Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

"It has taken 50 years ... for my brother and my neighbours to be vindicated. And that 50 years has destroyed our lives." These are the words of Carmel Quinn, whose brother, John Laverty, was murdered in 1971. It is important to put on the Dáil record just how horrific that atrocity was. Between 9 and 11 August 1971, more than 600 soldiers entered the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast. During that three-day period, 11 people were brutally murdered. Last week, Mrs. Justice Siobhan Keegan stated that, in every single case, the death was not adequately investigated. That was because there was no investigation. She also stated that all of the deaths were in breach of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, namely, the right to life. Why was there no adequate investigation? There was cover-up after cover-up. On the same day that Mrs. Justice Keegan delivered her findings, the British Government had the gall, which comes as no surprise to any of us who understand Britain's dirty war in Ireland, to decide to propose an amnesty.

Last week, Boris Johnson apologised for what he described as the Ballymurphy "events". What happened in Ballymurphy was not an "event", nor was it a "situation". It was a massacre. Words matter. It was a massacre that lasted for three days and where British army soldiers wreaked havoc on the streets of Ballymurphy. Ballymurphy cannot be apologised away. It was a three-day sustained attack.

Let us be frank - the apology was just a distraction. The families are clear. They did not ask for an apology. They asked for accountability and justice. They have waited 50 years to hear the word "innocent", with far too many family members having passed away before seeing that day. We cannot make the families wait any longer. To do so would be to prolong their torture and trauma.

Boris Johnson is saying "Sorry" on the one hand and, on the other, he is intending to grant amnesty to the very soldiers who murdered these people. That the finding of innocent and the rumblings of amnesty were brought to light on the same day was no coincidence. It is British state policy to continue denying these families the accountability that they deserve. We have to be straight with the British Government, in that people cannot destroy a community, lives and families and get away with it.

The Dáil needs to speak with one voice and tell the British Government that amnesty is off the table. The Irish Government needs to be strong when telling the British Government that the mechanisms within the Stormont House Agreement, of which the British Government is a co-guarantor, must be implemented in full, not just for the families of Ballymurphy, but every family seeking truth and accountability. Without accountability, how does Boris Johnson even know what he is apologising for?

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