Former NI Secretary rejects reports he ‘turned a blind eye' to IRA crimes
Former Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid has denied ministers had any power over police investigations after he reportedly said the Blair government 'turned a blind eye' to IRA crimes in a meeting in 2001.
Newly declassified files from the National Archives in Kew are said to include a record of a meeting that took place at Hillsborough Castle on October 9 2001 between then-Northern Ireland secretary John Reid and Sinn Fein politicians Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, alongside Mr Adam's aide.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, these files reveal that the minister explicitly told Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness that the government deliberately 'turned a blind eye' to IRA criminality, including murders.
Lord Reid of Cardowan, who was given a peerage in 2010, told Parliament on Wednesday that criminal investigations are a matter for the police and the courts, and that ministers 'had no power to interfere with that process'.
He added that the transition from war to peace is 'not always easy' and that he and others persevered 'whatever the odds' to secure that peace for Northern Ireland.
He paid tribute to David Trimble, an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician and the first First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002, and to John Hume, the founder of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, for their work.
Labour frontbencher Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent added that 'we should never forget the context they were operating under', and thanked Lord Reid for his role in the peace process.
Lord Reid told the House of Lords: 'The conduct of investigations and prosecutions in Northern Ireland, as in the rest of the United Kingdom, was exclusively under the control of the police service, the prosecution service and the courts.
'Ministers had no locus, they had no power and no desire to interfere with that process.
'The transition from war to peace is not always easy and what ministers did do, accompanied by the work of people like Lord Trimble and John Hume, was to persevere in a political peace process, whatever the odds, and that has resulted in inestimable benefits for all the people in Northern Ireland.'
His comments came after UUP chairman Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard raised the issue in the upper chamber.
Lord Elliott said that, while he did not support the Northern Ireland Troubles Legacy and Reconciliation Act 2023, because of the immunity granted to perpetrators, at least the Conservative Government 'had the courage and the decency to bring it to this House for debate and voting, instead of having de facto amnesty'.
He said: 'I did see that Lord Reid at the time did warn Prime Minister Blair the consequences of having Sinn Fein, linked to a terrorist organisation, in government'.
He asked Lady Anderson: 'Does the minister accept that Gerry Adams was a senior figure in the IRA?'
Lady Anderson responded: 'I cannot comment on anything to do with the archive and, as to the matter he raises, it is a current matter of ongoing court proceedings.'
She added: 'Any alleged criminality that took place after April 10 1998 remains a matter for PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland).
'The UK Government does not comment on National Archives releases or releases related to previous governments.
'I would, however, like to take this opportunity to pay thanks to the secretary of state at that time, as well as all secretaries of state for Northern Ireland for their role in the incredibly challenging work helping to maintain peace, as well as delivering and implementing the Good Friday Agreement, including the effective decommissioning of weapons.
'We owe them an immense debt of gratitude and should never forget the context under which they were operating.'
Lady Anderson said of Lord Reid: 'He is absolutely right and he knows better than I, as someone who served our country in government in numerous roles at Cabinet level, that the police have complete operational independence.
'I think we owe everybody that operated as politicians, both in Northern Ireland and in the UK Government, who worked so hard in the most difficult of circumstances to deliver peace, a huge debt of gratitude.
'Every day we now have to live up to the promise of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, the spirit of the Stormont House Agreement, to make sure that the people of Northern Ireland and the people of Great Britain have that peace that was so difficultly earned.'
The meeting which is said to have taken place between Mr Reid and the Sinn Fein politicians would have happened amid a backdrop of pressure on the IRA to start the process of decommissioning its large arsenal of weapons.
According to The Belfast Telegraph, the National Archives files say that Mr Reid told Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness that the IRA 'could not expect HMG (Her Majesty's Government) and the UUP to say this publicly, but in practice we could seek to shift the focus away from decommissioning.
'The quid pro quo was that other paramilitary activities – smugglings, beatings, robberies and murder – would come under closer scrutiny.
'We had turned a blind eye to these activities in the belief that the IRA was involved in a process of transition.'
He reportedly added that 'if the IRA was not involved in any of the issues the government claimed, then it should have nothing to fear from intensified efforts to prevent murders, beatings, robberies and other criminality'.
A fortnight after the meeting, on October 23, the IRA announced that it had decommissioned its first tranche of materiel.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, the newly released files also reveal that Mr Reid told Tony Blair in August 2001 that it was increasingly difficult to justify devolution with Sinn Fein while it was 'linked to an active, private army' which had 'undiminished' criminal activity.
In an eight-page memo to the Prime Minister, Mr Reid apparently said: 'We cannot for much longer go on hiding the truth about what they are really getting up to – killing, robbing, targeting, developing new weapons, racketeering.'
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