You can’t close the past while victims are still living with the trauma.

An open letter to all Members of Parliament,

For many the Troubles in Northern Ireland are considered part of the past.
For the victims and survivors we support at WAVE Trauma, they are not.

They live every day with unanswered questions, unresolved loss and in the absence of proper acknowledgement and recognition of the harm done to them.

Approaches have changed.
Commitments have been made.
But for many families, the outcome remains the same.
No answers.
No justice.
And no clear path to either.

The 2023 legislation provided perpetrators with a kind of legal absolution by granting lifelong immunity, simply by giving an account of what they did ‘to the best of their knowledge and belief.’

For victims and survivors, this is not reconciliation.
It is not truth.
It is not justice.

When we speak of legacy, we are speaking about real people: wives and husbands, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles. These are people whose lives have been changed forever, who cannot remember their loved ones without pain, and who cannot move forward while, as things stand, there is not even the most remote chance of truth, let alone justice.

People like Jean Caldwell, whose husband alongside seven of his colleagues were blown up by a landmine.

People like Damien McNally, whose father Paul was shot leaving a bookmakers and later died in hospital.

People like Kathleen Gillespie, whose husband Patsy was forced to drive a bomb to his death. Five others were killed and countless more injured. 

People like Linda Molloy, who lost her son and still lives with that loss every day.

They have already moved forward in ways few could imagine.
What they cannot be asked to do is to move out of the way.

This is not about politics.
It is about whether victims from different regions of the UK and NI are afforded the same rights as each other.

To date, the debate on legacy has been conducted as if it can be reduced to a single issue.
All voices must be heard and listened to, especially the voices of victims and survivors who do
not have the big battalions behind them.

The Hillsborough families campaigned with courage and great tenacity to ensure that ‘…no family has to again fight for the truth for decades’.

Many victims and survivors of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and beyond continue to have to engage in that fight. As Parliament continues to try to find a fair and comprehensive way to address the legacy of Northern Ireland’s violent past, the spirit and intent of the Hillsborough Law will be at its heart.

We are calling on you and your colleagues in Parliament to restore the rights of victims and survivors, to formally guarantee independent investigations and ensure that truth is not conditional.

There can be no reconciliation until there is truth and justice.

Anything less is betrayal.