The decision by the Government to challenge the British government’s Northern Ireland Troubles Act – the so-called “Legacy Act” – has opened a deep diplomatic rift between Dublin and London at a time when co-operation between the two governments is badly needed. Announcing the Government’s decision on Wednesday, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said he regretted that the Government had found itself in this position, but he laid the responsibility for the situation at the door of the British.
“The decision by the British government not to proceed with the 2014 Stormont House Agreement and instead pursue legislation unilaterally, without effective engagement with the legitimate concerns that we, and many others, raised left us with few options. The British government removed the political option, and has left us only this legal avenue,” he said.
The British response was immediate, sharp and pointed. “We believe that the Irish Government’s stated position on dealing with legacy issues is inconsistent and hard to reconcile with its own record,” the Northern Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said in a statement. “At no time since 1998 has there been any concerted or sustained attempt on the part of the Irish State to pursue a criminal investigation and prosecution based approach to the past.”
The British approach to the legacy issue has overturned the commitments made by the David Cameron-led government when it concluded the Stormont House Agreement in 2014. The British have made the judgment that the protection of its armed forces personnel against prosecution for crimes during the Troubles trumps the demands of the victims of those crimes for justice. And while frustration that British soldiers could be held to standards that IRA members are not is understandable, the Irish Government is within its rights both to call this out and to take legal action intended to hold the British to the standards to which they have freely signed up.
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Nonetheless, the Government in Dublin should take steps to manage the obvious diplomatic and political fallout. Thanks in part to sustained diplomacy in recent years, Anglo-Irish relations have recovered substantially since the Brexit nadir, even if they are hardly as close as they were in the wake of the visits of the late Queen Elizabeth here and of President Michael D Higgins to the UK.
As both governments seek to persuade the DUP to revive the North’s power-sharing institutions, the timing of the row is unfortunate and unhelpful. The history of the Northern peace process shows that progress is possible when the two governments work hand-in-glove. Both sides should not allow this issue to toxify their relationship and hinder efforts to revive politics in Northern Ireland.