Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for attending and for his contribution to what, in light of the comments of Members across the Chamber, has been a significant and important debate. I thank all Members for their contributions. I note the broad range of signatories to the motion before the House. We had five of the hooded men down to brief Members in the AV room. They also met the Tánaiste on that day. I thank him for taking the time to meet them. I have no doubt that he appreciates the nuances and global significance of the judgment and how it has been utilised and abused by other states internationally. That is why this appeal is so fundamentally important.

While I have the floor, I will take the opportunity to read into the record of the House the names of the 14 hooded men, namely, Jim Auld, Pat Shivers, Joe Clarke, Michael Donnelly, Kevin Hannaway, Paddy Joe McLean, Francie McGuigan, Patrick McNally, Sean McKenna, Gerry McKerr, Michael Montgomery, Davy Rodgers, Brian Turley and Liam Shannon, who is with us tonight. Behind each of those men is a family and a lived experience of that awful time and of the legacy of the torture they and so many others endured in those much darker days of our conflict. Sometimes legacy issues and cases lose their edge and pointedness, but legacy is a lived experience, not just for these men but also for all of those affected.As Senator Norris noted, many people have been hurt and affected by the conflict, and we want to see a scenario where all of these people have access to truth and justice moving forward. It is the most modest and basic requirement of any democracy for anyone who believes in and upholds the process of natural law and justice.

I want to put on record that because of the indisputable and very welcome cross-party unanimous support for the motion I will not push it to a vote. The Minister of State said in his summing up that the Government is carefully considering this issue. It is important and I wish it well in its deliberations. I hope it knows that when it is dealing with the hooded men and their families, these men have campaigned for 50 years. They have been to every court not just in this land but beyond. These men endure. These men suffered the horrific torture we have outlined, and we cannot do service to the way they can outline their experiences, which is why the briefing and the meeting with the Tánaiste were so important. These men will continue to campaign and they have our full support, endorsement and solidarity. They have our full best wishes in the sure and certain knowledge that we all know in this House that those men were tortured. All they ask, and other colleagues have said why it is so important, is this is rightly recognised for what it was. I said in my earlier contribution that it really affected me and hit me when Francie McGuigan, one of the hooded men, very simply stated during the course of the briefing that the British should wear the label of torturers on the international stage because that is what they were.