Gunsmoke and Mirrors

Throughout almost twenty years reporting on the Northern conflict and its aftermath, I have come across many individuals within the Provisional republican movement whom I have grown to like and in some cases even cared about. I have come to the conclusion that a large majority of them would never have become engaged in 'ordinary crime' or wanton acts of violence had it not been for the circumstances in which they grew up. Despite what the loyalists might think, I have also found the majority of them when operating on a professional basis to be entirely courteous, helpful and at times useful in the pursuit of stories. Moreover, their present ministers in government (a Northern Ireland government!) are among the most personally amenable and human in their handling of press and public. And I have realised that a number of them have themselves been personally damaged by the extraordinary events they have lived through. An even smaller number too from the hindsight of three decades are individuals tortured by the carnage and indeed the futility of it all, some of which they personally wrought upon others in their very own communities.