Ms Liz McManus:

It is very striking that, at the conference we held on 1 April in Queen's, which has been mentioned already, none of us expected the turnout, or that people would stay to the very end. The general feeling, or certainly the one I had, was that people believed we need to do something to understand families' needs first and then try in some way to meet them, and that this was not happening. We all want people to have the right to go to court, but realistically that might not happen. It is certainly not happening in all cases. There is an issue. Archbishop Eamon Martin made a very powerful speech in which he said he was speaking on behalf of all the churches in recognising a new approach had to be adopted. I was very struck by his direct speech, honesty and belief that the churches would play their part in this. It was very encouraging. We have seen the process we are referring to in other countries, although it does not mean we have to have the same model. It happens in other countries and it happens in prisons. It did not happen after the Civil War because nobody understood the need for reconciliation. Everybody understood the reason to keep quiet and say nothing. We live in a different world.

I suggest we ask ourselves "why not?". Why not open up another line of communication and another line towards the truth? If we are wrong and we are all deluding ourselves, then we will know, but we may not be. There is a real chance that this is a way of reaching the truth for people who have suffered. As the Senator knows and I know - I have lived in the North and I have family from the North - that the extent of the suffering is often unspoken. That is what we must think about.