Beyond the Wire: Former Prisoners and Conflict Transformation in No PDF
Preview Beyond the Wire: Former Prisoners and Conflict Transformation in No
Beyond the Wire Shirlow 00 pre i 12/11/07 14:44:21 This publication is based on research funded by the European Union Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border Region of Ireland under Measure 2.1, Reconciliation for Sustainable Peace, as administered by the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council. Shirlow 00 pre ii 12/11/07 14:44:21 Beyond the Wire Former Prisoners and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland PETER SHIRLOW and KIERAN McEVOY Pluto P Press LONDON • DUBLIN • ANN ARBOR, MI Shirlow 00 pre iii 12/11/07 14:44:22 First published 2008 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Distributed in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland by Gill & Macmillan Distribution, Hume Avenue, Park West, Dublin 12, Ireland. Phone +353 1 500 9500. Fax +353 1 500 9599. E-Mail: Contents List of Tables vi Preface vi Introduction 1 1 Understanding Political Imprisonment: Northern Ireland and the International Context 21 2 Prisoner Release and Reintegration in the Northern Ireland Context 42 3 The History and Evolution of Former Prisoner Groups 56 4 Imprisonment and the Post-Imprisonment Experience 76 5 Residual Criminalisation and its Effects 94 6 Community and Confl ict 107 7 Former Prisoners and the Practicalities of Confl ict Transformation 123 8 Conclusion: Confl ict Transformation and Reintegration Reconsidered? 143 Notes 154 Bibliography 163 Index 180 Shirlow 00 pre v 12/11/07 14:44:22 List of Tables 4.1 Age of respondents 77 4.2 Gender of respondents 77 4.3 Death caused by the confl ict 85 4.4 Serious physical injury 86 4.5 Psychological trauma due to the confl ict 87 4.6 Intimidated out of home 88 4.7 Employment status 88 4.8 Receipt of benefi ts 91 5.1 Awareness of issues and experiences arising from residual criminalisation 100 5.2 Diffi culties in dealing with statutory agencies 102 5.3 Diffi culties in dealing with employers and training providers 102 5.4 Treatment by state forces 103 6.1 Involvement of former prisoners/relatives in community work since their release 108 6.2 Reasons for contact with former prisoner groups 109 6.3 Main issues affecting local community 111 6.4 Contact between former prisoners and people of different political perspectives 112 6.5 Reasons for contacts with people of different political perspectives 113 6.6 Awareness of and attitudes to contacts between former prisoners 114 6.7 Attitudes to victimhood 118 6.8 Attitudes to confl ict 121 7.1 Post-ceasefi re loyalist deaths 135 vi Shirlow 00 pre vi 12/11/07 14:44:22 Preface Pat McGuigan, author of the lyrics to the well-known Irish Republican song ‘The Men Behind the Wire’, was interned in 1972 because those lyrics were deemed infl ammatory and prejudicial to peace in Northern Ireland. A less well-known Loyalist version of the song also exists, which like its Republican namesake demands community support for those imprisoned. Both songs present political prisoners as individuals of principle, and speaks to the notion of communities which ‘stand behind’ such men and women. Imprisonment – those years ‘behind the wire’ – are a sacrifi ce before a ‘triumphant’ return to family, friends and community, that is, the period of being ‘beyond the wire’. Such songs, with their narratives of sacrifi ce and loss, are deeply embedded within Loyalism and Republicanism. Of course, the realities of relationships between former Loyalist and Republican prisoners and their respective communities are more intricate than such eulogies suggest. Certainly there are clear differences between Republican and Loyalist former prisoners and the communities from which they emanate. That said, the reality of a nearly thirty-year- long confl ict in Northern Ireland is that the experience of political imprisonment is a relatively ‘normal’ element of working-class family and community life in both Republican and Loyalist areas. Moreover, former prisoners remain as an organic part of such communities, prominent in many aspects of civil and social life. Yet the role that they have played in the reconstruction of a damaged society is relatively unexplored and at times purposefully ignored. This lacuna in the research on post-confl ict transformation is somewhat peculiar given that former prisoners have been linked to the development of some of the most notable models of confl ict transformation. It is less peculiar when we consider that there remains a desire, by some, to continue to demonise those who can be most easily ‘blamed’ for the confl ict. Such a perspective is challenged within this book in order to pinpoint a more meaningful and appreciative understanding of the complexities of confl ict and post-confl ict recovery and the particular role which former combatants can play in such processes. This book represents the fi rst sustained academic effort to explore the lives of such former prisoners and their families and the roles that vii Shirlow 00 pre vii 12/11/07 14:44:22 viii Beyond the Wire they have played and continue to play in the transition from confl ict. Of course, former prisoners were amongst those who signed the Belfast Agreement in 1998 and more recently, Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness, both themselves former prisoners, have rightly received international plaudits for their peacemaking efforts in reaching the power-sharing accommodation of 2007. However, such an elite-led peace process as that achieved in 2007 requires a concurrent focus upon transitional work that has taken place ‘on the ground’. Even less evident is any signifi cant deliberation on the role that former prisoners have operationalised in the provision of leadership in grass- roots confl ict transformation within and between communities. Such exertions are often demanding, unglamorous and unrewarding, but absolutely crucial in embedding the peace process in places that have suffered signifi cant harm and violation. Our work is based upon extensive interviews, focus groups and survey work with former Ulster Volunteer Force/Red Hand Commando and Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners in North and West Belfast over a two-year period. It builds upon the authors’ cumulative experience of almost twenty years working with and researching politically motivated prisoners in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. We believe that the Northern Ireland experience provides a useful corrective to those assumptions prevalent in the international literature on how to ‘deal’ with former prisoners and ex-combatants in a transition from confl ict. In many other contexts it appears that such individuals are viewed as a managerial headache, portrayed as largely passive recipients to whom measures such as Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration should be applied to remove them from the transitional equation as quickly as possible lest they prove a destabilising infl uence. The Northern Ireland experience suggests a much more dynamic role for former prisoners, ex-combatants and the organisations which they formed. Indeed it is precisely because of their violent pasts that such individuals have been amongst the voices with greatest credibility in promoting messages of peacemaking. Despite continued structural obstacles, and what many would argue was a lack of adequate fi nancial support, many former prisoners have none the less become key agents of confl ict transformation in the transition of Northern Ireland to peace. There are many people who aided this project and provided support in various forms, in particular, Professor Brian Graham, who made a very signifi cant contribution to this project and the arguments and analysis that we promote. We wish to record special thanks Shirlow 00 pre viii 12/11/07 14:44:22 Beyond the Wire ix to Dawn Purvis, MLA and Dr Feilim Ó hAdmhaill who provided excellent research assistance during the fi eldwork. Libby Smitt at the Community Relations Council helpfully administered the research grant upon which this project was largely based. Advice and help regarding the conduction of the survey work and also attendance at various workshops was supplied by Tom Roberts, Tommy Quigley, Michael Culberth, Martin Snoddon, Rab Jackson, Eddie Kinner, Padraic McCotter, William Smyth, Rosie McCorley, Rosena Brown, Joe Doherty, Paul O’Neill, Leo Morgan, Robert McCallan, Sean Campbell, Joseph Barnes, Tony Catney and Mike Ritchie. We would also like to thanks the staff of Tar Isteach, EPIC, REACT Armagh, REACT North West and Coiste na n-Iarchimí. The deaths of Billy Mitchell and David Ervine, both of whom supported our efforts and were prime examples of former prisoners giving their all in seeking to transform confl ict, are deeply regretted. Our colleagues at Queen’s are also due thanks. Shadd Maruna, Clare Dwyer and Ruth Jamieson all provided support and sensible advice. Kirsten McConnachie did the same as well as providing additional research assistance. Also thanks to the support provided by the ever-interested and enthusiastic staff in the peerless Northern Ireland Political Collection at the Linenhall Library. In addition, members of civic society presented themselves for interviews which helped us locate this body of work beyond the former prisoner community. We would like to thank the hundreds of people who took the time to attend focus groups and who completed the questionnaires. Finally Kieran McEvoy owes thanks to Lesley and Órlaith for putting up with more time spent at the computer when there were dinosaurs that needed tending and Peter Shirlow thanks/ apologises (yet again) to Oonagh, Aoife and Ruairi. We hope that this project has also been worthwhile for those who supported us. Shirlow 00 pre ix 12/11/07 14:44:22
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