Tithe an Oireachtais
An Comhchoiste um Fhorfheidhmiú Chomhaontú
Aoine an Chéasta
Tuarascáil
Aibhreán 2012
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Houses Of The Oireachtas
Joint Committee on the Implementation of the
Good Friday Agreement
Report
April 2012
31IGFA006
Visit of a delegation from the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement to Derry
29 March 2012
Summary Report of Visit
A delegation from the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement visited Derry on 29 March. The delegation met with a number of organisations and individuals at the forefront of peace building and community relations in the city.
The Committee heard upbeat messages from representatives of a range of community development organisations of a more positive shared civic engagement by all communities in the city. The Committee saw examples of how Derry’s City of Culture 2013 status has inspired the community to reclaim and celebrate in new ways its rich history and political importance through the development of new cultural spaces such as the First Derry Presbyterian Church Visitor Centre and the plans to redevelop and enhance the Museum of Free Derry. The delegation also heard a positive message from community groups regarding closer engagement and better relations between the PSNI and the community both within the city and its environs.
The Committee also took on board the message from the community that the full implementation of the letter and spirit of the Good Friday Agreement is important to their work as it builds confidence in a new Northern Ireland. The Committee heard that aspects of the peace dividend remain unrealised and are exploited by dissidents to undermine peace and reconciliation efforts and community development within the city and beyond. The continued detention of Marian Price and the use of strip-searching in prisons are provoking strong reactions within the community which, in some instances, are being exploited by dissident groups also.
Meeting with representatives of Holywell Trust and other community groups
Holywell’s mission is to encourage positive cross-community working, in facilitating community development & peace building working, commenting on and researching environmental issues, promoting community arts projects and supporting cross-border adult education. Holywell Trust currently shares office space with a broad range of community groups and the delegation met with representatives of all of the groups.
Community workers reported that there was significantly less interface violence in Derry City more recently. However, there is still deep-rooted sectarianism with many people not ready to live alongside members of the other community or to send their children to shared schools. Relations with the PSNI have improved very significantly, including through football projects supported by the PSNI such as ‘Teenage Kicks’ and through more visible and sensitive policing. The Executive at Stormont has also become much more responsive to and welcoming of local communities and this is welcomed. A community worker from the minority Fountain Estate said that he continued to receive sectarian abuse in the city centre. He said that within his own community that there was genuine fear among some of removing the security fences that surround the estate and little support for his cross-community work. He also said that there was little incentive for some of the funded community groups working within the Fountain to find a solution as this would lead to their own disbandment.
Predictability of funding was an issue also with many international funders regarding Northern Ireland as a ‘job done’. Holywell Trust is working with key members of the community to try to create a broad-based shared civic engagement which celebrates the City’s varied history and looks to its future as an economically and socially successful shared space
Meeting with representatives of groups supporting an NI Bill of Rights
The delegation met with Sorcha McKenna and Helen Flynn of the Human Rights Consortium and with Paul O’Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre and Colin Devine from North West Community Network to discuss community support within Northern Ireland for A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. The Human Rights Consortium represents a broad range of almost 200 NGOs and community groups from both communities in Northern Ireland who support calls for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. Ms McKenna said that the 3 devolved regions within the UK had rejected the current British Government’s approach to a UK Bill of Rights. She said that the British Government is taking a very hands-off approach to the issue with regard to Northern Ireland, saying that it is a matter for the parties in Northern Ireland itself. The Human Rights Consortium object to this approach and emphasise that, as the Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland is a key element of the Good Friday Agreement, the sovereign Governments have a responsibility to see it enacted. Responding to questions from the delegation, the group said that they thought that resistance to a Bill of Rights was emanating primarily from officials within the NI civil service who have suggested that an inclusive bill of rights would open the floodgates to judicial proceedings against the administration. They said that international experience did not support this contention. The group claimed that there is 80% support across communities for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.
Visit to Old Library Trust, Creggan
The Creggan is an area which has suffered considerable deprivation over many years. The Centre is involved in health projects such as the UP4IT programme which is a family obesity prevention and management programme. The centre is also involved in broader community development work. The Healthy Living Centre and Early Years Intervention team said that they would like to make links with similar community based projects in the South.
The aim of the Library Trust project is to contribute to peace building by addressing the underlying causes of poverty and inequality and bringing about meaningful improvements in the lives of those living in areas of greatest disadvantage. Director of the Centre, Séamas Heaney said that for many people living in the Creggan and Bogside areas, the quality of their lives have continued to deteriorate, particularly given the current very harsh economic environment. He said that the signing of the Good Friday Agreement had raised the hope of a peace-dividend for those who experienced the greatest losses throughout the long years of conflict. However, there is a risk that the hope for a more just and shared future can quickly return to apathy and despair and that there are those who will cynically exploit that absence of hope for a return to the violence of the past. Community development projects have held communities together through the darkest days of the ‘troubles’ and sustain the most hard pressed communities through the current economic difficulties but only if the needs of those who have suffered most are put first. He said that while it may not be possible to deliver a peace dividend that is expressed in economic terms, the Centre can deliver a dividend that improves the quality of people’s lives by giving them hope and aspiration for their and their children’s future.
Meeting with PSNI
The delegation met with Superintendent Stephen Cargin, Inspector Trevor McKeown, Inspector Alan Hutton and Chief Inspector Andy Lemon in Strand Road Barracks. Superintendant Cargin said that the PSNI had learnt from past mistakes. He said that even minor security incidents which would have lead to a shut down of entire areas in the past. He said by contras the PSNI is now trying to engage more positively with all communities. This means being accessible and contactable by community leaders at all times. It also means replacing armoured vehicle patrols with bicycle or car patrols. He said that the new approach was working very well and described a recent incident in which a women’s group in Strabane came out to stand on the street in support of the PSNI when some trouble had broken out in a local estate. Nonetheless, there had been 362 incidents in the District involving so-called dissidents since 2008. 273 incidents were unclaimed by any group, 71 were claimed by RAD, 26 by RIRA and 17 by Óglaigh. He said that cooperation with an Garda Síochána was excellent. Deputy Tuffy said that the delegation had received positive reports from a broad range of community actors in the City that day on relations with the PSNI.
Meeting with Rev David Latimer, First Derry Presbyterian Church
Reverend David Latimer is the Minister of the First Derry Presbyterian Church. He was named as North-west Person of the Year in January 2012 for his contribution to the City of Derry including his cross-community outreach. He played a central part in the drive to refurbish and restore the First Derry Presbyterian Church in Derry’s city centre, which the delegation visited. He also provided the delegation with a preview tour of the Blue Coat Visitor Centre attached to the Church which is due to open soon and which details the history and contribution of the Presbyterian community to the City of Derry.
Visit to the Museum of Free Derry
The delegation visited the Museum of Free Derry which holds an archive focussing on the civil rights era of the 1960s and the Free Derry/early troubles era of the 1970s and in particular on Bloody Sunday 1972. The delegation met with members of the Bloody Sunday Trust including John Kelly and Tony Doherty. The Trust is currently looking to re- develop
The museum at a cost of circa STG£1.9million. There is currently a funding shortfall of STG£200,000.
Issues arising from the visit, the Committee should consider:
- Agreeing a date for a formal Committee meeting with the Human Rights Consortium
- Sending a revised request for funding for the Justice for the Forgotten to Department of the Taoiseach
- Considering funding request from the Museum of Free Derry
- Providing Old Library Trust with contact details of similar organisations in this jurisdiction with whom they might meet/cooperate in the future.
Members of the Delegation:
Joanna Tuffy TD (Chair); Joe O’Reilly TD (Vice-Chair); Frank Feighan TD; Joe McHugh TD; Pat Doherty MP and Mark Durkan MP.
Émer Deane
Policy Adviser
Committee Secretariat
26 April 2012