The UK government on Wednesday promised a statute of limitations to end prosecutions over past unrest in Northern Ireland, angering families of victims of "The Troubles" and the government in Dublin.
The legislation, to be introduced later this year, will effectively give amnesty to both British security personnel and paramilitaries over prosecutions relating to the decades' long conflict, which ended in a 1998 peace deal.
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said it would apply to "all Troubles-related incidents", and was needed as current prosecutions were "far from helping, and are in fact impeding, reconciliation" in the British-run province.
He accepted the move would be difficult for the families of victims.
But he told parliament the new measures would "provide certainty" to veterans and other members of the security forces fearful of being subject to investigations about their actions in Northern Ireland, even if they were lawful.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the plans. "The people of Northern Ireland must, if we possibly can allow them to, move forwards now," he said.
Former soldiers, veterans groups and their supporters have been sharply critical of prosecutions of so-called legacy cases, with defendants now well into old age, and evidence from the time sketchy or now deemed legally unreliable.
- 'Bad faith' -
The widely trailed announcement sparked fury in Northern Ireland, which was riven for three decades by violence over British rule between Protestant pro-UK unionists and Catholic nationalists favouring union with Ireland.
John Teggart, whose father was one of 10 people killed during unrest in the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast in 1971, said London's proposal was a "cynical... plan to bury its war crime".
A coroner in May concluded that British soldiers used "clearly disproportionate" force against "entirely innocent" protesters in the nationalist area.
Lethal force was not justified against nine of the victims, she added.
Teggart said families were being "traumatised" over the prospect of the amnesty and demanded that the loved ones of victims be listened to.
Dublin also pushed back against the UK statute of limitations, with Irish prime minister Micheal Martin calling it "wrong for many, many reasons".
"I don't believe in a general amnesty for those who committed murder, whether they were state actors, or whether they were involved in terrorist or illegal organisations," he told the Irish parliament.
Ireland's Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said London's proposals were not a "a fait accompli" and he was committed to "an inclusive dialogue to try to agree consensus and that's under way".
Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Fein which was for years seen as the political wing of paramilitaries the Irish Republican Army, called it "an act of absolute bad faith by the British government".
- Lingering anger -
Prosecutions from "The Troubles" remain flashpoints for sectarian anger in Northern Ireland, which is still split along sectarian and religious lines.
Earlier this month the prosecution was dropped of two British ex-soldiers accused of killing Irish republicans at the height of the conflict.
One of the killings was on "Bloody Sunday", when British troops shot dead 14 Catholic republican protesters on a civil rights march in January 1972.
Families of some of the 3,500 victims of The Troubles have repeatedly said prosecutions are needed for them to have closure.
In a letter earlier this month, the largest victims' support group in Northern Ireland, the WAVE Trauma Centre, expressed "grave concern" over the plans.
"The majority of victims and survivors are only too aware that the chances of securing a conviction for crimes that are decades old are beyond remote," they wrote.
"But to deny them even that possibility by perverting the criminal justice system cannot be right in a country that prides itself on adherence to the rule of law."
Lewis said police in Northern Ireland were in the process of investigating 1,200 cases relating to The Troubles, which also left some 40,000 people injured.