Cowardly leaders pay lip service to ending this grotesque spectacle

He died alone, without any family, struggling to breathe and miles from home. He was determined to face down his accusers, but the farce that is the judicial system in Northern Ireland got their man in the end.

The trial killed him. The prosecution read into “hearsay” historical evidence – no new evidence was presented. It reminded me of the kangaroo courts we used to have in barracks as young soldiers. Except this was no joke.

Whilst many are united in the condemnation of these trials, they have to be witnessed in person for the full abhorrent nature of them to be truly appreciated. An old man – barely able to hear, dying in front of us, alone save for his dogged legal team led by Philip Barden, totally abandoned by his political masters that sent him to prevent civil war so many decades ago.

Things happened in NI that should never have happened. People died who should never have died – the vast majority of course by republican and loyalist terrorists. But to think that these witch-hunts are a way of correcting that is completely absurd.

Justice? We all want justice. But no one is quite brave enough to frame what justice might actually look like to the families some 50 years later.

The investigations were appallingly bad; evidence was often collected in a way that is not lawful today. We let down many, many victims and security force personnel who died in the conflict. But the real question is what to do with the world as we find it, not as we would wish it to be.

My contempt for those who make a living off the back of the grievance industry in NI knows no bounds.

Politicians have for years promised to end this grotesque spectacle. They know it’s not fair, they know it helps no one. They do care – the public loathes how we treat our veterans, and for secretaries of state and special advisers guided only by the latest opinion poll without any original ideas of their own, this makes them care.

But they simply don’t care enough to actually do anything about it. Not once has the NI Secretary asked me what to do to sort this out; the Prime Minister can’t even be bothered to reply to my letters or make time to see me or others to discuss it. I call them cowards for not standing up for people like Dennis. They have displayed a political cowardice that cowers in the face of a bullying narrative that we should be ashamed of our veterans. I simply will not accept it. Rest easy, Dennis. I miss you, my friend. I’m proud of you.