Scrutable

An official Troubles history is set to be commissioned by the Government, amid fears the narrative of the conflict is being distorted by Republicans.

Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, has drawn up proposals that would establish a record from the 1960s to the Good Friday Agreement (GFA).

Sources say the plans, being discussed with Downing Street, would guard against what ministers believe to be creeping revisionism around the IRA and the atrocities it committed. It would also focus on the role of the Government and Armed Forces in the 30-year conflict, including bl..dy Sunday in 1972, which saw 13 civilians shot dead by troops.

The history would sit alongside measures announced this year to move away from prosecuting crimes committed before the GFA in 1998 and towards information recovery and reconciliation for the victims.

Whitehall sources insisted the history would be independent of ministers and involve historians appointed to produce a balanced record. It is expected to take several years to compile, and would be similar to the official publications after the First World War.

The move is likely to be welcomed by Unionist parties, who believe the Republican figures have sought to diminish the role of the IRA and recast their own role in the conflict.

However, it is expected to provoke a backlash from Sinn Fein, the nationalist party, which was associated with the IRA. It also risks further souring relations with Dublin, which has already claimed that the Troubles “amnesty” risks undermining the peace accords and could face a legal challenge in the European Court of Human Rights. Mr Lewis intends to begin legislating on the statute of limitations before next year, despite opposition from all of NI’s main parties and the Irish Government.

The effective amnesty will apply to British veterans, former members of the security services and Royal Ulster Constabulary, as well as the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries.

Mr Johnson and Mr Lewis believe it is the only way to prevent elderly veterans being repeatedly investigated. They believe the legal case are failing to provide closure and justice to families, who would be better served by a process centred on information recovery.

Under the NI Office plans, a group of historians would be appointedby the Government on privy council terms to undertake the project. Ministers are considering asking the NI centenary historical advisory panel, chaired by historian Lord Bew, to lend their support and expertise.

Plans by the British Government to commission an 'official history' of the Northern conflict are likely to plunge the North into another 'unnecessary spat'.

The study is planned by Boris Johnson's Tory Government amid a growing belief that the current narrative of the conflict is being 'distorted' by Republicans.

As part of this process Brandon Lewis, the UK's Northern Ireland Secretary, has drawn up proposals that would establish a record from the 1960s to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Sources say the plans being discussed with Downing Street would guard against what Tory Ministers believe to be revisionism around the IRA's part in the conflict.

It would also focus on the role of the British Government and its armed forces in the 30-year conflict, including bl..dy Sunday in 1972, which saw 13 civilians shot dead by British troops.

The killings have already been the subject of a 12-year tribunal which promted a full apology from the British government.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said of the proposal: "The idea that on the most sensitive political issue in Northern Ireland, which is how to deal with the atrocities of the past, that either government - British or Irish - would act unilaterally, without working together, would really be quite extraordinary."

Mr Coveney said that such acts would 'retraumatise in many ways, families of victims of killings.'

The UK has claimed that the history would be independent of ministers and involve historians appointed by the British government to produce a balanced record. It is expected to take several years to compile, and would be similar to the official publications after the First World War.

UK ministers are also considering asking the North's historical advisory panel, chaired by historian Lord Bew, to lend their support and expertise.

One academic source warned: 'They will have their work cut out: no historian who wants to retain their reputation will be associated with a propaganda project.'

In an indication of the scale of the task, the most comprehensive text on the Northern troubles, Lost Lives, took seven years of research and writing.

The book details the life and death of all 3,636 people who died as a result of the Troubles from 1966 to 1999 with the information including the name, date of birth, location, profession, religion, age and marital status of victims together with a brief summary of the circumstances of their death.

Though the book is out of print, the surviving authors have declared their opposition to any governmental involvement in its reprinting as it would 'leave it open to political influence'.

Significantly, both Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Niell and former First Minister Arlene Foster declined suggestions that they might secure the rights to the book.

The Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Lewis, intends to begin legislating on the statute of limitations before next year, ensuring an effective amnesty will apply to British veterans, the IRA, former members of the security services, the RUC and loyalist paramiliaries who committed atrocities during the Troubles. Mr Johnson and Mr Lewis believe it is the only way to prevent now-elderly veterans being repeatedly investigated.

They believe the legal case are failing to provide closure and justice to families, who would be better served by a process centred on information recovery.

Government sources were reluctant to comment, with one noting: 'It's a spat we don't need. This has nothing to do with the North or justice, it is all about his own domestic support.

'It's another Boris blunder to go with the rest of them.'