My Lords, I have a certain sympathy with Amendment 114A in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Dodds, Lord Weir and Lord Morrow, because, like the noble Lord, Lord Dodds, I have seen so much revisionism over the last number of years. We have seen revisionism from paramilitary forces in order to justify their campaign of terror and to forget about the real victims, who were never involved in perpetrating acts of violence but were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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I remind your Lordships’ House that there has been a constant and unbending democratic resistance among the people of Ireland, both north and south, at the ballot box to state and paramilitary terror. The Minister will be aware of that, but that rewriting of history—of the facts and what happened over the last 50 years, in which people needlessly lost their lives—is offensive to those who lived in that time, who lost loved ones and who followed the path of peace.
That rewriting is also dangerous. It creates false narratives for new generations. At times, the memorialisation is more about triumphalism and justification—be it an FRU trophy photo or applauding
IRA killers of civilians in no-warning bombs in crowded places in the middle of the day. We can all cast our minds back to those instances over the last 50 years.
Your Lordships should be in no doubt that respecting those you loved and lost is right, but this aggressive practice is wrong. I will remember sad graveyards and the pain of families—that is remembrance with dignity, with private pain and tears. As a Greek scholar said, the remarkable resilience and inspiration of so many shows how:
“In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until … against our will”,
in its own time,
“comes wisdom through the awful grace of God”.
We have to try to prevent glorification of what happened in the past, because what happened in the past was wrong. It caused mayhem, destruction and murder, and it robbed many families of their loved ones. In supporting Amendment 114A, I urge noble Lords to consider that there are paramilitary forces out there—and a certain political party—that are involved in deep levels of revisionism at this moment in time.