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Seanad Éireann debate -
Saturday, 25 Apr 1987

Vol. 116 No. 1

Expression of Sympathy.

I must interrupt you at this moment but, of course, I will allow you to continue. I understand that the Leader of the House wishes to make a statement.

I asked for a suspension of Standing Orders to move a vote of sympathy on receiving news of the murder this morning of Lord Justice Gibson and Mrs. Gibson. I am sure that all Members of the Seanad will join me in condemning this cowardly act. I ask permission for the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Brian Lenihan, coChairman of the Anglo-Irish Inter-governmental Conference, to address the Seanad.

It is with great regret that I have to inform the Seanad of the murder this morning of Lord Justice Gibson and Mrs. Gibson. Lord Justice Gibson and Mrs. Gibson had just travelled across the Border at the Dundalk-Newry road when their car was blown up by an explosive device which killed them instantly.

Lord Justice Gibson had a long record of service in the Northern Ireland Judiciary. His murder is an act which all right minded people who stand by justice and the rule of law must condemn as an outrage. The men of violence who perpetrate such acts have no wish to enhance the administration of justice but are set on subverting the democratic values on which our society, north and south, of the Border is based. Today in a message I sent to the Secretary of State, Mr. King, I assured him, as I did also at the meeting of the Inter-Governmental Conference in Belfast last Wednesday, that we intend through security co-operation to see that the perpertrators of all such acts of violence and terror throughout the island are brought to justice and their evil intentions frustrated. I ask that Members of the Seanad join with me in a motion of sympathy to the relatives of Lord Chief Justice Gibson and Mrs. Gibson, to the members of the Northern Ireland Judiciary and to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr. King.

On behalf of my party, I join the Minister for Foreign Affairs in this vote of sympathy to the relatives of the dead judge and his wife. This dastardly act strikes at the very roots of all civilised behaviour and it must meet with the total condemnation of people on all sides of our community.

Not for the first time have I had to speak about someone I had met in Northern Ireland. This was a great shock because I have before the House for possible discussion on the Adjournment, a motion which is not indirectly related. Mr. Justice Gibson may have made judgments with which people disagreed but we were able to disagree. We were able to criticise and criticise we did. This is the most ultimate act of arrogance, the act of assassination. The people who perpetrated it today in Northern Ireland seem to know no limit to this arrogance.

There is much to criticise in Northern Ireland certainly but also much has been done to try to improve and to make it a fairer society. Many members of the minority community today will confirm this. The tragedy is that when one attacks a person who is an upholder of an institution, you are attacking much more than just the individual. No individual deserves any more sympathy than any other on an occasion such as this but when that person represents institutions which we might wish to change, which we would always wish, in a democratic society, to criticise or to be allowed to criticise, something very precious is destroyed. The voice of free expression is again being curtailed in Northern Ireland; fear stalks the land. I came down that road myself this morning and I never thought that I would be speaking about such a dastardly act here in Seanad Éireann. All I can say to the killers is that they should consider their arrogance and the assassination as a reflection of impotence; what are they going to do about it? We have had enough of it. As a person from Northern Ireland, out of the minority tradition in Ireland, I thank you for the sentiments you have expressed about this dastardly matter.

Like the Minister, I am shocked and appalled at the very tragic news that has been conveyed to this House. I agree with the view, particularly expressed by Senator Robb, that when there is an incident of this kind, an incident which causes the death of a member of the Judiciary, it is a very real threat of a fundamental sort to society. When the person killed is somebody that you have had occasion to know — and I am in the same position as Senator Robb in that — it brings an additional sadness and an additional shock.

I met Lord Justice Gibson on a couple of occasions but last October I was invited as a guest speaker to a TCD association dinner in Belfast and Lord Justice Gibson was the representative of Queen's University. We sat beside each other over dinner and obviously we conversed very fully during it. I agree with Senator Robb, my impression of Lord Justice Gibson's position on the Bench and some of the judgments was that they are matters with which I would substantially disagree. I would not share the approach which enunciated from the bench but as a man, as an individual to talk to, he certainly was somebody with whom it was possible to have a full exchange of ideas and indeed the full freedom to have that exchange.

The reason I have put my own view on the record on this is that it represents for all of us a very serious reminder that we have not solved the Anglo-Irish problem. We may have commenced a very difficult process but we must realise that if we are to make progress, a great deal more generosity, thought and understanding from this part of the country will be required. I was going to make some comments — and I will in my contribution to the Single European Act — about the Anglo-Irish Agreement but we must look into our hearts and realise that we have not solved in any measure the Anglo-Irish problem. We have an enormous amount to do and we can begin by having an openness of mind on that and an understanding of the depth of the tragedy of the people of Northern Ireland who suffer this kind of shock to the system, who suffer the tragedy of a man and his wife being blown up in this dastardly way. I join with the House in expressing sympathy to the family.

On behalf of the Labour Party I wish to join with the Minister for Foreign Affairs in his expression of sympathy and shock on behalf of the Government and the Seanad sitting today to this outrage against humanity which has been perpetrated at the Border.

Apparently, the late Lord Justice Gibson and his wife came safely through our jurisdiction from Dublin this morning and were being escorted to the Border to cross to their own jurisdiction. It is a tragedy that a person in a democratic system is unable to travel with safety between one point and another. It makes one wonder what the whole justification for these types of acts are. There is no mandate given by any people on either side of the Border to this kind of action by anybody, action that will serve no useful purpose or cause. It probably will put back for many years any hope of settlement to the problem we have about the unification of our country. For that reason alone it is a major tragedy.

It is a tragic occurrence for the family concerned and, irrespective of whether one agrees or disagrees with his judgments or comments, he filled a judicial and constitutional post and gave his view as he saw it. The fact that he could do so without fear of contradiction or of anything else is an indication that in some way we have a young democracy in operation. Obviously the men of violence disagree and have taken the action they are wont to take and which they have taken so often recently, the act of taking people's lives. I condemn it outright and I join with the Minister in his expression of sympathy to the family and to those concerned and our utter condemnation for those who are responsible.

I should like to join with the Minister and the other Members of the House in condemning in the strongest possible terms this appalling crime. There was a time when I would have felt that such a motion passed in this House was the weeping of crocodile tears. I no longer hold that view. It is a very sad occasion which should cause us to reflect on many things including out attitudes to Northern Ireland. The first reason it is appropriate that this motion should be passed is that the people who perpetrated this crime, whether we like it or not, did it in our name. They claim to have done it in our name and it is appropriate that the Houses of the Oireachtas should dissociate themselves in the strongest possible way from this sort of crime. Secondly, I welcome the Minister's statement on co-operation with the security forces in Northern Ireland. We should reflect on that and possibly it is appropriate — not to get into specifics — that with this crime in view the Government should reconsider their attitude to the Extradition Act which was passed by both Houses before Christmas.

In supporting this expression of sympathy I should like to make the point that every outrage must be condemned. Sometimes people feel they are running out of adjectives and, as Senator Ross has said, there is the danger that we may be accused of weeping crocodile tears but it is important on every occasion not to give these murderers the impression by our silence that somehow they are wearing down our morale. Indeed, that is one of their objectives and it is in more senses than one a war of attrition. In the end they hope, according to their bizarre political theology, to win our retrospective approval for what they do. Let us remember also, in terms of enlightened self-interest that, if it is a Northern judge today, it is a Southern judge tomorrow. I do not think it is an occasion for drawing out the political implications of what has happened today and I am glad to be able to join in this expression of sympathy.

So that we can write this expression of sympathy into the records of the House I formally propose that the Members of the House join with me in a motion of sympathy to the relatives of Lord Gibson and Mrs. Gibson, to the members of the Northern Ireland Judiciary and to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr. King.

I second the motion.

Is the motion agreed to? Agreed.

Members rose in their places.

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