There is some justification to the assertion by Irish republicans that Britain is guilty of double standards in releasing convicted murderer Private Lee Clegg yet not releasing republicans caught up in the 16 years of violence in Northern Ireland. Clegg was released after two years of a life term for shooting a joy-rider in a stolen car speeding through a west Belfast war zone. Prime Minister John Major has asserted that Clegg’s case is different because it was not an “intentional” murder. That view is debatable, and, after all, Clegg was convicted of murder which requires if not a premeditated intention to kill, at least a reckless indifference to human life or an intention to commit grievous bodily harm.
In any event, it is not helpful to engage in artificial comparisons of individual culpability in a situation like that in Northern Ireland. The sad truth is that many young people _ soldiers and Catholic and Protestant militants _ were caught up in, or even born, into a cycle of violence that mitigates individual culpability even if it does not excuse it. Sure, some of those convicted are the sort of thug who would engage in thuggery in any society, but many of those convicted of violence might well have led blameless lives if brought up in a different country.
The essential point now is to break the cycle of violence. Until Clegg’s release, Northern Ireland has been blessedly free of major violence for six months. It looked as if progress towards a political settlement was secure. Events of the past few days show that progress is fragile. The hatreds, bitterness and indoctrinations of 25 years are not easily put aside. But the peace of the past six months has been sweet. Maintaining peace and progress towards a political settlement will require concessions and changes from positions previously stated at immutable and irrevocable. It requires the swallowing of pride.
Settlement of virtually all of the seemingly intractable conflicts in the world has required the giving of ground.
Northern Ireland is a far greater test of Mr Major’s moral leadership than dealing with a few Euro-skeptics in his ranks. Mr Major must now show that leadership by releasing some republican prisoners to defuse tension, to show goodwill and to recognize that in many instances the crimes of violence committed by each side against the other in Northern Ireland carried a different motive from common crimes of violence committed in nations at peace.