I
write in support of Gerard Quinn’s courageous
and compelling letter (February
11). His plea that justice is not denied following
the murder of his cousin Robert McCartney was both
dignified and calmly reasoned.
If
justice delayed is justice denied then equally justice
obstructed is justice denied.
The
obstruction of justice and the covering up of an
injustice by political or paramilitary groupings
is no less acceptable than the obstruction of justice
and the covering up of an injustice by government
security agencies.
Equally,
if the destruction of evidence by British securocrats
to deny justice to those Irish citizens in whose
murders they colluded is criminally reprehensible
then the destruction of evidence by those who colluded
in the murder of Robert McCartney is as criminally
reprehensible.
Moreover,
the cynical and despicable manipulation by political
representatives of children as young as five years
old to protest against and to obstruct an attempt
to investigate the murder of Robert McCartney was
an injustice that added to the injustice of his
murder.
The
murder of Robert McCartney had everything to do
with civil law and nothing to do with political
principles or the political process.
It
was a crime and no-one had the right, whatever their
political complexion, to threaten or discourage
anyone from the community in which that murder was
committed against cooperating in bringing justice
to Robert McCartney, to his partner, to his fatherless
children and to his mother, father and sisters.
For
an increasing and questioning voice of concern within
the nationalist/republican communities throughout
the north of Ireland the questions most frequently
being asked are:
I
would ask those nationalist and republicans who
have suspended their critical faculties in the pursuit
of an electoral mandate to question whether that
mandate can be used to justify actions and activities
that not only offends the core values of republicanism
but also offends the core values of Christian society.
I
conclude by posing the same question Gerard Quinn
posed in the last paragraph of his letter: How does
murdering the innocent “protector” of
a “respected family” in the local community
build an Ireland of equals?
