Time has changed, Ireland - North and South - has changed. Yet the Tory Party hasn’t.

When British Secretary for the North of Ireland Karen Bradley said that killings by members of the Crown Forces in the North of Ireland are "not crimes”, outcry of anger and horror erupted.

In a statement to MPs at Westminster, Bradley said that killings by British soldiers and police in Ireland were the actions of . people "acting under orders and under instruction and fulfilling their duty in a dignified and appropriate way".

The timing couldn't have been worse, apart from being totally out of order. It came when families of the Ballymurphy massacre (in which eleven innocent civilians were shot dead) heard the most shocking details of the murders perpetrated by British soldiers.

It also comes within days of a decision about the prosecutions of soldiers in connection with the Bloody Sunday massacre, in which another fourteen civilians, peacefully protesting for their civil rights, were gunned down in cold blood.

Bradley declined to apologise, but issued a clarification to say she had corrected the parliamentary record to say that "alleged wrongdoing should always be investigated". She then issued a further statement, claiming the language she used "was wrong" and "insensitive" and that she was "sorry for the offence and hurt caused".

Yet the offence and hurt caused are there and, as many in Ireland said, demand Bradley resignation.