February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Lawyer Seamus Treacy said London was concerned that the event, the American Ireland Fund dinner, at which an award will be conferred upon on Blair, might be overshadowed by concerns over Judge Peter Cory’s reports into alleged state collusion with paramilitary killers.
British Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy is expected to accept the award on Blair’s behalf at the March 16 event.
“There is cynicism on behalf of the applicants that this is an effort to buy time so nothing will damage the celebrations that are due to take place on St. Patrick’s Day,” Treacy said after a Belfast Court ruled that the British did not have to release, or set a release date for, the reports until March 22.
“It looks as if there is an attempt going on in the background to tinker with the content of this report,” Treacy said. “The families fear the government is sexing-down the report.”
The lawyer was speaking in court against the British government’s attempt to further delay, by three weeks, a legal bid to force London to publish the Cory report. The adjournment was “reluctantly” given by Belfast high court.
The court action is being taken by the Finucane family along with the family of another murdered solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, in conjunction with the family of loyalist Billy Wright, also allegedly murdered with the collusion of the state.
Geraldine Finucane, the murdered lawyer’s widow, said the delay was an insult. Justice John Gillen said he had to balance the desire of the families of the victims to have the reports published against any potential risk to the rights of those named in the documents, along with British “national security” concerns.
Speaking after the ruling, Finucane said she was “extremely disappointed” the case had been held up. “This is just another delay in a long list of delays — they have been delaying for the last 15 years and want to keep it going as long as possible,” she said, adding that the British government had already had five months to consider the legal implications of the reports.