Ulster Unionist Leader, Mike Nesbitt MLA, has warned against allowing history to repeat itself as the latest Stormont House Talks opened with a focus on paramilitarism and associated organised crime.

The Strangford MLA said:

“I think we have a unique opportunity to demonstrate a collective political will to finally rid the country and indeed the island of organised criminality associated with paramilitary groups, and with it the scourge of their presence in parts of our society.

“The lesson of history is clear. We must not turn a blind eye to these matters. At the Talks, I reminded all parties of the conclusion of the Royal Commission that investigated the causes of the 1916 Easter Rising, which was that the authorities turned a blind eye to violence 100 years ago, and the result was the insurrection. I know Sinn Féin did not like me reminding them of the Commission finding but it has a relevance today that cannot be ignored.

“We must seize the chance to re-imagine our society as one in which there is no room for paramilitary structures, or for the organised crime that blights communities, damages the economy and sullies our international standing.”

The Royal Commission on the Rebellion in Ireland was published on 10 May 1916. Its Conclusions stated, “The general conclusion that we draw from the evidence before us is that the main cause of the rebellion appears to be that lawlessness was allowed to grow up unchecked, and that Ireland for several years past has been administered on the principle that it was safer and more expedient to leave law in abeyance if collision with any faction of the Irish people could thereby be avoided.”