Starmer Opens Possibility of Prosecuting Veterans Who Served During the Northern Irish Troubles

Holy smokes. This is an evil and ugly bag of worms that didn’t need to be unzipped.

For those of you too young to remember or who weren’t even alive yet during ‘the Troubles,’ I’m glad you don’t have any memory of it.

It was awful, no matter where you came down on it. Thirty years of violent sectarian carnage and terrorism.

…between the overwhelmingly Protestant unionists (loyalists), who desired the province to remain part of the United Kingdom, and the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nationalists (republicans), who wanted Northern Ireland to become part of the republic of Ireland. The other major players in the conflict were the British army, Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), and Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR; from 1992 called the Royal Irish Regiment), and their avowed purpose was to play a peacekeeping role, most prominently between the nationalist Irish Republican Army (IRA), which viewed the conflict as a guerrilla war for national independence, and the unionist paramilitary forces, which characterized the IRA’s aggression as terrorism. Marked by street fighting, sensational bombings, sniper attacks, roadblocks, and internment without trial, the confrontation had the characteristics of a civil war, notwithstanding its textbook categorization as a “low-intensity conflict.” Some 3,600 people were killed and more than 30,000 more were wounded before a peaceful solution, which involved the governments of both the United Kingdom and Ireland, was effectively reached in 1998, leading to a power-sharing arrangement in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont.

The temporary walls in Belfast to keep the warring factions apart became permanent, much like the temporary British troop deployment sent over to keep the peace, which spent almost forty years there.

   

It became the British Army’s longest deployment ever in their history, with over 330,000 British troops eventually rotating through, and all on British soil.

One of the most shocking of the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) assassinations occurred in August of 1979, when a Provisional IRA bomb blew up the yacht of a cherished war hero and much beloved cousin of Queen Elizabeth, killing him, three others onboard, and leaving others badly injured.

Lord Louis Mountbatten, cousin to the Queen of England, had a favourite holiday spot. It was Glassybourne House at Mullaghmore in Ireland. Mountbatten was a naval war hero and the last Viceroy of India, the man who had supported Mahatma Ghandi’s bid for independence. He thought he was safe there, believing he was well-loved locally, even though the Irish Republican Army was attacking prime targets in order to force Britain out of Northern Ireland. On the morning of August 27th 1979 Lord Mountbatten’s motor boat was blown to pieces by an IRA bomb, killing him and three others However, the IRA had not finished their operations in the area on that day: a second attack, by the same IRA group, would kill 18 British soldiers at Warren Point, just hours later. 

Lord Mountbatten was, perhaps, the most recognizable name in decades of unceasing wanton, indescribable sectarian death and destruction, but there were killings enough to enrage and sicken the soul, no matter who you were or what flag you waved.

Thirteen people were shot dead and at least 15 others injured when members of the Army’s Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside – a predominantly Catholic part of Londonderry – on Sunday 30 January 1972.

The day became known as Bloody Sunday.

It is widely regarded as one of the darkest days of the Northern Ireland Troubles.

A lot of people nowadays know the words to the songs, but they don’t know the history.

The Troubles officially ended with 1998’s Good Friday Agreement, and, with the withdrawal of the last British troops from Northern Ireland in 2007, the British military occupation was also over.

That didn’t erase thirty years of death, the accusations of blame, and the search for some sort of justice. By 2023, the Sunak government was looking for a way to close the book on the now endless cycle of retribution and recriminations for the Troubles, and developed an extraordinarily controversial bill to basically just end it.

Called the Legacy and Reconciliation Bill, the legislation passed through Parliament in mid-September against the vociferous objections of the Irish and Northern Irish governments, as well as families and victims of the violence. What it did, in essence, was offer blanket pardons and immunities, ending most investigations and prosecutions on all sides, except for the most grievous already in progress. The chances of securing convictions after, in some cases, almost half a century, the government argued, were nearly nil.

…The legislation will stop most prosecutions for killings by militant groups and British soldiers during “the Troubles,” three decades of violence in which more than 3,500 people died.

The 1998 Good Friday peace accord largely ended the killings. But a quarter century on, the wounds are still raw for those who lost loved ones at the hands of Irish republican and British loyalist militias and U.K. troops. Many say the new law will allow killers to get away with murder.

…Under the terms of the 1998 peace agreement, many militants were released from prison or were not prosecuted for actions during the Troubles, a decision that long rankled people affected by the violence.

Britain’s Conservative government says the law reflects the increasingly small likelihood of convicting defendants of decades-old crimes. Instead of the courts, a new Independent Commission for Information Recovery and Reconciliation — loosely modeled on South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission — will investigate alleged crimes.

Former militants and soldiers who cooperate with the commission and reveal what they know about past crimes will be granted immunity from prosecution, and new civil claims and inquests over the Troubles will be banned. People who refuse to “engage meaningfully” with the commission could still be charged.

There was a sincere collective feeling that British troops were bearing the brunt of the reconciliation process.

…The previous government’s aim was to end what it said were vexatious prosecutions against British army veterans. To do so, it passed the Legacy Act halting all but the most serious allegations involving Troubles-related cases, including killings by paramilitaries, from being investigated any further.

Backlogs dating back decades mean there was never a police or coroner’s investigation into a wide range of deaths during the Troubles – but the plan to halt almost all inquiries was met with opposition from both nationalist and unionist parties in Northern Ireland and the families of those affected.

Those blanket pardons have become the sticking point, because Keir Starmer’s ruling Labour Party is now proposing to rescind the Legacy and Reconciliation Bill. 

…The government is in the process of repealing the 2023 Northern Ireland Troubles Act, passed by the previous Conservative government, which brought an end to civil cases and inquests examining deaths during the Troubles. In 2021 more than 1,000 civil cases were before the courts.

Conservative ministers also proposed conditional immunity for perpetrators of crimes in exchange for their co-operation with a new truth recovery body.

British forces were believed to have been responsible for 301 deaths during the Troubles, out of a total of 3,520. There were concerns that veterans were being disproportionately investigated when compared to IRA terrorists.

There are again indications that the British troops who were in Northern Ireland all those years ago as part of an Operation Banner deployment will now be the focus of these investigations and inquiries.

No one will be chasing down any IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), or Ulster Defense Force (UDA) terrorists for appearances or answers. It appears they will be going after British Army pensioners.

‘Every IRA killing was unlawful, every one a murder. Yet terrorists got pardons, while our soldiers face prosecution for doing their jobs under fire.’

David Davis MP on the double standards of Northern Ireland veteran prosecutions, while IRA terrorists have blanket pardons. pic.twitter.com/GSLJ8jD9kS

— GB News (@GBNEWS) July 30, 2025

People are angry.

‘Our government is sacrificing our soldiers for political ends… to basically appease Sinn Féin and IRA apologists.’

David Davis MP says the government must stop the prosecutions of British veterans who served in Northern Ireland. pic.twitter.com/ISzqTMpJh6

— GB News (@GBNEWS) July 30, 2025

And veterans who were in the middle of a warzone feel like they’re being sold out for political correctness by people who have no idea what went on in that hellish place. That every incident any of them were involved in is going to be scrutinized for a chance to prosecute for war crimes.

…Veterans said all the focus seemed to have been on the “right to life” of “armed terrorists” and that they felt alone in facing criminal investigations for what they were trained, authorised and expected to do during the Troubles.

“The anger, frustration and embitterment they feel at their treatment will need to be addressed if they are to be persuaded to co-operate with duties reviews and investigations,” the letter said.

It is understood that dozens of special forces veterans are being investigated over historic incidents and if the number of civil cases, inquests and potential criminal prosecutions continue that figure will rise into the hundreds. Former regular personnel could also face inquiries.

Veterans said an inquest in February that ruled the use of lethal force by SAS soldiers was unjustified when they opened fire and killed four IRA men in an ambush in Clonoe had “brought matters to a head”.

The IRA members died in 1992, minutes after they had carried out a gun attack at Coalisland in Co Tyrone.

The special forces troops opened fire at the men as they arrived at St Patrick’s Church car park in a hijacked lorry which had a heavy machine gun welded to its tailgate.

Mr Justice Michael Humphreys, Northern Ireland’s presiding coroner, who was also a High Court judge, found that the SAS soldiers did not have an honest belief in the necessity of using lethal force, and that it was unjustified and not reasonable.

The operation was not planned and controlled in a way to minimise to the “greatest extent possible” the need to use lethal force, he said. The UK government is challenging the ruling on the basis that ministers do not believe it reflected the context of the incident.

THE CONTEXT OF THE INCIDENT

BREAKING – Labour Defence Minister
Alistair Carns ‘on resignation watch’ over Attorney General Richard Hermer’s plan to prosecute veteran British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq (via @TheTimes) https://t.co/hOlMVCr58m

— Joe Rich (@joerichlaw) July 15, 2025

If the British Army wasn’t already at its nadir or close…

…Politicians from all sides, along with military chiefs, admit Britain’s armed forces have been “hollowed out”. It’s true for the Royal Navy and the RAF – and perhaps most acutely, in the British army.

In 2010 the regular Army was nearly 110,000 strong. Now, it is struggling to meet its target of 73,000 soldiers – not enough to fill Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.

Earlier this year defence minister and former Royal Marine, Al Carns, told a conference at the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank, that the entire British Army could be “expended” within six to 12 months if it fought a war on a similar scale to the Ukraine conflict.

…throwing its old soldiers to the wolves might actually be a scandal and hurt recruiting.

For Two Tier Keir’s government, choosing to pursue Army pensioners instead of terrorists would be just another day at Whitehall.