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The Northern Ireland Peace Process and “Terroristic” Narratives: A Reply to Edwards and McGrattan

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 25; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09546553.2013.755419

1556-1836

Kieran McEvoy, Pete Shirlow,

Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes A. Edwards and K. McGrattan, “Terroristic Narratives: On the (Re) Invention of Peace in Northern Ireland,” Terrorism and Political Violence 23, no. 3 (2011): 357–376. Deaglán de Bréadún, “A Curious Treatment of the Troubles; Review of The Northern Ireland Conflict: A Beginner's Guide, by Aaron Edwards and Cillian McGrattan,” Irish Times, July 17, 2010. P. Cory, Cory Collusion Inquiry Report: Pat Finucane (London: The Stationary Office, 2007). P. Shirlow and K. McEvoy, Beyond the Wire: Ex-Prisoners and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland (London: Pluto, 2008); K. McEvoy and P. Shirlow, “Reimagining DDR: Ex-Combatants, Leadership and Moral Agency in Conflict Transformation,” Theoretical Criminology 13, no. 1 (2009): 31–59. See, e.g., International Monitoring Commission, Twenty-Third Report Of The Independent Monitoring Commission (London: The Stationary Office, 2010); T. Blair, A Journey (London: Arrow Books, 2010); J. Powell, Great Hatred: Little Room (London: Bodley Head, 2008). G. Mitchell, Making Peace (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000). The International Monitoring Commission was established in 2004 by the British and Irish governments to oversee, amongst other things, the extent to which Republican and Loyalist organisations were maintaining their respective cease-fires. V. Matsny, The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 128. See, e.g., Consultative Group on the Past (CGP), Report of the Consultative Group on the Past (Belfast: CGP, 2007); Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (December 2009), The Report of the Consultative Group on the Past in Northern Ireland Second Report of Session 2009–10 (London: House of Commons), 171. K. McEvoy and K. McConnachie, “Victimology in Transitional Justice: Victimhood, Innocence and Hierarchy,” European Journal of Criminology 9, no. 5, in press (2012). Northern Ireland Commission for Victims and Survivors, Comprehensive Needs Assessment: First Interim Report – September 2010 (Belfast: NICVS, 2010), 4. These figures do not include a range of victim-centred initiatives on dealing with the past including the Bloody Sunday Inquiry (£200 m), public inquiries into specific events such as the murders of Robert Hamill, Rosemary Nelson, Billy Wright and the Breen Buchanan Tribunal in the Republic, the work of the Historical Enquiries Team, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, the Commission on the Disappeared—the expenditure on which would cumulatively amount to approximately £500 million. See for example the discussion between Sir Kenneth and senior parliamentarians in Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Minutes of Evidence, 19 March 2008, http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmniaf/333/8031903.htm. Under Peace 1 Ex-prisoner groups received a total of €9.2 million. See P. Shirlow et al., Politically Motivated Former Prisoner Groups: Community Activism and Conflict Transformation (Belfast: University of Ulster, 2005). Under Peace II the total received was €21,288,434 up until 2008 at an official EU exchange rate of £1 – €1.45. See Special EU Programmes Website, http://www.seupb.eu/AboutUs/FAQ. For example, The Belfast Telegraph's (Northern Ireland's main newspaper) search engine presents around 9000 articles on IRA and loyalist victims. J. Brewer and B. Hayes, “Victims as Moral Beacons: Victims and Perpetrators in Northern Ireland,” Contemporary Social Science 6, no. 1 (2011): 73–88. S. White and K. McEvoy, Countering Violent Extremism: Community Engagement Programmes In Europe (Doha: Qatar International Academy for Security Studies (QIASS), 2012). For example, the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Inspectorate reported in their evaluation of a community-based restorative justice project (which is staffed largely by former IRA activists) that “Inspectors were told by senior police officers in West Belfast and Derry/Londonderry that they regard CRJI as the single most important relationship they have in reaching out to the previously estranged or hard to reach republican/nationalist communities living in those areas.” Criminal Justice Inspectorate NI, Community Restorative Justice Ireland: A Follow-Up Review of Community Restorative Justice Ireland (Belfast: CJINI, 2011), 11. See also the Criminal Justice Inspectorate report of a similarly positive role being played by prominent former Loyalist combatants involved in similar projects in working class Loyalist communities. Criminal Justice Inspectorate NI, Northern Ireland Alternatives: A Follow-Up Review of the Community Restorative Justice Schemes Operated by Northern Ireland Alternatives (Belfast: CJINI, 2010). The final paragraph of their article appears to shift focus from those who have researched or written about ex-prisoner projects to those who have written about state-terrorism. It's not quite clear from the text if the critique extends to all scholars who have researched state terror or only those who worked on both state terror and ex-prisoner projects in Northern Ireland. Additional informationNotes on contributorsKieran McEvoyKieran McEvoy is a professor of law and transitional justice and director of research at the School of Law, Queen's University Belfast.Pete ShirlowPete Shirlow is a professor of conflict transformation at the School of Law, Queen's University Belfast.