It has been an extraordinary week in the campaign over Northern Ireland legacy and the treatment of veterans.
It began with former brigadier and head of the SAS Regimental Association (SASRA) publicly warning that special forces recruitment is suffering as a result of endless legal actions against soldiers. He told the Daily Telegraph that the association was prepared to take legal action against the Government to protect soldiers who served in Northern Ireland from prosecution under Labour’s Troubles bill and was instigating steps to raise a “fighting fund”.
The following day, Policy Exchange published a report, The Special Air Service in Northern Ireland: What they did, why it matters, and what is being done to them now, which Al Carns, former armed forces minister, supported in The Times.
Then a delegation from the Parachute Regiment Association, led by Terry Wood, met with Sir Chris Bryant.
On Friday, Conservative MP Lincoln Jopp began presenting his Northern Ireland Troubles (Criminal Investigations etc) Bill, which Labour whips then used delaying tactics to block its progress.
Then, the following Monday, Sir David Davis MP presented his Military Operations Bill, supported by a Prosperity Institute report, which would force Ministers to own decisions to send British troops into battle.
However, in the latest One More Mission podcast, Simon Brown argues that one issue should not be lost amid the political activity:
The proposed role of the Irish Government in the new legacy arrangements.
The UK and Irish governments have committed themselves to a system based upon reciprocal cooperation. Dublin is establishing mechanisms intended to allow Irish authorities to provide documents and testimony to the new Legacy Commission. At the same time, the two governments have also committed to establishing the cross-border Independent Commission on Information Retrieval.
On paper, that sounds balanced.
Simon asks whether it will be balanced in practice.
For decades, terrorists operated across the border. Weapons, explosives, bomb-making expertise and personnel moved through the Republic. Attacks carried out in Northern Ireland and mainland Britain had important connections south of the border.
There are also longstanding and deeply serious allegations concerning collusion involving individual members of An Garda Síochána.
That raises a fundamental question: Who investigates the investigators?
British soldiers, police officers and government agencies left extensive official records. Those records can be examined repeatedly, decades after the events concerned.
Will investigators examining the actions of the Irish state and its agencies have genuinely comparable access to Irish records, witnesses and evidence?
And what happens when they do not?
Simon argues that veterans should be extremely wary of any system that promises reciprocity without showing that both sides will actually be subjected to equivalent scrutiny.
This is not an argument against investigating wrongdoing.
It argues that accountability cannot credibly operate in only one direction.
After more than half a century, veterans are entitled to ask a simple question:
If Britain is expected to open its files and investigate its own people, will the Republic of Ireland genuinely be required to do the same?
Watch or listen to the latest One More Mission podcast.
Find the full episode here:
WATCH
LISTEN
