No Gloss – Just Matt!

The audiance was healthy in number and dynamic in composition – that’s those who where present for an SDLP Seminar in St. Mary’s College on the Falls Road focusing on Policing and it’s oversight at times of threat.

The Seminar boasted some very high profile and informed panellists such as John Ware, Barney Rowan and Dame Nuala O’Loan. There were fascinating accounts of real life tragedies and struggles from contributors such as Michael Gallagher and Brendan Duddy.  

A very adept account of particular aspects of the event has already been written, click here and here to view.

For the second time this year (and probably ever) I was reading an opinion piece by Newton Emerson in the Irish News and said, ‘he’s got a point here.’  (Below)

accountability-only-way-to-draw-out-toxic-intelligence

There was an overwhelming consensus in the room, coming from the speakers and the mood of those present that robust oversight is needed to monitor the intelligence services – right now virtually none exists. As Professior Colin Harvey of QUB said at the Seminar, ‘is it right that a police officer is subject to far reaching accountability measures and the intelligence officer they happen to be working with is subject to virtually none? Of course not!’ 

That was very much the consensus. But there was also a feeling in the room – that for whatever reason the intelligence services have continually escaped proper scrutiny, that that will always remain the case. There are too many vested interests, particularly in Northern Ireland, for doors to be opened or lights shone in dark corners. As Barney Rowan said, the governments have an interest in keeping the light off, as do Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries.

As Newton Emerson said in his article ‘  Currently, the peace process approach to intelligence is to build a wall between it and policing so that policing can be made accountable without compromising intelligence. This is why surveillance of dissidents now falls to MI5. Sinn Fein fully endorses this policy, to the point of making a bogus distinction between intelligence and “civic policing”.

Not only does Sinn Fein endorse this separation of accountability, effectively meaning robust oversight of policing and none of the spooks - but they negotiated it! It makes one wonder about those vested interests. And with the presence of Alex Maskey and Bobby Storey at the Seminar on Saturday, one wonders a little more?!

It truely was a dirty war, but people such as the families of those murdered in the Omagh bomb should not have to pay the price of no scrutiny, while undoubtedly others reap the rewards.