After 35 years of conflict, IRA ‘volunteers’ face uphill return to society
10 August 2005
Agence France Presse
The Irish Republican Army has ordered its militants to lay down their arms after 35 years of conflict in Northern Ireland, but a smooth return to normal life for these “volunteers” is far from guaranteed.
The number of full-time IRA militants is only about 200 and many one-time supporters feel they would make ideal additions to the territory’s police force due to their experience in prison.
But hardline Protestants, who were the main target in the Roman Catholic group’s campaign to free Northern Ireland from British rule, are outraged at such a suggestion.
“I think you will see ex-IRA volunteers getting a life, going back to their families, getting into education,” said Gerry Adams, president of the IRA’s political wing, Sinn Fein.
In addition, “there is a huge need on the policing issue to strengthen community responses,” he told AFP.
Laurence McKeown, a former IRA leader at the notorious Maze prison in Belfast, said the IRA’s statement last month to disarm and pursue purely peaceful means to achieve its goal of a united island of Ireland affected a couple of hundred militants and their future.
“You are not talking about thousands of IRA volunteers who are in the jungle or in the mountains but only several hundreds who are part of the community,” he told AFP, putting the figure at about 200.
“It’s not like if you had a big group out there who are suddenly being demobilised,” said McKeown, who served a 16-year-sentence for attempting to murder policemen, and was released in 1992.
He felt that former convicts or IRA volunteers should be allowed to join the police service in the same way that they could become teachers or doctors.
“We had the example of Robert McBride, he is now a police chief in South Africa … there is no better person to be a police chief and give an example in black militant townships than someone who has been in prison,” he said.
At the same time, McKeown said former IRA militants would have to overcome legal barriers to join the police, noting that Adams was able to take part in a devolved government but could not join the civil service.
But Ian Paisley junior, an MP for Northern Ireland’s main Protestant party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) — headed by his father — rejects the mere notion of IRA militants becoming police officers.
“There are enough good Protestants and Roman Catholics out there who will make very good police officers, without us having to turn paramilitaries and gangsters into officers,” he said.
“There must be no change in the vetting procedure,” insisted Paisley. “Otherwise, there would be no confidence in the police force if criminals and former criminals are allowed in.”
McKeown, who runs an emotional support service with 19 trained councilors to help former “brothers-in-arms”, said the main problem for ex-prisoners was a lack of professional experience in the work force after spending years in jail.
In addition, such men have to come to terms with the fact that their armed struggle is over.
“They are coming out to a different world, creating a new identity in the future. It’s like somebody working on a job for 30 years and suddenly being made redundant, it does have an impact,” said McKeown.
In the large cities, such as Belfast or Derry, such people often find work at taxi companies, while in rural areas they can use more manual skills such as plumbing and building, according to the former IRA member.
