Archive for the ‘Northern Ireland’ Category

It has this week come to light that the recently scrutinised Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (OPONI) feels it can no longer investigate the killings of anyone shot dead by a police officer during ‘The Troubles’. This exposes a legal loophole in Northern Ireland, which prohibits OPONI from investigating, in the absence [...]

The murder of a lawyer ought to cause concern in any democratic, rights-based regime. In a state such as the United Kingdom, with its foreign policy consistently pursuing the value of civil liberty, one could expect such a tragedy to be taken very seriously. This week, yet another controversial case from Northern Ireland – that [...]

On Sunday 30th January 1972, British soldiers shot twenty-six civil rights protestors in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland. Thirteen male victims died on that day, while a fourteenth subsequently died of his wounds. The Saville Inquiry, which lasted twelve years and cost £200m, prompted a statement from David Cameron in June 2010 in [...]

A troubled mandate is finally drawing to a close for Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman, Al Hutchinson. After three brutally critical reports, the Ombudsman has said he will stand down in December 2012, cutting short his contract by twenty-three months. The Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (OPONI) deals daily with complaints against the [...]