Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is general agreement that what the British Government is attempting to do in the amnesty legislation is to put everything under the carpet and not have to deal with the dirty war it fought in Ireland. Let us be clear. Partition was maintained through force. There was a Protestant parliament for a Protestant people maintained by what was always a paramilitary police force in the RUC. Obviously people would not lie down to this, and when they attempted to ask for their rights, they were beaten down by the state and eventually interned and shot.

At one stage British Government policy was to use the British army. It also used the likes of the MRF in the background. Beyond this it was involved substantially in the creation of the UDA. There was the whole idea of muddying the pool, and terror was operated and actioned on the nationalist community. Beyond this, at times, it decided it needed to engage loyalists and put in its own agents or turn people into agents so they could control and direct. This is what is shown in the two Police Ombudsman's reports on those 30 people who were killed. A determination had been made in British policy that it was going to execute Irish citizens. This is no different from what the Glenanne gang had done during the 1970s. We had the likes of Seamus Ludlow killed by another gang. Jack Rooney and Hugh Waters were killed by the Glenanne gang alongside 130 others.

We have not done justice on the issue of collusion. The fact is this was British Government policy. It was the means by which it decided it would deal with republicans. It tried to cow the entire nationalist community through killings. We are talking about the likes of Loughinisland and Sean Graham bookmakers. This State also has to look at its record. I am speaking about Seamus Ludlow and the absolute failure to investigate. Beyond this, the fact is the State did not want to deal with the reality of what the British Government was doing in Ireland. This is something that really needs to be addressed.

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