Northern Ireland After The Good Friday Agreement: Victims, Grievance and Blame

259 Pages·2002·1.48 MB·English

by  Mike Morrissey

Northern Ireland After the
Good Friday Agreement
Victims, Grievance and Blame
Mike Morrissey and Marie Smyth
P
Pluto Press
LONDON • STERLING, VIRGINIA
First published 2002 by Pluto Press
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and 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166–2012, USA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Mike Morrissey and Marie Smyth 2002
TherightofMike Morrissey and Marie Smyth tobeidentifiedastheauthors
ofthisworkhasbeenassertedbytheminaccordancewiththeCopyright,
DesignsandPatentsAct 1988
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7453 1674 3 hardback
ISBN 0 7453 1673 5 paperback
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Morrissey, Mike, 1946–
Northern Ireland after the Good Friday agreement : victims, grievance,
and blame / Mike Morrissey and Marie Smyth.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0–7453–1674–3 — ISBN 0–7453–1673–5 (pbk.)
1. Northern Ireland—History—1994– 2. Social conflict—Northern
Ireland—History—20th century. 3. Protestants—Northern Ireland—
History—20th century. 4. Catholics—Northern Ireland—History—20th
century. I. Smyth, Marie, 1953– II. Title.
DA990.U46 M68 2001
941.60824—dc21
2001002160
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth EX10 9QG
Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Towcester
Printed in the European Union by TJ International, Padstow, England
Contents
List of Tables and Figures vi
Acknowledgements ix
Preface xi
Part I: Overview
1 Putting the Past in its Place: Issues of Victimhood and
Reconciliation in the Northern Ireland Peace Process 3
Part II: Victims
2 Disaggregating the Troubles: The Importance of Place 21
3 A Special Kind of Victim: Sectarian Killing 45
4 The Young as Victims 64
Part III: Survey Results
5 Experiencing the Troubles 89
6 Severe Experience and Extreme Impact of the Troubles 119
7 The Troubles: The Experiences and Stories of Young People 148
Part IV: Conclusions
8 Truth, Justice and Closure 181
Appendix 1: Constructing a Database on Sectarian
Assassination 190
Appendix 2: Background to the Northern Ireland Survey 194
Appendix 3: The Cost of the Troubles Study Questionnaire 204
Appendix 4: The YouthQuest 2000 Questionnaire 224
Bibliography 236
Index 240
List of Tables and Figures
TABLES
2.1 Deprivation by Sector within Belfast (Townsend Index
and Robson Index) 29
2.2 Political Deaths in Belfast, 1969–99 30
2.3 Political Status of Victims by Belfast Sector 33
2.4 Fatal Incidents in Belfast by Organisation Responsible 34
4.1 Religious Affiliation of Under-25s and Under-18s Killed,
1969–98 66
4.2 Ages of Persons Killed by Plastic Bullets,
August 1969–May 1999 68
4.3 Casualties of Paramilitary-Style Attacks 74
4.4 Comparison of Violence (1969–98) and Deprivation
(1994) in Selected Districts 78
4.5 Education Themes that Emerged in Interviews with
Young People 80
5.1 Weekly Household Income by Ward 100
5.2 Socio-economic Characteristics of Households and
Respondents by Ward 101
5.3 Labour Market Profile of Respondents by Ward 101
5.4 Experience of the Troubles by Ward 102
5.5 Experience of Having to Conceal Things in Order to
Feel Safe, by Ward 103
5.6 Experience of Having a Neighbour Killed, by Ward 104
5.7 Extent to which Experience of the Troubles has
Affected Individuals’ Lives, by Ward 104
5.8 Sources of Help Sought/Obtained, by Ward 106
5.9 Sources of Best Help, by Ward 108
5.10 Level of Satisfaction with Help Received, by Ward 109
5.11 Experience of the Troubles, by Gender 113
5.12 Effect of the Troubles on Individuals’ Lives, by Gender 115
5.13 Effect of the Troubles on Individuals’ Lives, by Religion 117
6.1 Individuals’ Experience Level of the Troubles and
Impact on Their Lives 120
6.2 PTS and Overall Impact of the Troubles 128
vi
List of Tables and Figures vii
6.3 Summary of Support for Those Reporting Severe Impact
and Very Severe Impact of the Troubles on Their Lives 132
7.1 Experiencing the Troubles 160
7.2 Direct Experiences of the Troubles 163
7.3 Severe Experiences of the Troubles 166
7.4 Assignment of Responsibility for the Troubles 172
A2.1 Numbers and Rates of Response by Ward 200
FIGURES
2.1 Population Segments in Belfast 28
2.2 Area Deaths and Other Characteristics 31
2.3 Death Risk by Religion 32
2.4 Religious Distribution in Derry Londonderry 39
3.1 Sectarian Deaths by Age Group 50
3.2 Intensity of Sectarian Violence by Period 51
3.3 Sectarian Deaths by Year by Organisation Responsible 52
6.1 Impact of the Troubles by Individuals’ Experience 121
6.2 Experience of PTS by Gender 126
6.3 Experience of PTS by Religion 126
6.4 Experience of PTS by Ward 127
6.5 Severe Experience of the Troubles by Impact 130
6.6 Proximity, Intensity and Numbers Affected by a Single
Event 133
6.7 Proximity and Impact of Multiple Events 134
6.8 Types of Proximity to Troubles-Related Events 135
6.9 Interrelationship of the Various Factors Relevant to
Policy and Strategy Development 146
A2.1 Coding Tree for Data 196

Acknowledgements
We thank Roger van Zwanenberg, Robert Webb and the other staff
at Pluto Press for another seamless production process. We particu-
larly wish to thank Chrissie Steenkamp for her work on the
manuscript, and for her time and thoroughness in the tedious job of
sorting out references. Once again, thanks to our spouses, Frances
Connolly and Alan Breen for tolerating all that this book has
entailed. We thank those who funded the research on which this
book is based: the Central Community Relations Unit of the Central
Secretariat; Making Belfast Work, North and West teams; the Special
Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation through the
Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust; a private donation; the Cultural
Diversity Group of the Community Relations Council; the Belfast
European Partnership Board and the Community Relations Council.
We also wish to acknowledge the help of the following people:
Yvonne Murray, Linenhall Library; Professor John Darby; Gillian
Robinson; Brandon Hamber, Centre for the Study of Violence and
Reconciliation, Cape Town; Professor Arlene Avakian of the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Arlene Healey from the
Young People’s Centre; and Maurice Meehan from Barnardo’s
Northern Ireland. Our thanks to all the young people from various
communities in North and West Belfast, Derry and elsewhere who
contributed enormously to our understanding of the impact of the
Troubles; and to 85 adult interviewees and over 1000 survey respon-
dents who participated in our enquiries.
Finally, and by no means least, our thanks to our current and
former colleagues, Siobhan McGrath, Marie-Therese Fay, Dr Jennifer
Hamilton, Aishlene Campbell, Jan Keenan, Kirsten Thomson and
Chrissie Steenkamp at the Institute for Conflict Research, Belfast;
and to our chairperson, Chris O’Halloran, for providing gentleness
and sanity at all times, even if it was only pretend!
ix

Preface
In Northern Ireland’s Troubles: The Human Costs we described the
patterns of deaths that had resulted from the political conflict from
the late 1960s to the early 1990s. The project was undertaken in the
belief that the process of reconciliation in Northern Ireland would
benefit from an understanding of who had died, where they had
lived and what organisations were responsible.
The core assumption was that our narratives of the Troubles are
essentially partisan so that we tend to attribute blame and responsi-
bility to the ‘other side’. Thus, some of those who died are seen as
innocent victims while others got no more than they deserved. This
tendency crosses the political divide – Unionists focusing on a
Republican conspiracy against the security forces in particular and
the Protestant population in general – Nationalists pointing to bias
and repression amidst the security forces and the widespread murder
of Catholics by Loyalist paramilitaries. An understanding that no
side has a monopoly of grief derived from an objective account of
political deaths might enable one to see the conflict from the per-
spective of the ‘other side’, illustrating that no one has a monopoly
on grief or grievance. Thus we took the view that those who died
could not be divided into ‘real’ and ‘bogus’ victims. The concept has
to be inclusive and comprehensive although some individuals had
a greater degree of choice about participating in the events that
caused their deaths than others.
Since then, events have moved on. The peace process remains
fraught with difficulty, but a new programme for government that
makes reference to the victims issue has been produced. There are
different sets of victims’ organisations with differing definitions of
victimhood, each making claims to legitimacy and to sources of
funding. Reconciliation is still a priority within what remains a
divided society. Moreover, The Cost of the Troubles Study, which
gave rise to the first book, undertook a survey of the Northern
Ireland population to investigate the impact of the Troubles on those
who have lived through them. This piece of work facilitates a broader
and deeper understanding of the everyday impact of the Troubles
on people’s lives than a database of fatalities.
xi