriate that that is the case. He highlighted where the failures were manifested and evidenced in the past. This statistic is incredible: of 110 requests for extradition that were sought by the UK Government from the Republic of Ireland, eight were successful. Why is that important? It is important to just about everybody in this room, I would hope. On 7 December 1989, I made the journey from a butcher's shop to another part of Lisburn. I came out of the shop to witness a policeman waving at me. I had just walked past a car. I kind of knew that it looked suspicious, so I ran past it. Around 40 seconds later, a 500 lb IRA bomb exploded behind my head. In Omagh, sadly, people did not get the chance to run. They did not get the warning that they should have got. I am the lucky one. I am lucky to be standing here. I think about what could have happened, and I am sure that many people in this room have had something similar happen to them. The people in Omagh have been left without truth and justice, and somebody knows what happened. If a Government know and are holding on to the information that would give relief and release to those people, shame on them. I mean it: shame on them. I have not seen the documents that have been mentioned that have redactions and stuff removed or the articles that have been sent. I will not pretend that I have been in this game long enough. However, in 2025, there is absolutely no reason why the Government in the Republic of Ireland should not do what our Government in the UK do, which is fess up and provide the absolute truth for victims of terrorism.

1,548 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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