Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“While the Independent Reporting Commission has form in this regard it is nonetheless surely worth noting that it is a remarkable achievement to write a report on paramilitaries without mentioning a single paramilitary group by name!
“There is a welcome absence of some of the offensive language which has characterised earlier reports – such as “ex political prisoners”. I also note that the Commission references engagement with victims of paramilitary violence. However, the failure of the IRC to report on the current status of the Paramilitary Assessment of 2015 which stated that the PIRA:
- Retained an “Army Council” which members believed oversaw both the PIRA and Sinn Fein with an overarching strategy;
- Retained “departments” with specific responsibilities and
- Still had weapons which had not been decommissioned
once again calls its usefulness into question. It seems clear that the members of the IRC are committed disciples of the process who are where they are precisely because they won’t say anything to rock the boat.
“It is, however, worth noting the worrying comments of the IRC on what they call “memorialisation”. In paragraphs 1.55 to 1.56 the Commission call for “a more express focus on the whole area of how the paramilitary past is remembered and reflected. We appreciate that there are many useful projects and initiatives around commemoration of the past more broadly, but we believe recalling and marking the paramilitary past requires particular approaches and attention.”
“Such talk is reminiscent of language used to dress up the Maze Shrine which was rightly so robustly rejected by innocent victims”.