Families say they won't cooperate with UK's legacy plans

Families who lost loved ones in the Troubles have gathered in Belfast to say they will not cooperate with new UK government arrangements to deal with legacy.

More than 60 families came together for a conference organised by the victims' group Relatives for Justice.

Patricia Burns' father Thomas was shot dead by soldiers as he left a club in north Belfast in July 1972.

They initially claimed he had been a gunman - something the family strenuously denied.

Ms Burns said the family had been "treated as criminals" as a result.

In 2023 the family was finally offered a fresh inquest, but it was blocked by the British Government's Legacy Act which guillotined such cases in May.

Ms Burns said her family wanted the Legacy Act fully repealed and for her father's inquest to proceed.

"I haven't had any clarity whatsoever that my daddy's inquest is going to go ahead," she said.

"And I feel very stuck and very, very unhappy, very sad, very put back to square one.

"I just don't know. It's very difficult to carry on when you're faced with these things, and it would just like to know that we're definitely going to get the inquest.

The Labour Government inherited the Legacy Act from the previous Tory administration.

New Northern Secretary Hiliary Benn had promised to replace it.

However it now appears Labour wants to retain elements of the new arrangements, including the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) which would look into unsolved Troubles' murders.

Mr Benn has promised to reinstate inquests and civil actions.

Following several setbacks in the courts in recent weeks he has said he will consider the judgments before presenting amendments to what is planned.

However, many families believe the new legacy arrangements will continue to cover up the role of the British state in controversial killings.

Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice said the intention of the British government was to "protect themselves and protect their agents".

He said despite a £250m budget and lots of promotion in the media the ICRIR still only had eight cases on its books.

This was in contrast to the 1,100 civil actions, 450 cases with the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman and the 1,300 unsolved murders which had been on the files of the PSNI Legacy Investigation Branch, before all that work became the responsibility of the new commission, Mr Thompson said.

He urged the Irish Government not to drop its interstate case against the UK at the European Court of Human Rights.

He said the only acceptable answer for the British Government to return to the legacy arrangements which had been agreed with Dublin and most of the NI parties under the Stormont House Agreement.