Editorial: Amnesty for Troubles atrocities breaks international accords and puts peace process at risk
The British government is playing to its home audience by seeking to close down inquiries into killings during the Troubles, but the Irish government is right to oppose the move
Almost 100 years ago, it was an Irish government that decided to bring in an amnesty for past atrocities.
The Irish Free State brought in an act of indemnity for its own forces in August 1923 for killings they had committed during the Civil War. And it extended that amnesty to anti-Treaty forces in 1924.
The result was that there never any prosecutions for atrocities carried out on both sides. But the wounds left by ...
