More British military personnel were killed during the Troubles than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. As well as soldiers, innocent members of the public, MPs, police officers and the royal family were all targets. The Good Friday Agreement ended the armed campaign, but the fight to rewrite how the Troubles are remembered has continued. Warfare has become lawfare.
When I resigned as armed forces minister in June, defence funding dominated the headlines, but the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill was the other reason I stood down. The Good Friday Agreement was a defining Labour achievement. Mo Mowlam walked into the Maze to talk to people most of the country would not have stomached sharing a room with. Peace required everyone to do things that were politically excruciating. The genius of 1998 was that everyone accepted an imperfect settlement and gave something up in exchange for something back.
The new Northern Ireland Troubles Bill breaks that symmetry. On one side, a single independent body, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), with more access to redacted intelligence than any public inquiry has ever had. On the other, a legacy unit inside the Irish police, with a growing queue of inquests and civil cases brought by families on each side of the conflict, but especially by aggrieved family members of the IRA.
