{"id":3635,"date":"2016-05-10T12:42:11","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T11:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=3635"},"modified":"2016-05-12T08:45:13","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T07:45:13","slug":"truth-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=3635","title":{"rendered":"Truth Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

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TRUTH RECOVERY, THE JANUS EFFECT AND LEGACY ISSUES.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many political commentators, representatives of victims groups, traditional nationalists and unionists and \u2018assorted others\u2019 hope that the recent elections to Stormont will herald, finally, a move towards full truth recovery and the mixture of retribution, revenge, recognition and support that will surely follow. The \u2018victims\u2019 lobby firmly believe that they have been seriously overlooked and probably re-victimised by the failure of successive Stormont initiatives in general and by a succession of Secretarys of State in particular. Most people would have some degree of sympathy with victims on this issue. It seems that when the \u2018peace process discussions\u2019 reached the \u2018home straight\u2019, attention to detail on the \u2018victims issue\u2019 was overlooked in order to get the agreement over the line, so to speak. This is now coming back to bite us all on the bum. The debacle of the \u2018on the runs\u2019 and other unpalatable decisions introduced by Blair and his acolytes have had the media \u2018spotlight\u2019 shone on them and it\u2019s now the time for victims and survivors to take centre stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Different interpretations of the meaning of \u2018truth\u2019 abound and no more so than in Northern Ireland. Martin Heidegger, the German Philosopher refers back to the Ancient Greek meaning- \u2018Un-concealment or the revealing or bringing of what was previously hidden into the open\u2019. The unveiling of \u2018truth\u2019 can be a liberating act \u2013 the final act in a process sought to deliver true democracy and \u2018parity of esteem\u2019. If only that were the case. When all aspects of the security forces, here and around the world, former colleagues, comrades, friends and republican and nationalist commentators and the vast majority of the Northern Ireland population articulate their belief, based on knowledge, that Gerry Adams masterminded the most ruthless, bloody and indiscriminate terrorist campaign ever seen in Europe \u2013 his response is \u2018that\u2019s not the truth\u2019. Some of his most recent utterances has placed himself on the bus with Rosa Parks, led the \u2018civil rights movement\u2019 and \u2018trampolined\u2019 naked with his dog!!! The range of topics, issues and historical events at the receiving end of Gerry\u2019s rewriting is legendary. He is not alone in this respect. What is the real truth for Gerry? Will we ever know?<\/span><\/p>\n

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The ancient Roman god, Janus was believed to preside over the beginning and ending of conflict \u2013 Gerry certainly has had a role something similar in this latest conflict, though the depiction of Janus having two faces \u2013 for looking to the future and the past, wouldn\u2019t be a good description of Gerry \u2013 being \u2018two-faced\u2019 is probably more apt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, Truth Recovery will be extremely important to the supposed implementation of the \u2018Fresh Start\u2019 document, but it will be viewed as part of a wider issue \u2013 \u2018Legacy\u2019. For Truth Recovery to have any chance of working will be incumbent on Legacy issues being resolved to the benefit of all sides and shades of opinions \u2013 a massive problem to implement. Collins defines legacy as \u2018something handed down from an ancestor or predecessor\u2019. That description is quite relevant in this debate \u2013 \u2018We were born into these troubles\u2019, has been a strap-line used by many ex-combatants and is useful when used contextually. Stormont and its newly elected MLA\u2019s have a mountainous challenge,\u00a0 that may be helped if the spirit of Janus \u2013 looking to the future and back at the past, is adapted and forms any discussion about the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>A South Belfast \u2018Janusian\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

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