The Eames/Bradley report

Friday 20 February 09

The Eames/Bradley report, made public this week, brings out some controversial issues still very much alive in Northern Ireland regarding the Troubles. Perhaps the most divisive recommendation made is for families of the 3,700 victims to receive a compensation payment of £12,000. As Garry Moriarty, Northern Editor of the Irish Times explained, this means that “the next of kin of Shankill bomber Thomas Begley will receive £12,000, just as each of the families of the nine Protestants he killed will receive the same figure. It means that the family of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright will receive £12,000, just as the families of the many Catholics he killed will receive £12,000. It means the families of the two UVF/UDR members killed by the bomb they were attempting to plant on the bus of the Miami Showband in 1975 will receive £12,000 just as will the families of band members Fran O’Toole, Tony Geraghty and Brian McCoy, who were gunned down in that attack. The families of the 10 dead hunger strikers will be offered the same payment.”

For many people whose loved ones were innocent victims killed by combatants on either side, the idea of the killers’ families receiving compensation is difficult to swallow. The compensation is designed to move Northern Ireland away from the legacy of the Troubles, and to remove a ‘hierarchy’ of victims. The argument is that although for most people, the death of a paramilitary volunteer is in no way akin to the death of an innocent child in a bombing, one mother’s tears are no different than another mother’s tears. That is to say, there may be a hierarchy of victims, but there is no hierarchy of grief.

Other proposals in the document are less contentious, though they will still stir some debate. The establishment of a Legacy commission to ensure that the handling of the legacy of the Troubles is comprehensively addressed, as well as £100 million pounds for projects that combat sectarianism are sure to be far less controversial than the compensation payments. However, the recommendation that all public inquiries into controversial killings be stopped has already stirred up tensions in certain parts of the community.

Those involved are urging the public to read the entire report, and not judge the entire project based on one or two of the proposals. There is a lot of information and a lot of difficult emotions for the public to digest. Now, it is mainly up to the British Government (with some input from the Irish Government) to decide which (if any) of these proposals to adopt. You can read the full text of the proposal at http://www.cgpni.org/fs/doc/Consultative%20Group%20on%20the%20Past%20Full%20Report.pdf, and the speech given by Eames and Bradley at http://www.irishtimes.com/focus/2008/peace/index.pdf. Some of the main recommendations of the proposal are available at http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0124/1232474679748.html.

What do YOU think about the Eames/Bradley report? Do you agree with any of their proposals? If you were on the committee preparing this report, what would you do differently? Do you think there is a way they could have pleased everyone in the community, or not? Where should we go from here? Let us know on our forum!