YESTERDAY WAS A GOOD DAY FOR BOTH POLICING AND DEMOCRACY
Yesterday was a good day for both policing and democracy
AT first sight I knew he was as guilty as hell. . . . Words do not exist that describe the way I feel about him. Hate is too soft a word." The feelings of Stanley McCombe, who lost his wife Ann in the 1998 Omagh bomb atrocity, are a disturbing reminder of how fresh are the wounds in a community trying to move from anger and hatred through sorrow to genuine peace.
Yesterday's conviction in a Dublin court of dissident republican Colm Murphy, for conspiracy in relation to the Omagh bombing, was an understandable occasion on which Mr McCombe and other Omagh relatives might express pent-up frustration.
But it was also a very significant occasion in other respects. Almost certainly, of course, there will be an appeal, and few would deny that there were a couple of elements in the trial which those dedicated to the highest standards of justice, by due process, might wish to question.
However, most people, noting the balanced manner in which the judges discounted dubious aspects in favour of the overall strength of the case, will feel that the conviction is valid, a feeling that is all the more important in the context of a non-jury trial.
Indeed, there will be anger that the apparent attempts by some officers to short-circuit due process should allow any doubt to be entertained.
For the picture of dedicated and painstaking police efforts on both sides of the border to acquire genuine evidence that could stand up to court scrutiny is one of the abiding images of the trial.
Given the intense attention that was bound to be paid to the conduct of any trial of a suspect in the Omagh bomb case, it was vital that due process be followed to the letter.
This is extremely frustrating for relatives, who have a deep need to see people brought to justice, so that they might begin to achieve some kind of livable closure with their meaningless loss.
It must be almost as frustrating for police officers who might be as convinced as Mr McCombe of the guilt, not only of Colm Murphy, but of several other suspects whom they continue to pursue.
Sir Ronnie Flanagan, as Chief Constable of the RUC and of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland, has known both sides of this frustration: criticism of any shortcoming in relation to investigations, whether it be Omagh or the most recent killing of Daniel McColgan; and the knowledge that only solid evidence may avail in convicting those whom his officers have powerful reason to suspect as being guilty of such crimes.
But that is our choice as democrats: we wish to live in a society based on genuine justice, obtained and expressed through due process. We therefore demand of our police that they solve crimes, and that they do so by freely and duly agreed process. No matter what our anger, we forgo the self-defeating lynch mob, and the temptation, however understandable, to take the law into private hands.
Yesterday's judgment, therefore, was not only a first instalment on satisfaction for the relatives of the Omagh bomb victims: it was a good day for policing and a good day for democracy.
The impression that emerges of Colm Murphy is not so much that of the dedicated terrorist as of a renegade gun-runner on the make, available in turn to the IRA, the INLA, the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA.
With the mainstream republican organisations on ceasefire, police resources on both sides of the border can continue to focus the kind of detailed attention, which brought Murphy to court, on other suspects - keeping them, in the meantime, in the uneasy awareness that they dare not make a phone-call without the most elaborate precautions.
Good police work and unimpeachable process are two vital elements in building the structure of a society which wants the quality of peace to move beyond the mere absence of violence, and into one where the traditions and aspirations of each other are respected and supported.
Another small step in that direction occurred in the Assembly yesterday when veteran republican John Kelly eloquently supported Ian Adamson's motion to campaign against the "desecration" of the Somme "holy ground".
Progress may never be quick enough nor adequate to the pain of the wounded: but it is happening...
AT first sight I knew he was as guilty as hell. . . . Words do not exist that describe the way I feel about him. Hate is too soft a word." The feelings of Stanley McCombe, who lost his wife Ann in the 1998 Omagh bomb atrocity, are a disturbing reminder of how fresh are the wounds in a community trying to move from anger and hatred through sorrow to genuine peace.
Yesterday's conviction in a Dublin court of dissident republican Colm Murphy, for conspiracy in relation to the Omagh bombing, was an understandable occasion on which Mr McCombe and other Omagh relatives might express pent-up frustration.
But it was also a very significant occasion in other respects. Almost certainly, of course, there will be an appeal, and few would deny that there were a couple of elements in the trial which those dedicated to the highest standards of justice, by due process, might wish to question.
However, most people, noting the balanced manner in which the judges discounted dubious aspects in favour of the overall strength of the case, will feel that the conviction is valid, a feeling that is all the more important in the context of a non-jury trial.
Indeed, there will be anger that the apparent attempts by some officers to short-circuit due process should allow any doubt to be entertained.
For the picture of dedicated and painstaking police efforts on both sides of the border to acquire genuine evidence that could stand up to court scrutiny is one of the abiding images of the trial.
Given the intense attention that was bound to be paid to the conduct of any trial of a suspect in the Omagh bomb case, it was vital that due process be followed to the letter.
This is extremely frustrating for relatives, who have a deep need to see people brought to justice, so that they might begin to achieve some kind of livable closure with their meaningless loss.
It must be almost as frustrating for police officers who might be as convinced as Mr McCombe of the guilt, not only of Colm Murphy, but of several other suspects whom they continue to pursue.
Sir Ronnie Flanagan, as Chief Constable of the RUC and of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland, has known both sides of this frustration: criticism of any shortcoming in relation to investigations, whether it be Omagh or the most recent killing of Daniel McColgan; and the knowledge that only solid evidence may avail in convicting those whom his officers have powerful reason to suspect as being guilty of such crimes.
But that is our choice as democrats: we wish to live in a society based on genuine justice, obtained and expressed through due process. We therefore demand of our police that they solve crimes, and that they do so by freely and duly agreed process. No matter what our anger, we forgo the self-defeating lynch mob, and the temptation, however understandable, to take the law into private hands.
Yesterday's judgment, therefore, was not only a first instalment on satisfaction for the relatives of the Omagh bomb victims: it was a good day for policing and a good day for democracy.
The impression that emerges of Colm Murphy is not so much that of the dedicated terrorist as of a renegade gun-runner on the make, available in turn to the IRA, the INLA, the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA.
With the mainstream republican organisations on ceasefire, police resources on both sides of the border can continue to focus the kind of detailed attention, which brought Murphy to court, on other suspects - keeping them, in the meantime, in the uneasy awareness that they dare not make a phone-call without the most elaborate precautions.
Good police work and unimpeachable process are two vital elements in building the structure of a society which wants the quality of peace to move beyond the mere absence of violence, and into one where the traditions and aspirations of each other are respected and supported.
Another small step in that direction occurred in the Assembly yesterday when veteran republican John Kelly eloquently supported Ian Adamson's motion to campaign against the "desecration" of the Somme "holy ground".
Progress may never be quick enough nor adequate to the pain of the wounded: but it is happening...
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/415
Published Date: 23-Jan-02
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