The Troubles began in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s and lasted until the 1998 Good Friday agreement.

“The British government’s decision to ban all Troubles-related criminal and civil actions, and legacy inquests, will be seen by many victims as a betrayal of trust which denies justice to them and to their loved ones,” Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, the Primate of All Ireland, said in a statement. “It is disturbing that victims and survivors, those who have paid the highest price for the fragile peace we all enjoy today, once more feel marginalized and neglected.”