US Republican warns opposition to British proposals on Troubles legacy will continue if it wins election

Opposition in Washington to planned British government legislation to deal with Northern Ireland Troubles legacy issues will continue if the Republicans win forthcoming US elections, a senior member of the party has said.

Congressman Mike Kelly told The Irish Times that political figures on Capitol Hill are hopeful that new British prime minister Rishi Sunak “will drop the legacy legislation altogether in the interests of continued good US-UK relations”.

Polls suggest that the Republican Party will take back control of the House of Representatives in Washington from the Democrats. The parties are neck and neck in key contests which will determine the fate of the US Senate.

There has been broad bipartisan opposition in Washington to proposed moves by the British to end prosecutions and restrict inquests and civil claims arising from the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

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Mr Kelly, who represents Pennsylvania, indicated that this was likely to continue should his party ion the midterm elections next month.

“While there may be a changing of the guards in the US congress come November, our united opposition to the legacy legislation will remain solid among my colleagues on both sides of the aisle,” he said. “Any attempt by the British government to curtail the investigation of crimes committed during the Troubles would be highly problematic.”

Mr Kelly said that given a House of Commons committee had found the legislation, as currently drafted, was “unlikely to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights”, a requirement enshrined in the Belfast Agreement, he was hopeful it would not be progressed.

Lobbying

The largest Irish-American organisation in the US, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, has been carrying out a strong lobbying campaign in Washington for some time to generate opposition to the British proposals. Mr Kelly spoke at the order’s summer conference in Pittsburgh.

Danny O’Connell, the order’s president, said at the weekend that it was not a politically partisan organisation and was confident that opposition to the British legacy proposals would continue in congress after the forthcoming elections.

He said it was good for the US to have a special relationship with the UK, but if London did not keep to its commitments under the Belfast Agreement, then his organisation would continue to point it out.

In a letter to members of congress in Washington last week, the order said its efforts regarding the British legacy proposals were “making a difference”. It reminded them that last March the House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution opposing any attempt by the British to implement an amnesty or a statute of limitation that would end or inhibit the investigation of crimes committed during the Troubles.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin last week described the legacy proposals as “wrong” and said London needed to give the issue “very serious consideration” as it had the potential to undermine the Belfast Agreement. His comments on Thursday came as an Oireachtas committee again urged the Government to commission legal advice on challenging the proposed British legislation in the European Court of Human Rights.

The order has formally asked the Oireachtas committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement to request that the attorney general consider taking a State case on the proposed legacy legislation to the European court.