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‘State must address legacy miscarriages of justice’

A cross-border report has called on the Government to set up a Historical Investigations Unit (HIU) to investigate unresolved deaths and incidents of torture and ill-treatment. 

The report, from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and Northern Ireland’s Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), says that the unit’s remit should include – but not be limited to – cases related to the Troubles. 

The two organisations say that the HIU is one of three mechanisms that the report recommends for Ireland to meet its legal obligations in relation to historic human-rights violations and miscarriages of justice. 

In addition to the HIU, which would focus on assigning criminal responsibility for individual cases, the report also recommends that the Government establish a system of “robust and independent” public inquiries and inquests, and an all-Ireland truth commission. 

‘Clear legal obligations’ 

Claire Mc Evoy (acting co-director, ICCL) said that Ireland had “clear legal obligations” to address legacy human-rights violations and miscarriages of justice. 

“Case law from the European Court of Human Rights indicates that the State must not only prevent torture and loss of life, it must also act once an alleged violation has occurred, by conducting investigations that are effective, prompt, thorough and transparent. 

“And yet, we have a litany of victims, survivors and families in Ireland who have never learned the full truth of what happened to them or their loved one, nor seen justice done,” she stated. 

‘Significant gaps’ 

CAJ director Daniel Holder praised the Government for holding the British Government to account for obstructing proper legacy investigations in the North, in particular for challenging the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 introduced by Boris Johnson’s government. 

He added, however, that there were “significant gaps” for historic investigations in the Irish Government’s jurisdiction. 

Darragh Mackin, partner at the Belfast-based law firm Phoenix Law, described the report as “a timely reminder to the Irish Government that they must practise what they preach”. 

The report arises from a private ICCL and CAJ round-table event held last year with academics, survivors, family members, and advocates, as well as subsequent research by the two organisations.

Among those attending the launch of the report were Osgur Breathnach, one of the men wrongfully convicted for the Sallins train robbery in 1976, and Lucia O'Farrell, whose son Shane was killed in a hit-and-run incident in 2011 by a man on conditional bail which had not been revoked despite broken conditions.

She says that there were "significant failings" by the State which led to her son's death, but it it still not clear how or why these failings took place.