Peace and Justice in Northern Ireland

Big news from Northern Ireland, where British authorities have arrested Sinn Fein political leader Gerry Adams in connection with a brutal and mistaken murder committed decades ago:

Mr. Adams, who turned himself in, is being questioned about one of the most heinous crimes during decades of violence in Northern Ireland: the abduction and murder of Jean McConville, a 37-year-old widow and mother of 10 wrongly believed to be an informant for the British Army. She was dragged wailing from her home as her children watched in horror, by men who made little effort to hide their identities. Her body was not found until 2003.

To this day, her children will not identify the kidnappers for fear of still-active I.R.A. splinter factions, even though some of them have said that they know who was involved and that they still see certain culprits around the neighborhood.

Mr. Adams has vehemently denied involvement and did so again on Wednesday. His defenders have criticized American courts for pursuing the documents at the request of British prosecutors.

To this I will merely repeat something I posted a few months ago, the advice former President Herbert Hoover gave to then President Harry Truman about postwar Germany:

You can have vengeance, or peace, but you can't have both.

If the people of Northern Ireland want peace, they are going to have to forget a whole lot of crimes.