Skip to content

Irish government 'duck out' of legacy, says veterans' commissioner

Enda McClafferty
Northern Ireland political editor
NIO David Johnstone smiles to the camera. He has short brown hair parted to the side, is clean-shaven and has blue eyes NIO
David Johnstone says "the response from the Irish government to this whole legacy process has been woefully inadequate"

The Irish government's approach to the legacy of the Troubles is "wholly inadequate", Northern Ireland's veterans' commissioner has said.

David Johnstone said the ability of the Dublin government to "duck out of the legacy process was a scandal".

He was speaking to MPs on the Northern Ireland Affairs committee at Westminster which is examining the UK government's new approach to legacy.

He said the "Irish state was a player in the Troubles" and pointed to the 500 murders which happened along the border where he claimed those responsible came from or returned to after their "acts of terrorism".

'Collusion on both sides'

He also raised the Narrow Water bombing in 1979, when 18 soldiers were killed and where those behind the attack detonated the bomb from across the border.

"The response from the Irish government to this whole legacy process has been woefully inadequate," he said.

He also questioned why collusion is only ever raised in Northern Ireland when he said it was clear there was "collusion on both sides of the border".

Members of the committee also heard from representatives from the Retired Police Officers' Association, Ulster Human Rights Watch and other veteran support groups.