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PB October/November 2023 October/November 2023 9
it is right to
postpone the
event until
such time as
the legality of
the new legacy
arrangements
has been tested
in the courts
T
he decision by the Law Society of
Northern Ireland to postpone its
annual conference represents a
significant victory for the many families
bereaved in the conflict who are
campaigning against the Northern Ireland
Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act, recently
passed at Westminster. It explained that it called
o the event as it had been informed by groups
representing victims that they intended to hold a
public protest outside the conference on Friday,
29 September.
Those opposed to the legislation argue that it
will give immunity to those who killed or injured
people during the 30-year conflict in the North
and, in particular, will prevent any further
investigation or prosecution of members of the
British security forces and their agents who
violated their own laws in the dirty war against
republicans.
Just days before it was due to take place, the
Law Society announced the postponement of the
conference which was due to focus on the Act and
stated:
“The Law Society has been a vocal opponent
of this legislation, criticising — among other
things — the prohibition on civil cases and
closing of legacy inquests brought about by the
Act.The legislation is, in the view of the Law
Society, incompatible with the UK’s international
human rights obligations.
The Law Society convened this conference to
provide members of the legal profession the
opportunity to hear from human rights experts,
from victims’ representatives and from those
involved in the implementation of the new
Independent Commission for Reconciliation and
Information Recovery.This was intended to help
inform the legal profession’s approach to the new
structures”.
The Society also confirmed that it made the
decision after it had been made aware of plans by
victims of state violence to hold a protest and
said:
“Some victims’ representative groups have
contacted the Law Society in recent days
requesting the cancellation of the conference.
The Society has also been made aware of plans
to hold a public protest at Friday’s event.In these
circumstances, the Society has taken the decision
to postpone this event”.
The chairman of the society, Brian Archer, said
that the Society had been at the forefront of
challenging the legislation during its passage
through Parliament.
He added: “However, we recognise the
strength of feeling in opposition to this Act.With
a significant number of legal challenges now
before the courts, the implementation of the new
legacy structures remains uncertain, and it is
right to postpone the event until such time as the
legality of the new legacy arrangements has been
tested in the courts”.
The postponement was the latest development
in the fraught exchanges over the controversial
legacy bill which was criticised by human rights
organisations and politicians in Ireland, the UK,
the EU and the US before it was enacted.
The main speaker at the conference was to
have been Declan Morgan, the chairman of the
Independent Commission for Reconciliation and
Information Recovery proposed by the Act.
Attention has now focused on the appointment
by the British government of Peter Sheridan, the
chief executive of Co-operation Ireland as the
head of investigations for the Independent
Commission.
Sheridan is a former leading ocer of the RUC
which was disbanded in the wake of the Good
Friday Agreement due to its overwhelming anti-
nationalist bias during the conflict and its
involvement in a string of human rights violations
and atrocities. He later served with the PSNI
before his appointment to Co-Operation Ireland.
The charity has been criticised for its funding
Legacy legislation lacks legs
Northern Ireland Law Society cancels conference focused on Legacy
Act in protest at its dubious legality and breach of human rights norms
By Frank Connolly
of loyalist organisations which have been
engaged in criminal activities, including
extensive drug-dealing, in their communities,
and in the violence against the Northern Ireland
protocol that broke out in some of those areas in
Spring, 2021.
The chairman of the Loyalist Communities
Council (LCC), David Campbell, stepped down
from the board of Co-Operation Ireland during
this time after the LCC warned that Irish
government ministers were not welcome in the
North as long as the protocol remained in place.
Among the government ministers under
perceived threat was then foreign minister, Simon
Coveney, whose department has heavily funded
the charity over decades while one of his
predecessors, Charlie Flanagan, has served as
vice-chairman of Co-Operation Ireland for several
years.
Sheridan was widely credited for arranging the
handshake between Martin McGuinness and
Queen Elizabeth, a co-patron of the charity, in
2012. He was also among those who criticised
President Michael D Higgins, the other co-patron
of Co-operation Ireland, for declining an invitation
to attend a religious service organised by the
main Christian churches to mark the centenary of
partition in October, 2021.
Meanwhile, the Government is awaiting a view
from the Attorney General, Rossa Fanning, as to
whether it should take a case to the European
Court of Human Rights to force the UK to rescind
the Act. The battle over the legacy legislation
continues.
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