Sinn Féin’s problem is not so much with the past as with the truth
Opinion: A generation with no memory of the Troubles must be told what the IRA did
Martin McGuinness: claimed any deaths of civilians in IRA operations were due to “mistakes”. Photograph: PA
‘Obviously people will have their own interpretation of that” was one of the starker lines delivered by Martin McGuinness during a debate at the Oxford Union this week. Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister was the main speaker at an event co-hosted by Al Jazeera on the theme: “Terrorists or Freedom Fighters: When Should We Talk to the Enemy?”
In his this newspaper on Wednesday London Editor Mark Hennessy reported that McGuinness insisted at the event that the IRA had never deliberately targeted civilians during the Troubles and insisted that the deaths of any civilians were because of “huge mistakes” in IRA operations that went wrong.