New Times,
New Thinking.

The grief caused by the Troubles lives on. I know – I’ve spoken to the victims

The government’s new landmark legislation will forever cut off a route to criminal justice for those killed during the conflict.

By Ailbhe Rea

Kathleen Gillespie is replaying the night she and her children were held hostage by the IRA. She remembers sitting in a corner of her living room, with her daughter on her lap, as her husband, Patsy, kissed them goodbye under the watch of IRA gunmen. She remembers what he said, too: “Everything will be alright, girl. I’ll be home soon.”

You can hear the moment it dawns on me. “So this is where it happened,” I say into my Dictaphone. “This is where it happened,” Kathleen replies. We are sitting, in August 2021, in the same living room in Derry where she and her children were held at gunpoint by the IRA in October 1990.

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