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Have the IRA put civil rights back 30 years?
By PAUL DONOVAN
Veteran Labour MP Kevin McNamara is retiring at the next general election. PAUL DONOVAN sought his reflections on 40 years at Westminster.
ACTIONS of the Provisional IRA in embarking on its armed struggle in the North of Ireland have put the civil rights movement there back by 30 years.
So says veteran Labour MP Kevin McNamara. He adds that after 40 years in Parliament some of his greatest regrets are about the way matters were handled and are still being handled in relation to Northern Irish affairs.
Mr McNamara has been MP for Kingston-upon-Hull since 1964. In an interview with The Irish Post reflecting on his 40 years at Westminster the MP said: “The activities of the Provisional IRA turned the attention of a generally sympathetic British electorate from the civil and political rights of the minority.
“They lost support and set back the process towards the achievement of those rights and what I would term constitutional nationalism by 20 or 30 years.
“That does not justify in anyway the repressive tactics adopted by the British government. The sad thing is that British governments pay more attention to force than they do to legitimate political and ethical argument.”
McNamara said he saw further evidence of the British government’s respect for force by the way in which it has treated the SDLP in the North and the trade unions. He said: “If you want to see the fulfilment of that approach, look at the way the SDLP have been hung out to dry and the way also the government have failed to pay attention to or acknowledge the role played by the trade union movement.
Mr McNamara, who retires at the next general election, praised the role played by Prime Minister Tony Blair in pushing the peace process forward, but also traces some of its fault lines back to Mr Blair’s door.
He said: “No one can doubt the commitment of Tony Blair in trying to find a peaceful and equitable solution in Northern Ireland.
“The Good Friday Agreement contains the principles and many of the arguments that Labour was pushing for in opposition — cross border organisations, the bill of rights, a commission for human rights and parity of esteem.
“I regarded decommissioning as a secondary issue, the fact Mr Blair embraced it in opposition — which was one of the reasons why I resigned from the front bench — has made it a difficult matter.”
Mr McNamara believes the Prime Minister showed bad leadership in embracing decommissioning so wholeheartedly.
“If the IRA made a dump of all their guns, ammunition, semtex and automatic rifles and it was destroyed, the next day you could go down any high street in London, Ireland — north or south —Scotland and Wales with £100 and buy all the ingredients necessary to manufacture the two most effective weapons that they had, namely the agricultural fertiliser bomb and the barrack buster.
“If decommissioning is going to take place it has to be in the mind and heart of two people concerned. Finally, if you call yourself an undefeated army — as the IRA do — there can be no surrender.”
On the human rights front, Labour’s former North of Ireland spokesman believes that if the recommendations of Judge Peter Cory’s six reports are enacted there could be a place for a truth and reconciliation commission there.
“If all the Cory inquiries go ahead — including Finucane — then I think there is a role for a truth and reconciliation commission. The terms though must be clearly defined in terms that all the parties involved find acceptable.
“I don’t think truth and reconciliation can come from something imposed by the government. Sometimes the parallels are drawn with South Africa — there it was the overwhelming number of people who had suffered who were willing to accept the truth and reconciliation commission.”
The MP has been involved in the campaign to win justice for soldiers who have died in British army barracks. The four deaths at Deepcut Barracks in Surrey started the campaign going but now families from across the country are calling for a public inquiry into all deaths of this type right across the army.
Mr McNamara said: “This is an enormous problem. The families are pressing very strongly for a public inquiry that goes beyond the Deepcut Barracks. There are problems at Catterick Barracks near my constituency in Hull, Northern Ireland, Germany, Afghanistan and Kosovo.
“We are not concerned about what happens in the heat of battle or on active service patrols. We are asking what is happening when people are dying in non-combatant situations. The picture is quite horrifying.”
“I first got involved following the death of a soldier in a barracks in Northern Ireland. It seemed strange a soldier in a barracks dying from gunshot wounds in a most tightly controlled area.
“I put down questions about it. Then there was the death of Geoff Gray at Deepcut Barracks in Surrey. The answers came back that there were more than 100 deaths a year being caused by non-combatant and natural causes.
“This became very worrying and out of that came the Deepcut and beyond campaign.
“A number of issues arose, such as how the civil police just took the word of the military police. The way they failed to secure scenes of death, the failure to conduct a proper forensic examination and no proper follow up.
“And there was the appalling way the families were treated by the Ministry of Defence, and the police.”
As with the families of loved ones who died in controversial circumstances in the North of Ireland, the MP said the families of the soldiers cannot get rid of their grief.
“Yes the death of a loved one is always with you, but if you don’t know why or how. Some things will be hard for them to hear but that does not give the right to the MOD or any other organisation to deny them that right.
“If we expect young men and women to go out and die for us. then there is a particular duty of care to them. It is a systemic thing which is why there needs to be a proper public inquiry.”
Mr McNamara has also been involved in campaigning for the rights of Irish Travellers and Gypsies.
“I think we are making progress. A year ago the death of 15-year-old Irish Catholic traveller Johnny Delaney caused a lot of concern in the community as a whole. They did not realise that the odd slighting remark could end in the death of a young man like Johnny Delaney.
“I think we’ve got to aim for local authorities to supply proper pitches for permanent travellers and pitches for itinerant travellers.
“There needs to be education as to how different ways of life don’t threaten anybody. So people are treated with respect.
“The third thing is to ensure that all the services — social security, education and health — are also available to
travellers.”
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