A Trojan Horse? Unionism, Trust and Truth-telling in Northern Ireland

The aim of this article is to examine the relationship between trust, testimony and truth recovery processes as part of post-conflict transition. The paper uses the case study of unionist attitudes toward a community-based truth-telling project in Northern Ireland to demonstrate the impact an absence of trust can have upon what the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur has described as the ‘space of controversy’ that emerges between the ‘certification’ and the ‘accreditation’ of testimony. The paper suggests such distrust is a legacy, not only of conflict, but also of the particular circumstances of transition and the specific mechanisms of truth recovery adopted. Ultimately the paper argues for a holistic, community-centred approach towards truth-telling and raises issues relevant to other violently divided societies undergoing transition and grappling with ways in which to deal with the legacy of political conflict. Introduction: No Time to Talk? Trust and Truth-telling in Northern Ireland There is deep suspicion amongst loyalists in Northern Ireland about the high potential for a ‘truth process’ to be abused by republicans to suit their political agenda. A repeated concern expressed by this group has been that republicans – who are seen to be very skilful in the art of propaganda – would use a truth commission as a stick with which to beat the British state.1 Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) in April 1998, which signalled the end of 30 years of armed conflict in Northern Ireland, there has been an ongoing (if generally muted) debate on how to deal with the legacy of the past. However, discussions of any substantive truth-telling mechanisms, that have become the norm of post-conflict transition practice internationally, have rarely come to the centre of the Irish political stage.2 There have been some important and innovative civil society efforts to advance the debate on truth recovery, most The International Journal of Transitional Justice, Vol. 2, 2008, 42–62, doi:10.1093/ijtj/ijm029 Advance Access publication: 25 November 2007 © The Author (2007). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email [email protected]. * Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Ulster, Jordanstown, Northern Ireland. E-mail: [email protected] † Reader, Department of Social and Psychological Sciences, Edge Hill University, UK. E-mail: [email protected] 1 Martin Snodden et al., Truth Recovery: A Contribution from within Loyalism (Loyalist Truth Discussion Group: Belfast, 2004). 2 Brandon Hamber, ‘Rights and reasons: Challenges for truth recovery in South Africa and Northern Ireland,’ Fordham International Law Journal 26 (4) (2003): 1074–1094; Priscilla Hayner, Unspeakable ijm029.qxd 1/2/70 1:44 AM Page 42