- Title: UK: Northern Ireland's former gunmen become community workers
- Date: 9th April 2008
- Summary: (EU) UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION, NORTHERN IRELAND, UK (FILE 1995 ? ) (REUTERS) IRA MEMBERS, WEARING BALACLAVAS AND FATIGUES AND CARRYING GUNS IN TRAINING
- Embargoed: 24th April 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Domestic Politics,Social Services / Welfare
- Reuters ID: LVA9LW0ZD35SNSKIQRYN3RWJ8JEJ
- Story Text: Ten years after the signing of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement, former gunmen from both sides of the sectarian divide turn to community work to heal a province deeply scarred by years of the "Troubles". A decade after the peace deal was signed on April 10, 1998 guerillas from the Irish Republican Army and its opponent the Ulster Volunteer Force speak to Reuters Television about their new roles in Belfast society Signposted both "RPG Avenue" and "Beechmount Avenue", the Belfast street that was once frequently targeted by sectarian violence is now home to Coiste, a European Union-funded organisation looking after fellow republican former prisoners.
"I have bought into the concept of not fighting for a united Ireland with arms, I have bought into the concept of politically struggling for a united Ireland. It will come," says former Irish Republican Army (IRA) member Michael Culbert, who has exchanged his days of IRA violence to run Coiste.
He now fights, from his desk, for the rights of former political prisoners whom he says are discriminated against by a law that labels them as former political convicts. The law, he says, makes it difficult to find employment, insurance and other guarantees of normal life.
"What we need is equality of citizenship," said Culbert, who served 16 years in the Maze prison for killing members of the British forces.
Coiste, and other groups led by former prisoners on both sides of the conflict, now work on building relations between the divided communities, where tensions still simmer and not everyone has forgiven or forgotten the atrocities that shattered families and divided friends.
Most analysts and residents agree that Northern Ireland will not return to all-out sectarian violence between mainly Protestants, who want the province to remain British, and predominantly Catholic republicans or nationalists, who want reunification with the rest of Ireland.
But, 10 years after the Good Friday peace agreement was signed, Belfast is still criss-crossed by walls separating Catholics from Protestants.
Doctor Peter Shirlow, lecturer in criminology at Queens University Belfast and author of many books about former gunmen, says the community still holds the gunmen in high regard because they have stuck with their struggle.
"They may not like the violence that they undertook, but they understand that these people have been at this for 30 or 40 years, and that their commitment is to community," Shirlow said.
A few streets away from Coiste at the so-called peace wall, a Berlin wall-like barrier dividing Catholic and Protestant communities, former guerilla with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) Noel Large conducts political tours.
"I was released from prison in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, having spent 16 years in the H-blocks, having been sentenced to four life sentences and 357 years for various other sentences. I have worked for the last ten years building relationships across this peace line," Large says, as he introduces himself to tourists.
Large joined the UVF when he was 17-years old and spent 16 years in the Maze prison for murdering four Catholics.
"There's a positive message that we can send out with these tours that, not only is our community trying to move away from the violent past, but I think it's good when someone of my sort of background plays a role,"
said Large, who conducts his tours on the Protestant Shankhill Road area of Belfast.
Like Culbert, Large still holds tight to his political beliefs but has lost his faith in the politicians in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
"I would say this from the bottom of my heart, I honestly believe that I have done more in terms of real peace in the last ten years than Ian Paisley has," he said referring to the leader of Democratic Unionist Party and Northern Ireland First Minister.
The Good Friday Agreement largely ended 30 years of sectarian violence -- the so-called Troubles -- during which more than 3,600 people were killed, including around 2,000 civilians and 1,000 members of the security forces. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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