Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (DUP)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 12 February 2025

Debate

Contribution

My Lords, I represented this area for 14 years in the other place. On 16 February 1992, four IRA terrorists in a lorry with a mounted heavy machine gun and three other AKM rifles attacked the Coalisland police station, like a scene from the Wild West. After doing so, they intended to return to their masters to report and gloat over their evil activity. But, that night, they met a professional Army, which engaged them and finally neutralised them. However, in my opinion, a perverse ruling by a coroner over 30 years later has left these brave soldiers vilified and denigrated, when they ought to have been decorated for their gallantry in the face of cold-blooded terrorism. Can the noble Baroness tell me how this Government will effectively protect our security forces, many in the latter years of their life, from vexatious criminal proceedings? How can they stop republicans rewriting their brutal history of murder and mayhem during our years of trouble?

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