A day late and a dollar short

Travelling and lack of a reliable connection have kept me away from posting. Having tried and failed miserably to post via an iPhone (but will try again soon!) I am dependent on the generosity of friends and free WiFi.

Shaun Woodward, the Secretary of State, announced on Tuesday that the NIO was to begin a formal consultation on the recommendations of the Consultative Group on the Past.

The silence of the last five months has been deafening from government circles. Yet for victims and survivors and community and voluntary sector organisations that I have spoken to, there is a perhaps surprising consensus about the CGP report and that is this: it is likely to offer us the only chance in this generation to begin to put structures in place to tackle the legacy of the conflict.

Of course there is disagreement on the various recommendations. But that is healthy, for it least it means that people, albeit in a whisper, are talking.

So if the NIO's opening of formal consultation is a day late and a dollar short, at least it is now here.

In an op-ed piece in the Newsletter, Shaun Woodward said: " it will never succeed as a top-down edict from the British Government because reconciliation must be as much a part of a shared future as the peace process and the political process."

He is right that it will not succeed if it is directed by the British government, because they too must make the difficult leap of acknowledging their role as an actor in the conflict. We all must being to realise that none of us can walk away with a clear conscience and clean hands, even if our only crime against our fellow citizen was indifference and avoidance.

The consultation runs until October 2 and submissions can be made via www.nio.gov.uk