The NCRR: A Silver-lining for a National Remembrance VII - The time has now come for ‘Oscailteacht’!

This is the 7^th article and podcast & article that I have produced about Ireland’s National Centre for Research & Remembrance (NCRR), seeking as I do, to highlight the silver-lining for this great endeavour. Today I am going to talk about the need for ‘Oscailteacht’ or openness.

In the past few weeks I have been contacted by some Irish people, anxious to talk to me about the NCRRs creation of a range of committees to plan for the building and housing of exhibits that will bring it is hoped, closure for many of Ireland’s Institutional victims.

The NCRR will also have a dedicated Research Centre, an area for personal reflection and a social housing unit.

Those who have contacted me have expressed their surprise or frustration with the application process for the various committees, some who have been chosen have expressed their distrust with the construct of these vehicles.

Image of Infographic from the NCRR Stakeholder Session in Dublin in October 2024. The Infographic highlights the key issues raised by Stakeholders. Note references to 'non-recurrence' made by Frank Brehany. (Credit to the NCRR, Special Advocate for Survivors & DCDE)

I can see why. Firstly, it appears that the main committee, the Steering Group has been operating for some time and therefore I would suggest, had had the opportunity to have relevant persons on this committee from the get-go. Most of whom I have spoken with, told me they hadn’t been selected for this or that committee and wondered why they had applied in the first place. Some who were successful were cautious about what lay ahead of them, worried it seems that those they were about to sit around the table with, would not listen or develop their ideas for the NCRR. These are real concerns, not made easy by the exclusion of those families whose loved-ones died before a State Apology and are excluded from any application to a committee by reason of an arbitrary decision that limits what is meant by having a direct ‘lived experience’ (though note the interesting exchanges I had with one Department and an apparent change of heart for the smaller committees). Many of you who have followed me on this NCRR journey will know that I am one of those individuals. You will also know that I have challenged this not only with the Department in question but also with the Minister directly. But leaving myself to one-side for a moment, it is clear that the Irish State Authorities do not also recognise the many people who hold the same status as me, and many have told me, that they wouldn’t waste their time applying for such roles on a committee because in their words, ‘they don’t want someone like me in the room’.

Well I think I can subscribe to that sentiment, but even if that was true, it would represent the very real fear that Irish Government Departments appear to have with the indirect victims of Ireland’s Institutional past.

From my perspective, as I have said, not only have I applied for the Steering Group, for which I was rejected, but I have consistently challenged the overseeing Department’s very Public ‘commitment’ on delivering ‘non-recurrence’ into the NCRR. For those joining this series for the first time, ‘non-recurrence’ is an International Human Rights set of policies and obligations to deliver, through a range of important initiatives, the right to truth and the delivery of ‘never again’ where gross human rights violations have occurred. This is an important ‘commitment’ to make, particularly as the 24 March 2026 is the International Day for the Right to the Truth!............Read More....

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