Lord Eames Report should be thrown out: Allister
11 April 2009
Note: You can read Jim Allister's full submission here.
Republican's Easter Message repugnant to Traditional Unionists: Lord Eames report should be thrown out
Northern Ireland QC and Member of the European Parliament Jim Allister today released his submission to the House of Commons Northern Ireland Committee inquiry into the Consultative Group on the Past calling for the entire Report to be thrown out.
Mr Allister said it was appalling for Lord Eames, who as Church of Ireland Archbishop attended hundreds of funerals of the victims of terrorism, to say in the Report the IRA had been on active service as if they were military personnel rather than terrorists bent on murder and mayhem.
It was an outrage for Unionists to keep on hearing the glorification of terrorism that Sinn Fein and their IRA masters keep on churning out every Easter, he said.
Mr Allister said: "The suggestion in the report that there is some sort of parallel between acts of Remembrance on 11th November and celebration of an Uprising on Easter Sunday is outrageous. Easter Sunday is a day when Republican terrorists are commemorated while 11th November is a day when those who died in the fight for freedom in two world wars and, indeed, those who died to defend freedom in more recent conflicts, are remembered."
Releasing his submission Mr Allister said: "People only need to think of the brutal outrage of the Enniskillen Poppy Day bombing when the IRA detonated a bomb as people gathered to honour the dead of two World Wars to see the irreconciable gulf between the bravery of true patriots and the debauched terrorism of the IRA", said Mr Allister.
Mr Allister said: " The suggestion that the First and deputy First Ministers could lead tributes to the past by jointly addressing the Assembly on an agreed date (page 101) is preposterous. The deputy First Minister remains unapologetic about his role in a terrorist organisation and is therefore supremely unfitted to lead tributes to those who suffered and died during the Troubles".
Condemning the CGP Report, Mr Allister referred to its specific wording. Mr Allister said: "When discussing Republicans the report states “Lives were lost in the course of active service. Many thousands spent years in prison; their families were inevitably affected and their suffering was rarely noted outside their own community” (page 63).
"The use of the term “active service” to describe terrorists engaged in murderous criminality in a press release issued by OFMDFM, when a member of the Victims’ Commission was discussing how her brother lost her life while attempting to murder, has already provoked huge outrage among innocent victims in Northern Ireland. Its use suggests that terrorists were military personnel engaged in a war rather than the reality – vile terrorists bent on murder and mayhem. I deeply regret that the CGP has, by employing the term, sought to sanitise the murders of Republican terror squads.
"It is my belief that the CGP has shown itself to be a miserable failure. Its recommendations have done nothing to heal the hurt of innocent victims. Indeed they have only served to open up raw wounds. The outcry which greeted the Report’s publication demonstrated that its recommendations patently do not command support among innocent victims.
"While the proposed £12,000 payment provoked the most vocal opposition, when one looks at its other provisions it is evident that they are based upon the same flawed premise that there should be no distinction between the terrorist and the innocent victim.
"It is therefore my belief that the Report should be binned in its entirety."
