The Mission is Ongoing

Ed Shevlin
Pat Finucane Centre
Belfast, Ireland

I have been here in Belfast, the capital of the Irish province of Ulster, for a month now and have just over a month left to go in my commitment. Each day that I have lived in this fascinating place has been one of learning and maturation.

My host organization, the Pat Finucane Centre, is an incredibly dynamic outfit, aggressively pursuing government accountability for past transgressions while monitoring the status of more recent events and agreements between the state and local political parties. One such agreement is known as the Stormont House Agreement (SHA), which was made between the five major political parties and both the British and Irish governments on issues of finance and welfare; flags; identity; culture and tradition; parades; the past; and institutional reform.

As most people are aware, the history of the north of Ireland is rife with human rights abuses right down through the ages, and in most cases involved state-sponsored abuse of the Nationalist/Catholic community. There are many people in this community who remain broken, torn apart by the sectarian violence that was often augmented by the collusion of government actors such as the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The result of this collusion include but are not limited to loss of life, permanent personal disability (both physical and emotional), long-term imprisonment, destruction of personal property, the establishment of illegitimate criminal records, and myriad issues that derive from the aforementioned.

Ostensibly, the Stormont House Agreement is an effort to ensure a fair, equitable, and peaceful future for all of the people of the region by addressing the inequities of the past so as to prevent a recurrence of any human rights violations in the future. Yet, the SHA seems to be disingenuous in some areas. Take, for example, the section dealing with the past, which states that “[ . . .] the UK government makes clear that it will make full disclosure to the Historical Investigations Unit.” This is cause for optimism, but this emotion is premature in light of the passage that requires the UK government to put into place legislation “so as to prevent any damaging onward disclosure of information by the Historical Investigations Unit.” When taken together, these two passages seem to be saying that investigations are all well and good but if they uncover information that is potentially harmful to the government or the security forces, they shall end there. In other words, go suck an egg!

This is where the Pat Finucane Centre (PFC) comes in. Because human lives and human rights matter to the PFC, it has done the following:

1. Meet with Department of Justice officials on an ongoing basis.
2. Meet with Department of Foreign Affairs officials in Dublin.
3. Meet with Secretary of State Teresa Villiers and a bereaved family to discuss the HIU in relation to the SHA.
4. Attend regular briefings with the political parties pursuant to the SHA.
5. Engage in numerous roundtables, discussions, and conferences with other victims’ groups, academics, legal practitioners, and civic society groups to discuss the ramifications of the SHA.
6. Hold a series of meetings across Ireland to help bereaved families understand the SHA and its implications for them.

My work here at the PFC is directly related to the section of the SHA entitled “The Past.” I am researching policing and justice in the 1970s by pouring over contemporary accounts in the Belfast Newspaper Library and compiling a database of arrests and outcomes. It is a privilege to be a part of this team.