Here we go again. Another British Member of Parliament (MP) has vilified someone working at a human rights law firm in Northern Ireland.
On Tuesday, during a parliamentary debate on the British government’s terrible legislative proposals to deny people’s right to prosecute former British security personnel and others from crimes committed during the 1969-1998 conflict, MP Ian Paisley referred to a “legal practitioner” representing the family of Colum Marks, an IRA man shot dead by the police in 1991, as “vindictive” and a “snake oil salesman.”
New blog post: @dooley_dooley says, “here we go again,” as a British MP attacks a human rights lawyer from N. Ireland while defending proposals to halt prosecution of former British security personnel for crimes during the 1969-1998 conflict.
Read it: https://t.co/q4p3SPpkoO
— Human Rights First (@humanrights1st) July 21, 2023
Solicitor Gavin Booth of the firm Phoenix Law has represented the Marks family since 2015.
Under British parliamentary privilege, MPs are protected against legal liability for statements made in the course of their legislative duties. Booth challenged Paisley to repeat the remarks outside the protection of parliamentary privilege.
Slurs against human rights lawyers in Northern Ireland have a long and terrible history. Three weeks before Belfast human rights lawyer Pat Finucane was murdered in his home by paramilitaries in February 1989, British MP Douglas Hogg told parliament there were a number of lawyers in Northern Ireland “unduly sympathetic to the IRA.”
The family of Seamus Ludlow, murdered by UDR & loyalist infiltrators near Dundalk in May 1976, fully supports our esteemed solicitor Gavin Booth, and call on Ian Paisley to withdraw his disgraceful remarks. We are appalled that another Paisley would abuse privilege like this. pic.twitter.com/GnfFTuH2fN
— Michael Donegan (@jdenverfan) July 21, 2023
The NGO named after Pat Finucane, which now works with victims and survivors of the conflict, responded to Paisley’s remarks: “As we saw with Pat Finucane, words can be lethal, though no-one is suggesting that was the intention… the intention was to abuse parliamentary privilege to denigrate the reputation and professionalism of a very diligent member of the legal profession who is doing his job.”
Human Rights First is one of many groups that has supported the Finucane family’s calls for a full independent public inquiry into the lawyer’s murder for decades.
Prominent Northern Ireland legal academic Colin Harvey has also endured years of targeting on social media for his work. In the context of Northern Ireland, these attacks are potentially incendiary. Those familiar with the political landscape in Northern Ireland know that vilification can be a prelude to something else. Allies often use the phrase, “we know where this can lead.”
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