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Some unionists and IRA supporters agree: Enough is enough
In this story:
May 21, 1998
- Violence 'can be avoided'
- IRA giving peace a chance
- Paramilitaries forced the agenda
- A faint hope
Web posted at: 8:10 p.m. EDT (0010 GMT)From Correspondent Mike Hanna
ARMAGH, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- The seasons come and go in Armagh, but among the constants over the years have been the presence of British soldiers and support for the often-violent resistance group known as the Irish Republican Army.
The IRA has fought for decades to unite the Irish Republic in the south with the British-ruled north. And those suspected of sympathizing with the IRA find that their families are marked, and that fear is a constant companion.
One such person is Peter Caraher, who for decades has feared an attack on his home, because the police have told him, "Our files were under the hands of the loyalist paramilitaries."
Caraher's father died after being beaten by loyalists. One of his sons, Miceal, is in prison and another, Fergal, was killed by English soldiers at the age of 21.
For seven decades, Caraher and his brother, Owen, have feared for their lives.
"You have young men taking up arms ... and more prisoners and more killings ... and more everything, you know, and that should be avoided," Owen Caraher says. "That can be avoided."
Peter Caraher has seen the violence first-hand ... 
... his father was beaten and killed by loyalists... 
... and his 21-year-old son, Fergal, was killed by British soldiers IRA giving peace a chance
But the war that has been waged with such brutal ferocity by the IRA has been suspended, and there glimmers the possibility that the IRA may take the road of political reform rather than armed revolution.
A movement that once operated in the deepest secrecy is now emerging from the shadows and playing a role in the political process.
While some splinter groups continue to insist there is no cease-fire, the official IRA line is that the current peace initiative should be given a chance.
It's a belief shared by some on the other side of the deep Irish divide, where the unionists -- or loyalists -- also appear to be marching to a less militant tune.
Although freshly painted walls show the evident support for unionist paramilitaries and British rule, there are those who also feel that things have changed.
Matt, a unionist recently released from prison, says, "The men of ... violence have turned to politics. In every conflict in the world, the terrorists have become the politicians."
Jim Wilson agrees. Wilson once helped form an underground paramilitary group known as the Ulster Voluntary Force to fight the IRA.
But these days he is campaigning to get people to say "yes" to political dialogue, and to support the draft Northern Ireland peace agreement that will be voted on Friday.
"The ones that are flagging up the 'no' vote are the ones that haven't suffered in this war," Wilson says. "And the realism about it is that the people that have suffered in this war are most of the people that are saying 'yes.'"
Paramilitaries forced the agenda
David Ervine served a five-year prison sentence after being arrested with an explosive device. Once portrayed as a terrorist, Ervine is now a politician who played a central role in the peace negotiations.
"I've been there ... done it ... seen it," he says. "This process couldn't have happened without the will of the paramilitarists on both sides. But, in fact, not only the will of the paramilitarists, but the paramilitarists also drove the agenda for the peace negotiations."
The Loyalist Volunteer Force is the only unionist paramilitary unit that has rejected the peace agreement as a betrayal. But even this most extreme of organizations acknowledges it may have to change its strategy.
"If there was a big or massive 'yes' vote in the referendum and the majority of the unionists vote 'yes,' then I think it will be difficult for the LVF to sustain a military campaign," says a former LVF prisoner.
A faint hope
On this point, even the LVF's bitterest enemy, the IRA, would agree.
"Nobody wants to see life lost, a young man going to prison decade after decade for the same reasons," Owen Caraher says.
The battle has been fought in the city streets and in the countryside for years. But whispering in the wind in the valleys of Armagh is a faint hope that those who broke the peace will be the ones to restore it.
Special section:
Message board:
Newsmaker profiles:
- Tony Blair - British Prime Minister
- Gerry Adams - Sinn Fein President
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- Youth vote key to Northern Ireland peace accord - May 20, 1998
- Sinn Fein endorses N. Ireland peace accord - May 10, 1998
- Sinn Fein set for crucial vote on N. Ireland peace accord - May 10, 1998
- IRA rejects demand to hand over weapons - April 30, 1998
- Key points of the Northern Ireland peace accord - April 11, 1998
Related sites:
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- Office of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
- Sinn Féin
- The Irish Republican Army - and the armed struggle in Irish politics
- Social Democratic & Labour Party (SDLP)
- Ulster Unionist Party
- The Irish News and Belfast Morning News- Northern Ireland's largest morning newspaper
- Northern Ireland Public Service Web
- Britain in the USA -- Northern Ireland: Frameworks for the Future
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