John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I sincerely apologise for only coming on this call at 3 p.m. This is one of the most important meetings that I have been involved in since becoming a member of this committee more than 18 months ago. I will watch all of the testimony later this evening, from the start to the point that I missed, on the Oireachtas website because it is so important. While I have not met many of the witnesses yet, I had the privilege of meeting and speaking to Mr. McConville in Belfast a number of weeks ago.

There are a couple of points I would like to make, particularly as, after three hours, many of the questions have already been asked. When I visited Belfast and we met with the Ballymurphy and Springhill families, I was struck by the blanket of support that was wrapped around them by politicians from every political party and none, by civil society and by the Governments, North and South. When we visited the WAVE Trauma Centre, we met Mr. McConville and others. What stuck me was how it paled in comparison when I considered that these were families by themselves, with little or no political support, trying to trudge along with it. They were not having their cases championed by political parties. They were not having their cases brought to Westminster, the Dáil or Stormont. They have been trudging along by themselves on a lonely path for the past 40 years. That was the comparison. The reason is because their loved ones were murdered by republicans and people involved in the IRA. The irony of it is the concept of a hierarchy of victims. It is trotted out, time and again, that there is no hierarchy of victims. There bloody well is a hierarchy of victims, and the families of the disappeared are at the very bottom of that ladder as far as I am concerned. That is as clear as day from listening to the contributions of the family members today.

The first real injustice that was committed was the murder of their family members and the evil acts that they were. The second injustice that was inflicted on family members of the disappeared was the blackening of their names for decades afterwards and the ostracisation of their families by their communities in order to try to justify why their family members were taken away and murdered.

The third real injustice is the fact that the bodies of their loved ones have not been returned to them. I believe those are the three greatest injustices that have been committed against them.

The concept is what Sinn Féin can do. I find it difficult when the same line is trotted out whereby Sinn Féin asks everyone to go ahead and give information and asks anyone with information to do this. That is very easy to say. I am not asking that Deputy McDonald or someone comes out and says that Sinn Féin wants to do this. What I am asking is similar to what Deputy Tóibín asked. There are people in Sinn Féin today who were IRA gunmen. There are people in Sinn Féin today who took lives and murdered people. As Deputy Tóibín said, some of those people are not willing to help and have drawn a line under this. It would be really useful, and we are not asking to make a whole rigmarole of this, if Sinn Féin went back privately to those people and told them it wants them to do this, that it understands times have changed and events have been forgotten but it wants them to look at this again. Three people are buried somewhere in cold, dark Irish soil who have not been returned to their loved ones. Sinn Féin should say it wants to do this if it is serious about there being no hierarchy of victims. That is something I believe the Sinn Féin Party could do.

I come from Dundalk in County Louth. Dundalk and north Louth were on the front line of the Northern Irish Troubles for so long and bore the brunt of it for so long. I think regularly about the family of Tom Oliver, whom I know personally. When I listen to conversations of family members today, I think the Oliver family must thank their lucky stars that Tom was found. His body was dumped on the side of a road so at least he could be found and buried.

I will follow up on what Mr. McConville said. Again, I know the part of the world he spoke about extremely well. There is not much distance between Temple Hill beach and Shelling Hill beach. It shows the importance of what a local person in the Cooley Peninsula to tell Mr. McConville that, based on that information, he was able to provide information about the location of caravans in which members of the IRA used to hide out. Based on that information from a local person, he was able to provide very useful information.

When I contribute at committee meetings, I tend to ask questions. As the final speaker, I felt it was important to make a statement on a matter on which I have had deeply-held beliefs for many years. Having to listen to the pain and trauma these families have gone through and continue to go through has been one of the toughest moments for me, as a Member of the Oireachtas.

There is a very simple way this can be resolved. I am not being political about it. The point is that if Sinn Féin, which is in government in the North aspires to be in government in the Republic, wants to move forward towards a shared island in which we can all live, how will it be able to do so when people in its own organisation know where these three or four people are buried and continue to stay quiet? That is my view on it. Sinn Féin knows what it must do. Empty words and platitudes are not good enough now. Oliver McVeigh said he is willing to talk to anyone and wants to do so. I cannot speak for the families but they just want to find their loved ones and take them home, as any of us, as normal, decent human beings, would. Let us be decent human beings and make sure these people come home to their families where they belong.