Table Of ContentBeyond the Wire
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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.
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Beyond the Wire
Former Prisoners and Conflict
Transformation in Northern Ireland
PETER SHIRLOW and KIERAN McEVOY
Pluto P Press
LONDON • DUBLIN • ANN ARBOR, MI
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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