Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On Wednesday night, RTÉ1 broadcast the ground-breaking documentary film "Unquiet Graves", the story of the Glenanne gang, which was directed by Sean Murray and features much of the Trojan research carried out by Anne Cadwallader for her book Lethal Alliesand by Margaret Urwin, who will be familiar to many Members, for her book A State in Denial. Between 1972 and 1978, more than 120 people were killed by the notorious group known as the Glenanne gang. I commend the film, although I know that many Senators will be familiar with this issue and will have watched the film. It is available on the RTÉ Player and other outlets online. I strongly encourage all Senators and anyone following these debates to watch it. It unravels the British state collusion at the heart of sectarian campaign, and how members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the Ulster Defence Regiment and the British intelligence services collaborated with that gang.

Like many campaigning families in the North, tragically having already lost, been hurt and undergone such a trauma, those involved in the Glenanne murders had to find themselves in court simply to ensure that the police and the British state would respond with the most basic entitlement they should have, namely, a proper, full, effective police investigation into the murder of their loved ones, which has been denied to them and so many others for so long. The Lord Chief Justice in the North said the police had not honoured the legitimate expectation of bereaved relatives that an overarching investigation into the Glenanne gang would be held. The gang, as Senators will know, was responsible for some of the most notorious incidents in the conflict, including the massacre of the Miami Showband and the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, which led to the single largest loss of life in the conflict.

In asking Senators to reflect on that, I remind them that another international obligation of the British Government, the Stormont House agreement, for which we passed all the legislation relevant to this jurisdiction in the House last year, remains unfulfilled. In fact, it is very worrying that the British Government is reneging completely on that commitment and, in so doing, denying families such as the Glenanne families the most basic entitlement and right, namely, to access truth and justice for their loved ones.