A former Northern Ireland Secretary is calling for crimes committed during the Troubles to be left unsolved, and that includes some three thousands murders.  Peter Hain said that a de facto amnesty was needed in order to allow Northern Ireland to put the past behind it.

Hain’s comments are informed by the trial of suspected IRA bomber John Downey, which collapsed in February.  Downey was a suspect in the Hyde Park bombing in which four cavalry soldiers and seven horses were killed.  The case collapsed after a series of police and prosecution blunders, and the passage of time.  Looking at this outcome, Hain, who was Northern Ireland secretary for then-PM Tony Blair from 2005 to 2007, believes that North Ireland has got to stop living in the past and look ahead.

“I think there should be an end to all conflict-related prosecutions.  That should apply to cases pre-dating the Good Friday agreement in 1998,” Hain said, adding that it should go for Republicans and British troops.

“A soldier potentially liable for prosecution who's being investigated for Bloody Sunday has got to be treated in the same way by whatever process emerges as a former loyalist or republican responsible for a terrorist atrocity.”

Hain made his comments just before Irish president Michael Higgins begins a four-day state visit to the UK on Tuesday.  That will bring former IRA Provo and current Northern Ireland MLA Martin McGuinness alongside the Queen at a state banquet – among the many who’ve put the Troubles in the past and decided to work towards the future.

McGuinness is praising the Queen for being a “staunch supporter” of the Irish peace process.

“I think she played a leadership role and is playing a leadership role in the whole context of the need for reconciliation” McGuinness said.