Mr. Michael Culbert:

The British Government has five legislative measures that mitigate against me and citizenship. That is the basis of my inequality of citizenship as I reside in the North of Ireland. There are also several legislative measures in this jurisdiction that mitigate against people who have been in prison for political charges. I fully understand people not appreciating my particular republican perspective, but I would like them to understand it. That is probably what I would like to be accepted. Our problem is that as long as the legislation that existed during the conflict continues to exist, sometimes people like us are at a loss to explain to people what has changed. If I say to people that things are much better and the Good Friday Agreement is there to underpin it, people can still say that they cannot get on an airplane and go to Canada or wherever and visit their children. It is difficult and one of the main reasons, particularly in the North of Ireland and as has been outlined in the research of Professor Peter Shirlow, who I mentioned earlier, is the five British legislative measures.

They cover everything from our inability to travel to our inability to seek psychological assistance, for example. Many people are traumatised but, currently, under some of the legislation in the North of Ireland a professional cannot treat somebody in privacy. If a professional hears something from a client or a patient which was relevant to the conflict and does not report it, even today, the professional can be charged with withholding information. It is almost unbelievable that this exists. That is at the extreme end of the spectrum. The other end is that I could still be charged with something that happened, perhaps, in the early 1970s. Either the war is over or it is not. We are totally supportive of the peace process. We really want it to work and we promote it, but the people who are doing that are the people who are most likely at the sharp end of the legislation that is still in place. All we need is somebody who will try to advocate not on behalf of us but on behalf of equality for all in our society. That would do it.

I am in contact with Kevin Conmy, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade representative in Belfast. He is trying to rectify a situation I mentioned earlier relating to the deportation of four Irish citizens from Mexico. They all arrived with their holiday gear to go to Cancún in Mexico, but because one of them had been imprisoned and released in 1983, the four were deported and their passports were stamped as having been deported. How is that a way to treat Irish citizens, especially the three who had never been in prison? They were with the man who had been in prison. These are the small individualised silos we constantly have to deal with because people do not know how to deal with them. It is up to us to try to work on their behalf. On the larger scale, I am hoping people with power can possibly exert some type of influence.