Divisions flare in Northern Ireland government over plans for police probe into Bloody Sunday
Last edited Tue Jul 10, 2012, 08:42 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: WaPo
DUBLIN — Divisions flared in Northern Ireland’s cross-community government Friday over police plans to open a criminal investigation into Bloody Sunday, a watershed event in the territory’s conflict 40 years ago when British troops killed 13 Irish Catholic demonstrators.
The Protestant who leads the 5-year-old coalition, Peter Robinson, said police must investigate what his Catholic colleague atop the government, Martin McGuinness, was doing as an Irish Republican Army commander on that day 40 years ago. The comments represented a rare moment of discord between Robinson and McGuinness over the latter’s murky IRA past.
Robinson said McGuinness “openly admitted that he was in charge” of IRA forces in Londonderry at Bloody Sunday. “If that was the case then there has to be an investigation, if you’re investigating the (British) Army.”
The episode underscores how scarred Northern Ireland remains from its four-decade conflict, which left a trail of more than 3,200 unsolved killings, most of them committed by McGuinness’ Provisional IRA. That dominant IRA faction renounced violence and disarmed in 2005, a prerequisite for McGuinness to become joint leader of Northern Ireland’s government two years later.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/divisions-in-northern-ireland-government-rise-over-plans-for-police-probe-into-bloody-sunday/2012/07/06/gJQASdTmRW_story.html
Court Maintains IRA Interview Recordings Must Be Turned Over To Police
The historic meeting between former Irish Republican Army leader Martin McGuinness and Queen Elizabeth in June signified an end to decades of violence and animosity between the two states.
But vestiges of The Troubles in Northern Ireland are still with us, and the heat is being felt in Boston of all places.
Boston College has housed the oral histories of top IRA and Loyalist figures, who gave their stories to researchers on the promise the records would remain confidential until their deaths. But British police, investigating a decades-old murder, want access to some of those stories now. The resulting legal fight has tested the limits of academic freedom in the face of overwhelming diplomatic pressure from America’s closest ally.
Last year a US District Court Judge ordered Boston College to turn over its records. The researchers themselves then sought the right to appeal the ruling on their own. The First Circuit Court of Appeals heard their arguments in April.
On July 6, researchers lost another legal attempt to block the transfer of their records, as the First Circuit upheld the lower court’s ruling — setting up a possible showdown in the nation’s highest court.
more: http://radioboston.wbur.org/2012/07/09/ira-interviews-bc
= new reply since forum marked as read
