Diane Forsyth (Dublin: Justice for the Forgotten): On Thursday all parties in the Irish Parliament passed a formal motion urging the British Government “to allow access by an independent, international judicial figure to all original documents” which it currently holds, relating to a number of “atrocities” that occurred in the Republic in the 1970s.  While not as significant as, say, last year’s Baha Mousa ruling allowing the application of the Human Rights Act to deaths perpetrated by the British Army overseas, the motion is a very important step in the fight against security force impunity and for military accountability.

The atrocities referred to include the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of the 17th May 1974, which killed 34 people, the Dublin bombings of 1972 and 1973 (the latter of which killed a British citizen) and a number of other fatal attacks perpetrated in the Republic in the early to mid-1970s, a period during which the conflict in Northern Ireland was escalating inexorably. All of the attacks were (privately) inquired into by an independent judicial figure appointed by the Irish Government, Judge Henry Barron, whose final report was published in 2006.  

Barron was tasked with inquiring into the attacks for a number of reasons, not least the fact that not a single person had ever been prosecuted in relation to any of the murders. His investigation came in the aftermath of a Yorkshire Television documentary, broadcast in 1993, which brought to light new evidence pointing to the involvement of British security forces in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. (In spite of this, it should be noted that the actual impetus behind the Irish Government’s decision to initiate the new inquiry, which only began in 2000, arose from the campaigning work of Justice for the Forgotten, the organisation representing the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.) 

Judge Barron’s Reports were subsequently examined by an Irish parliamentary Sub-Committee, which then produced a number of its own reports on his findings. The Sub-Committee’s ultimate conclusions in relation to the Barron investigations were stark. They noted that, “we are dealing with acts of international terrorism that were colluded in by the British security forces.” This collusion encompassed active co-operation between loyalist paramilitaries, the UDR (a British Army regiment based in the North of Ireland), the RUC (the contemporary Northern Irish police force) and British Military Intelligence.  

Despite his strong findings however, Judge Barron was not in a position to conclusively prove this collusion. Why? As the Sub-Committee also noted “all of the Barron reports [were] frustrated by the absence of any real co-operation from the British security forces."  

Concerns with regard to protecting information of relevance to “national security” may partly underlie this complete lack of co-operation. Fortunately, this can be, and should be, easily circumvented by the appointment of an independent, international judicial figure, acceptable to both the Irish and British governments, who can assess all of the relevant documentation and advise as to further actions.  

For citizens of the United Kingdom, who understandably might be shocked by Barron’s findings and hopeful that such criminal activity on the part of British security forces is dealt with appropriately, the appointment of such a judicial figure is of utmost importance, for the sake of the integrity of their own forces and to prevent the perpetration of further unlawful deaths in sovereign nations abroad.

John Jackson (London, Mishcon de Reya & Unlock Democracy): An important part of the context of Mr Justice Collins' ruling today, that sending a soldier into a battle inadequately equipped may be a breach of his or her human rights (thereby implying that the courts might have to say what “adequate equipment” is), is one of the more stark assertions by Lord Justice Moses in the