Allister Backs Call for RoI Apology - But Apologies Also Needed Neared to Home
18 September 2012
The following is the speech delivered by North Antrim MLA Jim Allister during yesterday’s debate calling for an apology from the Irish Government:
“I totally support the motion. I think that it is indisputable that the Irish Government have much to apologise for. Their telling silence speaks volumes about their moral standing.
“We speak, of course, of the need to apologise for what was done in the past. It is indisputable that they were utterly involved in the birth and creation of the Provisional IRA. You have only to look at the official reason for the acquittal of Haughey to establish that fact and put it beyond doubt. He and his compatriots were acquitted on the basis that what had been done was done with appropriate state sanction. If it was done with appropriate state sanction, there is no escape for any Irish Government from what was done, which was the providing of funding to buy arms. So it may not be a question of just an apology; it should maybe also be a question of reparations because, in an international law situation, here was a state funding the creation of a terrorist organisation in another state. That is a major issue, for which the very least that should be offered is an apology. That was compounded by the farcical use, or misuse, of extradition and then, come the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, put to quite cynical political use as a bargaining chip for doing some of the right things on security co-operation and extradition — they sought to bargain that against involvement in the political affairs of Northern Ireland. Not only was that morally bankrupt at the outset, it was turned to political advantage, to their continuing opprobrium thereafter. The Dublin Government should, most assuredly, apologise. It is a matter of deep regret that the Irish Prime Minister did not take the golden opportunity of last Thursday to do what he ought to have done in that regard.
“Of course, it has been said, and it bears repetition, that they are not the only people who need to apologise. Apology could do with starting a lot nearer to home. There are Members in the House — right within the House, right within the Executive, right within OFMDFM — who could and should apologise for their presiding over the sectarian murderous campaign of the IRA. So as well as demanding an apology from the Irish Government, let us demand from those closer to home, whatever the political embarrassment, that they front up and face up to that for which they should apologise. Maybe that would bring it too close to the political bosom of the DUP, but that is a matter for them.
“Lord Morrow talked about Mr McGeough and Mr Carron getting government jobs in Ireland. Good point — made by the wrong party. The DUP is the party that put Martin McGuinness into his job in this House. Be that as it may, the focus of the motion is absolutely right: the Southern Government should unequivocally, without hesitation, and because by civilised standards it is the right thing to do, now apologise for their complicity in the formation and facilitating of the Provisional IRA and in the refusal to extradite them on the most shoddy of grounds for all those years and then seeking to turn that to their own political advantage.”
