Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to go through all of the details that have been mentioned already. I want to share time with my good colleague here. However, this happened in 1971. The Irish Government brought a case to the European Commission on Human Rights in 1976 and the British Government was found guilty of torture. On appeal, that wording was amended so that the word "torture" was not used. As was said earlier, I do not understand the difference. If I may say so it seems to be some form of a cop-out. Let us call a spade a spade. In 2013 declassified documents were uncovered which revealed the existence of the interrogation centre at Ballykelly. As I understand it, this information was withheld from trial in 1976. As somebody who practiced law as a solicitor for a number of years, this seems to me to be a miscarriage of justice and grounds for a mistrial. Evidence which was clearly important was not made available and, as other people have said, but for the RTÉ documentary "RTÉ Investigations Unit: The Torture Files", which brought this to light and but for the great investigative journalism that was carried out, this may never have been uncovered. The Minister of State and I are together on this and for the ten people who are alive and their families - but probably even more so for Mr. Shannon's colleagues who are not here and their families - let us do what we are good at in Ireland and give this 110% and our best shot. I support everybody who has spoken here.