The Fingers on the Trigger

The Fingers on the Trigger

Melanie McFadyean

Although Southern Ireland proclaimed its independence from Great Britain in 1916, Northern Ireland is still governed by Great Britain and is officially part of the United Kingdom. The battle lines have been drawn for hundreds of years. Most Catholics have opposed British rule and supported independence. Most Protestants have supported the British. The following reading, written by journalist Melanie McFadyean, appeared as a newspaper article in The Guardian, a major London newspaper, in 1988. McFadyean interviewed two active members of what have often been called terrorist groups by their enemies and freedom fighters by their supporters: the Irish Republican Army and the Ulster Defense League.

Key Concepts

IRA, the Irish Republican Army, is a secret organization, predominantly Catholic, working for Northern Ireland's independence from Great Britain through military means and unification with Southern Ireland.

UDA, the Ulster Defense Army, is a predominantly Protestant paramilitary organization based in Ulster, Northern Ireland, actively engaged in fighting the IRA and advocating a Northern Ireland separate from Southern Ireland.

The Troubles is a term for the conflict between Protestant and Catholic, British loyalist and Irish Republican.

ULSTER FREEDOM FIGHTER

"I didn't get actively involved until I was 16. I'm in the UFF, the military wing of the UDA. I am a freedom fighter, not a terrorist or a guerrilla. The IRA are terrorists and the problem with this country is the IRA. The UFF is a cell structure organisation. Like every organisation we have an intelligence section. Once we are given a known Republican we eliminate him or attempt to eliminate him. We would eliminate known Republican women as well. I have eliminated people on various occasions. It's a target that has to be eliminated. I never feel any feeling afterwards. I have eliminated six.

It's hard to sit back and watch Protestant people being killed. We know who to eliminate because of Intelligence. I'd rather not say where we get that from. You don't go out and shoot someone you haven't got a picture of. You have to know your target. I wouldn't stiff you (pointing at one person) if I meant to stiff you (pointing at another). I go into Republican areas quite often.

Our enemy are Sinn Fein, the IRA, IPLO, INLA. I would not attack the security forces, but they are not on our side. The security forces know it's the IRA doing the killings but very few are charged. There's nothing wrong with a shoot to kill policy. The RUC are British puppets. I believe the SAS would kill us if told to. There wouldn't be any qualms.

These Troubles would be sorted out if we had an independent Ulster. The ordinary decent working class Catholics have nothing to fear. As for the Unionist politicians, they have had twenty years to solve it. I wouldn't be prepared to live in a United Ireland either economically or in religious ways. If it happened the Northern Protestants would take up arms. I think of myself as an Ulster Protestant. I would say I was British. But I want an independent Ulster.

It's everybody's right to live--to a certain extent--except people who take up arms against the State. I think more innocent Protestants have been killed than Catholics.

I have never talked to Republicans. I don't see any future for them in this country, in Northern Ireland. I don't see any future for the Republican movement in Northern Ireland.

My earliest memories of the Troubles are lying in bed and listening to the riots in the Shankill and the Falls. I know a fellow who was shot, I didn't know him personally to talk to. It upset me.

The Troubles started when a lot of bigots, civil rights, upset the Protestants. It was the clergy and religious bigots on both sides. There were civil rights marches and things like that. I was too young to know what it was all about. The civil rights may have meant well but the majority of it was Catholic. A lot of it was started out by the Catholic Church, in my eyes. Then the Republican element came in. I feel the Republican cause gets put better.

Let me ask you--can you understand? I live here. I have a whole picture. We all live in the same conditions. You hear people screaming about the conditions of West Belfast--their houses are just as good as ours, or just as bad. There's no difference between Catholics of the Falls Road or Protestants in the Shankill. We don't live in large houses up the mountain. The IRA's arms come from Libya. The communists are paying for their arms. Arms are also coming from the USA, one of the greatest capitalistic countries in the world and yet the IRA are socialists.

There's no common ground. They go out and shoot people and blow them up. They are trying to force the IRA down our throats. They were fighting before Ireland has been in trouble, since the beginning of time."

IRA VOLUNTEER

I was about eight when it all began. I remember the British Army coming in and I remember being harassed. I felt I wanted to do something. My parents tried to protect us but it was impossible. The area I'm from is not a ghetto, it's a "respectable" area but even there it was impossible.

A very close friend of mine was shot dead. Before that I saw arrests, I saw the British soldiers abusing children. I saw the way the British restricted our education and prevented us from learning about our culture and traditions. We are Irish and we have a culture and an identity and we're not allowed to fulfill that.

I am not married and I have no children. My family know of my involvement. I can't stay at home two nights in a row. You can't have a normal family relationship. Your social life is confined to Nationalist areas. I am a Catholic, I go to Mass on a regular basis.

All operations are discussed by volunteers involved. No volunteer is given an order that cannot be queried. Volunteers all have training. I've always queried reasons. I don't like to see any civilian hurt and would question any bombing, including ones if there were danger to British civilians.

Loyalists are definitely not our enemy. The IRA don't believe this is a sectarian war. The IRA will retain the right to execute known Loyalists, for example Lennie Murphy, the notorious Shankill butcher. The British Government are our enemy, and anyone they employ on a security basis, including building workers and contractors. Loyalists who are involved in death squads which are threatening our people would be legitimate targets for execution.

I would never have been involved in violence had it not been for the British presence. I don't feel our country should be governed by a foreign country. The means was the IRA and I volunteered.

I have been in prison, I did time and came out and rejoined. In jail we had an education process, reading about other people's struggles.

Do I think the IRA will succeed in getting the British government to withdraw from Northern Ireland? Look how Margaret Thatcher reacted after Brighton. The SAS executed a number of volunteers after that. After Ballygawley volunteers were assassinated. Despite Gibraltar there have been bombings--that proves we're not frightened. But we realise that military operations on their own can't succeed, there has to be dialogue with our political wing, Sing Fein.

Our main aim is to free our country and remove the British. Next year we will be into our third decade. This year and last year young volunteers were killed. The number joining is steady.

We're twenty years on and the risks are big. But if people could meet a member of the IRA they'd see we're human beings, we don't have a murderous mentality.

Questions for Discussion and Writing

1. Fighters from both the IRA and the UDA have been labeled terrorists. Sketch a rough profile of each man interviewed in the Guardian given what you have read. Consider social class, profession, and family life. Does reading this interview "humanize" them in any way or change the stereotype?

2. Why did the author choose to interview these men and then print their comments without any analysis of her own? What effect does this kind of interview have on the reader?

3. What psychological and social effects have these men experienced owing to their involvement in paramilitary fighting and assassination? How do each of these men "square their consciences" about the killing they have done? How has it changed them? Do they express any remorse? If not, why not? Do they show any friendship or compassion for each other's respective community?

4. What targets and victims do the fighters name? Does either of them justify the use of random violence?

5. The violence in Northern Ireland has often appeared on television and in newspapers. Imagine daily life in a Northern Ireland city with armed soldiers on the streets and armed paramilitary organizations gunning for each other. How does this situation affect children and people's daily lives?

6. Examine the language the two men use to describe their activities. The IRA man refers to himself as a "volunteer," and the UDA man as a "freedom fighter." What other political euphemisms do they use? What purposes do the specialized use of words like these serve?

7. Would you argue that these men are terrorists, freedom fighters, or volunteers in the Irish Republican Army? How would you decide on a basis for judgment?

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