Marie Breen Smyth - Contemporary Debates

Contemporary Debates

In March 2005, Breen-Smyth, (then Smyth) gave evidence to the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Inquiry into Dealing with Northern Ireland's past. Her evidence was based on her work with victims, through the "Cost of the Troubles Study".

In 2006 Breen-Smyth with Richard Jackson and Jeroen Gunning coauthored a paper The Case for a Critical Terrorism Studies proposing that a new discipline was required to stimulate debate and widen the discourse within orthodox terrorism studies.

On 13 February 2007, The Guardian published an article 'The abuse of research' by Breen Smyth and Jeroen Gunning in which they argue that the sources of funding and the political agendas of think tanks should be taken into account when interpreting their findings, and may mean that their reports need to be treated with care. The article argues that the politicisation of research can lead to serious distortions in the understanding of policy issues.

In April 2008, Breen-Smyth was the subject of an attack by right wing journalist Melanie Phillips who based her attack on the assertions and documentation provided by an anonymous student who took one of Breen-Smyth's courses at Aberystwyth. Phillips wrote to the Vice Chancellor of Aberystwyth complaining that Breen Smyth was a 'subversive' and shouldn't be allowed to teach. However, Breen Smyth was supported by the university and many claiming to be her students.

In 2007 Breen-Smyth was one of those shortlisted for what was envisaged as a single post of Victims Commissioner for Northern Ireland, but she was not among the four Commissioners eventually appointed in January 2008. Breen-Smyth opposed the appointment of four commissioners instead of one, which required new legislation delayed by an unsuccessful judicial review brought by victims' representative Michelle Williamson. Breen-Smyth separately launched a legal challenge to the appointments in the employment tribunals, claiming discrimination on the grounds of religious belief, political opinion and sex, but this was rejected in February 2011.