Challenges from Within: Paramilitary Playwrights in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland
Résumés
Pendant et après le processus de paix en Irlande du Nord (1995-2007), alors que les organisations paramilitaires s’engageaient sur une voie non violente, nombre de leurs membres se sont tournés vers l’écriture et plusieurs ont connu une carrière d’écrivains, créateurs de théâtre ou metteurs en scène. Si certaines pièces ont suscité la controverse, nombre ont été saluées par la critique et jouées à travers l’Irlande, en Grande-Bretagne et ailleurs. Ces formes théâtrales offrent des espaces pour l’analyse du conflit par les personnes les plus directement impliquées, et celles de l’autre camp. Les œuvres présentent un éventail de points de vue sur le conflit, explorant différentes propositions concernant l’avenir de la région. S’appuyant sur des recherches financées par la British Academy, cet article propose un aperçu de certaines pièces et soutient qu’elles peuvent contribuer au développement d’une paix durable et aux enjeux de mémoire du conflit.
Entrées d’index
Mots-clés :
Irlande du Nord, résolution des conflits, arts pour la réconciliation, post-conflit, théâtre, écriture dramatique, théâtre pour le changement social, transformation des conflitsKeywords:
Northern Ireland, conflict resolution, arts for reconciliation, post-conflict, theatre, playwriting, theatre for social change, conflict transformationPlan
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The question of paramilitaries
- 1 Independent Reporting Commission, seventh report, 25 February 2025, online: https://www.ircommissio (...)
- 2 Northern Ireland Office, A Fresh Start: The Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan, London, HMS (...)
- 3 “Justice Minister Naomi Long Brands UK and Irish Government Proposals for Terror Groups ‘Madness’”, (...)
1On the 25th of February 2025 the Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) published its seventh report on the subject of paramilitaries in northern Ireland.1 This body was jointly established by the British and Irish governments in November 2015 under provision 5.1 of Section A of the Fresh Start Agreement to monitor the situation with respect to paramilitary activity in northern Ireland and “report annually on progress towards ending continuing paramilitary activity connected with NI [northern Ireland]”.2 The report recommended the appointment of an expert to consider the viability (and value) of setting in place a formal process of direct engagement with paramilitaries, in order to effect their disbandment. The proposal caused consternation among the politicians of the region, with several speaking openly against it, the Justice Minister for Northern Ireland, Naomi Long, leader of the centrist Alliance Party, calling the proposal “madness”.3
- 4 Quoted in Enda McClafferty, Finn Purdy, “Paramilitaries ‘Won’t Be Paid to Disband’, Says Benn”, BBC (...)
- 5 Quoted in Rebecca Black, “Scoping Exercise over Paramilitary Engagement Branded ‘Madness’ by Naomi (...)
- 6 Quoted in Enda McClafferty, Finn Purdy, “Paramilitaries ‘Won’t Be Paid to Disband’, Says Benn”.
2As a result, representatives of the British and Irish governments were obliged to take to the news outlets in a round of supportive interviews. Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for the UK government, and Simon Harris, Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) of the Irish Republic, insisted that the proposal was only for a “scoping exercise” and that there was no suggestion that paramilitary organisations would be offered financial inducements to disband.4 Naomi Long pointed out the anomalous nature of a government agency considering formal talks with paramilitaries: “Could you imagine the Government engaging in this way with any other criminal gang? It is unthinkable”.5 Defending the proposal, US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, a member of the IRC, agreed that paramilitarism was a problem in urgent need of solution, one that acted as a brake on both community development and economic progress. However, as he pointed out, paramilitarism is “more persistent and pernicious” than had been considered when the agreements were framed that brought a (relative) peace to northern Ireland, beginning with the Belfast / Good Friday Agreement (GFA) in 1998.6
3It is against this background, and with an ongoing concern at the highest levels of government and policing for the persistence of paramilitarism, that the research project “Fighting Words: Activists as Authors in the Irish Conflict” took place. Funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust, the project focused on theatre productions and projects written by political activists who had been (and in some cases continue to be) involved in northern Irish politics, including several who have been active in paramilitary organisations, and their associated political parties.
- 7 The study also included playwrights involved in political activism and street politics without a pa (...)
4This article will examine what provisions were put in place to deal with the issue of paramilitary politics at the end of the Irish conflict, and how the activities of paramilitary and political organisations have changed in the period since 1998. It will provide a survey of the current state of paramilitary activity in the region, drawing on the most recent research, and consider the role that former activists have played, and continue to play in the emerging peace processes. The significance of theatre as a means of carrying political messaging and advocating for communities in the post-conflict period will be explored with reference to the “Fighting Words” project, detailing several of the playwrights whose works were studied in the project. These playwrights, coming from paramilitary-aligned political backgrounds, offer unique perspectives on these organisations and their members, and the article will examine the ways in which some of their works for theatre were both responses to, and interventions in the politics of the period.7
5Finally, the article will draw some conclusions from the research and consider how cultural productions can serve a purpose in the challenges that lie ahead: in mediating legacy issues of the conflict, and helping northern Ireland become a society where paramilitarism is no longer a theatre to political stability, community development, and economic success.
Provisions of the Belfast / Good Friday Agreement
- 8 Brian Gormally, Conversion from War to Peace: Reintegration of Ex-Prisoners in Northern Ireland, Bo (...)
- 9 James W. McAuley, Jonathan Tonge, Peter Shirlow, “Conflict, Transformation, and Former Loyalist Par (...)
6The matter of what should happen with members of paramilitary organisations was a key concern in the negotiation of the GFA, given that in order to secure ceasefires, the parties to negotiations would have to agree to large scale releases of paramilitary prisoners. Inevitably, this was problematic for many politicians from constitutional parties, and for many people in northern Irish society. It was also complex in terms of practical issues, as it would greatly increase the numbers of paramilitary activists in key stronghold areas, creating a potentially destabilising force. Basing their estimate on Brian Gormally,8 James W. McAuley, Jonathan Tonge and Peter Shirlow posit a figure of approximately 25,000 for the number of paramilitaries who were active “throughout the duration of the conflict”.9 Prisoner releases therefore involved a substantial increase in the presence of paramilitaries in communities.
- 10 Excluded from release schemes, and to this day committed to the use of military means to achieve th (...)
7Over the course of the months following the signing of the GFA, those prisoners who were members of organisations who had declared ceasefires and committed to easing military actions were released in phases.10 However, this process in itself did not guarantee a successful pacification of paramilitaries. While major military actions, such as killings and bombings by the organisations on ceasefire came to a halt, other types of criminal activity continued.
8Reintegration remained the goal, rather than the reality, though the GFA had an explicit commitment to
- 11 Northern Ireland Office, The Belfast Agreement: An Agreement Reached at the Multi-Party Talks on No (...)
[…] the reintegration of prisoners into the community by providing support both prior to and after release, including assistance directed towards availing of employment opportunities, retraining and / or re-skilling, and further education.11
- 12 Gladys Ganiel, “Ex-Combatants and Post-Liberal Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland: Challenging Cultu (...)
- 13 John D. Brewer, Bernadette C. Hayes, “Victimisation and Attitudes towards Former Political Prisoner (...)
- 14 Ibid., p. 744.
- 15 Claire D. Dwyer, “Risk, Politics and the ‘Scientification’ of Political Judgement: Prisoner Release (...)
The importance of this goal has been considered by numerous writers on the conflict settlement12 and the central importance of resettlement of former paramilitaries in peace agreements is widely attested. John D. Brewer and Bernadette C. Hayes describe it as an “essential part of any negotiated peace settlement, not only as a confidence-building measure, but also as a major factor in obtaining a durable peace”.13 However, they go on to note14 that in northern Ireland the strategy was sufficiently flawed for there to be problems with it from the beginning. The release schemes were not amnesties for former crimes as prisoners were released on license, and any return to criminal or paramilitary activity would send them back to prison. Inevitably this was the case for some, but the numbers are remarkably low, especially given the scale of criminality (discussed below). Claire D. Dwyer notes that only 16 prisoner licenses were revoked from the 449 prisoners who were released between 1999 and 2007.15
- 16 John D. Brewer, Bernadette C. Hayes, “Victimisation and Attitudes…”, p. 744.
- 17 Élise Féron, “Path to Reconversion Taken by Northern Irish Paramilitaries”, International Social Sc (...)
- 18 Brian Gormally, Conversion from War to Peace…, p. 9; Claire D. Dwyer, “Risk, Politics and the ‘Scie (...)
9Additionally, former prisoners struggled to find roles where they felt accepted by civil society. This appears to be especially the case with former loyalist prisoners, who faced steeper social obstacles than those from republican organisations.16 According to Élise Féron, former prisoners were perceived as “the shameful remains of a past that people would like to forget”.17 While the majority of prisoners managed to avoid a return to prison, patently not all of them managed to avoid a return to criminality.18
The failure of the strategy for paramilitary reintegration
- 19 John Jupp, Matthew Garrod, “Legacies of the Troubles: The Links between Organized Crime and Terrori (...)
10In their exhaustively thorough investigation of the criminal activities of contemporary paramilitaries in northern Ireland, John Jupp and Matthew Garrod offer a troubling view of the extent to which paramilitaries are engaged in serious crime. Citing UK Home Office statistics, they note that there are fourteen proscribed paramilitary groups active in Ireland, both republican and loyalist, and that they are engaged in criminal activities with some 230 criminal gangs.19
- 20 Ibid., p. 393.
[…] the leaderships of existing paramilitary groups remain unwilling to disband. This would suggest that paramilitary groups will continue to retain their organizational structures, revered reputations, membership, training, expertise, and funding for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, they are facilitating and heavily involved in widespread organized crime, not only in Northern Ireland but also in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and beyond. A newly created Paramilitary Crime Task Force (PCTF) is specifically monitoring 100 organized criminal gangs, twenty-five percent of which, it is estimated, have associations with paramilitary organizations.20
- 21 Ibid., p. 390.
- 22 Ibid.
The evidence is clear that these organisations continue to engage in extensive criminality in the areas of northern Ireland where they have traditionally been based, and to exercise a baleful influence in these areas; and that in pursuance of a strategy to retain power and generate wealth they are actively recruiting members, conducting training and fundraising initiatives, and engaging in a wide range of criminal activities, including smuggling arms and explosives.21 This gives them the capacity to return to a war footing at short notice should the conditions arise where it is in their interests to do so. “The result is that Northern Ireland has established itself as not only the most concentrated area of terrorist activity but also the centerpiece of convergence between ‘terrorism’ and ‘organized crime’ in Europe”.22
- 23 Niamh Hourigan, John F. Morrison, James Windle, Andrew Silke, “Crime in Ireland North and South: Fe (...)
11Of particular concern is the predominance of loyalist paramilitary groups in the drug trade. Given that the loyalist paramilitaries have always been less centralised in terms of command structures than their republican counterparts, and the largest loyalist grouping, the Ulster Defence Association / Ulster Freedom Fighters (UDA / UFF), was originally established as a confederation of local militias each with its own independent command structure, there is a real risk of factionalism in the drug trade. Niamh Hourigan, John F. Morrison, James Windle and Andrew Silke elaborate the danger in terms of a vicious cycle of fragmentation, leading to feuding and further fracturing of the centralising bonds of control that exist. In this scenario, these paramilitary groups ultimately end up becoming more concerned with their criminal activities than with any shared ideology, political activity, or intercommunal conflict transformation.23
- 24 Ibid.
12Importantly, a similar focus on personal enrichment has been observed in republican organisations,24 and the authors note the eye-watering sums that have been made by republican paramilitary activists, with an estimated two to three hundred individuals having become millionaires through fuel smuggling and illegal fuel processing in the border counties of Ireland.
13The situation regarding the paramilitary organisations in northern Ireland is therefore one of paradoxes and conflicting evidence. On the one hand, they are widely regarded among the population of northern Ireland as the embodiment of everything that was bad about the conflict, Féron’s “shameful remains”. The opprobrium felt in the general population about paramilitarism is supported by the evidence of their criminal activities. On the other hand, while being implicated in serious criminality and organised crime, including murder, they are nominally committed to the peace processes.
The success of community activism with former paramilitaries
- 25 James W. McAuley, Jonathan Tonge, Peter Shirlow, “Conflict, Transformation…”, p. 28.
14For those who did find a role to play in civilian life, this often took them into community activism within their own areas / community. On the republican side, numerous former combatants remained active within the Provisional IRA, now committed to peaceful means. In many cases this involved working with prisoners (in organisations such as Coiste na nIarchimí) or for Sinn Féin, several of whose public representatives since the GFA have been former prisoners. McAuley, Tonge and Shirlow recognise the significance of this engagement in community politics within the loyalist community also, where they argue that the development of loyalist think-tanks and discussion groups during the conflict led to important developments “through a range of community based organizations within which former prisoners formed a key dynamic and resource”.25 The work undertaken by these organisations is varied and complex, responsive to the needs of communities emerging from conflict:
- 26 Ibid.
These were centered around transitional justice, employment, and educational training and most notably inter-community and intra-community partnership programmes that aimed to tackle issues as diverse as sectarianism, racism, interface violence, challenges to mono-cultural identity formation, truth recovery, housing, welfare advice, gender issues, community restorative justice, and social economy projects. […] Virtually all loyalist former prisoner groups such as Ex-Prisoners Interpretative Centre (EPIC) and REACT [Reconciliation, Education and Community Training] (both linked to the UVF [Ulster Volunteer Force] and Red Hand Commandos), Charter, Gae Lairn, Lisburn Prisoners Support Project, South Belfast PEP [prison education program], Prisoners in Partnership, North Belfast Prisoners Aid, and Ulster Prisoners Aid have members involved in reducing violence at interfaces.26
- 27 Harry Mika, Community-Based Restorative Justice in Northern Ireland, Belfast, Queen’s University Be (...)
- 28 Gladys Ganiel, “Ex-Combatants and Post-Liberal Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland…”, p. 346.
- 29 John D. Brewer, Bernadette C. Hayes, “Victimisation and Attitudes…”, p. 754.
- 30 Ibid., p. 755.
15Importantly the focus on restorative justice initiatives has been a key element in the work of former paramilitaries in their communities. On the value of restorative justice interventions by former paramilitaries, numerous studies have demonstrated their importance in maintaining social stability in communities. Gladys Ganiel, citing Kieran McEvoy and Harry Mika,27 notes that “[t]here is evidence that these programmes have reduced paramilitary-style punishment attacks”.28 Brewer and Hayes note that “there is now a wealth of evidence to suggest that former paramilitary combatants have played a decisive role in cementing the peace process”.29 This they put down to “the willingness of former political prisoners to live in and work for the advancement of their own deprived communities, many of whom have borne the brunt of the conflict”.30 Similarly, McAuley, Tonge and Shirlow argue that former prisoners have been vital in securing the peace:
- 31 James W. McAuley, Jonathan Tonge, Peter Shirlow, “Conflict, Transformation…”, p. 23.
In both personal and structural terms there is evidence of former combatants working to diminish the political tensions that remain as a result of the long-term inter-communal hostility developed across decades of violence and conflict.31
- 32 Peter Shirlow, Brian Graham, Féilim Ó hAdhmaill, Kieran McEvoy, Dawn Purvis, Politically Motivated (...)
16Peter Shirlow, Brian Graham, Féilim Ó hAdhmaill, Kieran McEvoy and Dawn Purvis explain this as a function of the types of engagement in which former paramilitary activists are engaged, which is directed toward their own communities.32 This reflexive capacity enables them to offer a critique both of their own actions, and also those of members of the community, including young people who may have a very limited knowledge or experience of the conflict. In terms of their capacity to build peaceful relations with communities outside their own, this cannot be framed as “conflict resolution”, which depends on finding shared values and ideologies. Rather it is a form of “conflict transformation”, which accepts that differences between the communities need not be an impediment to peace, as it relies on the capacity to understand why others have an opposing view or ideology, and not on a necessary agreement with it. By understanding the opponent’s history, one can accept their right to hold their ideological position while remaining in disagreement with it.
17The evidence, therefore, gathered and presented in numerous studies shows that paramilitary activists, often former prisoners, have in many cases exerted a vital influence in their communities in support of the peace process, working with young people, offenders, and those in economically deprived situations to promote peaceful coexistence with other communities. An important, and yet often overlooked aspect of that activism involves cultural activities and the production of works of culture, including theatre, that give communities a sense of pride in their identity, and often address conflict legacy issues. It is in this, the most dialogic of forms, that many of the problems and paradoxes of the politics of paramilitarism have been explored, and some responses to the problems of persistent criminality and paramilitary violence posited by writers who have first-hand experience of it. It is these works, and their authors that were the subject of the research project “Fighting Words: Activists as Authors in the Irish Conflict”. In the following section I will examine some of these authors, and a selection of the plays they have written, arguing that these writers can offer unique and valuable insights, and operate as agents of change, within both their communities and the paramilitary organisations with which they are aligned.
The “Fighting Words” research project
- 33 Ian Hill, “Dubble Trouble”, Fortnight, vol. 380, 1999, p. 21-22; Ian Hill, “Forced upon Us”, The Ir (...)
18In the period during and after the peace processes in northern Ireland (1995-2007), as organisations made the commitment to peaceful and democratic processes, a significant number of their members, including former combatants, turned to writing and several have built successful careers as writers, theatre makers, directors, and editors. The theatre works written by them have been varied: they include applied theatre co-created with their own communities; work created with a cross-community process or intention; and plays authored by a single author for professional production. While some of these plays have been controversial in their content,33 many have been critically praised, and gone on to be performed in both parts of Ireland, in Britain, the United States, Africa, and Europe.
- 34 Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill, Modes of Authorship in Applied Theatre for Community Advocacy in Northern I (...)
- 35 These interviews took place at a range of locations including community venues, cafes, theatre comp (...)
19The genesis of the project came from a consideration, when working on an earlier project about theatre and community advocacy,34 of how many important contemporary Irish / Northern Irish writers of theatre have backgrounds as political and paramilitary activists, and indeed how for many of them, their writing and activism overlap and intertwine. Funding was secured in 2022, and research interviews took place through the second half of 2022 and all of 2023, with playwrights who had a background in paramilitarism, politics and street activism, and also with professional theatre directors, actors, designers and producers who had worked with them, in order to gain important context on the plays and productions.35
The background to the project
- 36 Olivia Byrne, State of Play: The Theatre and Cultural Identity in 20th Century Ulster, Belfast, Lin (...)
20The research undertaken for this project suggested a significant number of former paramilitary activists had taken to writing in the post-conflict period, and that playwriting, a form that permits the presentation of a plurality of viewpoints and positions, was the preferred medium they used. The purpose of the project was to detail the extent to which paramilitaries and political activists used theatre as a tool for promoting their political ideologies in a “time of not peace, not war”36 and to consider their role as activists concerned with redress in the conflict legacy period. It aimed to examine the role that theatre can play in contributing to the development of democratic and non-violent modes of activism in sites of ethnoreligious dispute, and to suggest how these forms might be more widely adopted.
- 37 Victor Turner, From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play, New York, Performing Arts Jou (...)
21This work evidences the use of theatre as a means of enabling what Victor Turner calls “agonistic ritual”,37 with concomitant potential for social redress. These theatre forms create spaces for the examination of the conflict by those most directly involved, in collaboration with their own community, and on occasion with those from the other side. The works have presented a range of views of the conflict, exploring differing positions, and propositions, regarding the future of the region.
22Examining the effects of this turn to theatre and writing on the emerging peace in northern Ireland, the project explored how the tragedies of the conflict can be mediated, and negotiated, using theatre as both a dialogic forum and as a tool for advocacy. In assessing these aspects of post-conflict theatre writing by former paramilitaries and activists in Ireland, the results of the project supported the view that these plays have contributed positively to the development of a durable peace, and to processes of dealing with the legacy issues of Europe’s longest running civil conflict.
Some of the writers and plays studied
23The initial interviews that were conducted prior to the application for funding from the British Academy focused on activists who were connected with the (Provisional) IRA. Danny Morrison, the first interviewee, is a former publicity director for Sinn Féin, the political party aligned with the Provisional IRA. He has written or co-written a number of plays that have been successfully produced in Belfast, New York, London and Edinburgh, and has also authored several well-received novels.
24His first involvement in playwriting was on the co-authored project Binlids (1997). This project, co-written with Christine Poland, Jake Mac Siacais, and Brenda Murphy, and directed by Pam Brighton of DubbelJoint Theatre Company, offered an immersive theatre experience where major historical events of the recent history of the republican / nationalist community in West Belfast were re-enacted on multiple stages located around the performance space in Conway Mill in West Belfast. The events of the play ranged from the imposition of internment in 1971 to the present, at a time when the IRA had called a ceasefire that had brought to an end most military activity and which would soon lead to the GFA and a complete cessation of Provisional IRA violence.
- 38 Tom Maguire, “Binlids at the Boundaries of Being: A West Belfast Community Stages an Authentic Self (...)
- 39 Ibid., p. 111.
25Tom Maguire, noting the way this play provided a mirror for the community it describes, and to which it was performed initially, emphasises authenticity as a key element in the work: “Binlids was a community play that explicitly attempted to replace dominant images imposed from without on that community with ones recognized as authentic within it”.38 The play was created in collaboration with the community, as the writers, actors, and director Brighton collated material and developed scenes collaboratively. The novel process of creation, which found expression in the immersive fluidity of the production script, evidences a further quality that supports its authenticity: “The emphasis on research and careful documentation points to the attempt to present a more authentic story of the conflict in West Belfast”.39
26The play was a critical success, and went on to tour to the United States. Subsequently Morrison wrote The Wrong Man, based on his own novel of the same name, which was produced by the Pleasance Theatre in London. This play offers a critique of the violence used by republican paramilitaries in dealing with informers, and as Morrison says, caused some consternation with his comrades in the republican movement:
- 40 Danny Morrison, interview with the author, 2019.
[…] a lot of my IRA comrades didn’t like The Wrong Man, because it’s a sympathetic portrayal of an informer. I don’t pull any punches about the way the IRA behaves, and a couple of them didn’t like it and said so to me when it was on.40
27Evidently, a key function of the work was reflexive, allowing Morrison to challenge the ideas and political positions of the republican movement from within. However it also served a wider purpose in addressing the public, at a time when the republican movement perceived an urgency to get its messages across. Morrison has said in interview that the republican recourse to writing (and particularly playwriting) was a response to government control of the media and, specifically, the so called “broadcast ban” that prohibited media outlets from allowing representatives of proscribed organisations to speak on broadcast media. Given that Sinn Féin, the political party associated with the Provisional IRA, was the only major political party affected, the ban was seen by many in the republican movement as a form of government censorship.
- 41 Danny Morrison, quoted in Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill, Theatre and Politics in Post-Conflict Northern Ir (...)
It was just this feeling of empowerment. So whenever the plays were performed, telling our story, and this was a community, you know. Funny enough, DubbelJoint was formed in the same year, I think – maybe the following year – that the broadcasting ban was introduced by Thatcher against Sinn Féin […] you have these dramas being performed in the community, you know, which is a story you’re not going to get on the TV or the radio. So there was a power to it, an extra dimension to it.41
28A similar set of motivations can be seen in the work of another writer who emerged from the republican movement. Laurence McKeown began his writing career while in prison. As one of the people responsible for the republican prisoners’ education programmes, he was in a position to develop initiatives including a journal and poetry writing workshops. In collaboration with Brian Campbell, McKeown developed his own creative writing and that of other prisoners. On release, he was also supported by Pam Brighton and her company DubbelJoint. She helped develop and then directed two early works by McKeown and Campbell: The Laughter of Our Children (2001) and A Cold House (2003). The latter play takes as its theme the chance encounter of a former IRA activist with a member of the security forces. When their heating fails a former Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer and his wife call in a plumber who turns out to have served time for killing a policeman while in the IRA. The play explores the compromises necessary for peace between those who have been enemies during the conflict.
29Subsequently, working with theatre company Kabosh, McKeown wrote a fuller exploration of this theme in the play Those You Pass in the Street (2014). The piece followed on from several smaller collaborations with Kabosh. By this time, McKeown and Campbell had written the screenplay for the feature film H3 and McKeown had built up a substantial track record as a writer (Campbell died in 2005).
30Paula McFetridge, artistic director of Kabosh and a regular creative collaborator with McKeown, notes his particular ability to write in a way that offers challenges to the dominant ideas of his community, and those of society generally. These challenges carry echoes of Morrison’s observations about the role of his works.
- 42 Paula McFetridge, interview with the author, 2023.
Laurence was very aware of the power of his voice and how he could ask those questions because of his personal history. So, how he was perceived within his own community, he got to ask questions of that community that nobody else could have.42
31While the similarities between the works created by these two writers who emerged from the Provisional IRA are few, and largely limited to their republican politics and engagement with conflict themes, it can be argued that there is a consistency to the challenges they present, and the purposes they have served in relation to the community from which the writers come, and for the people who attend their plays as audience members.
32Through analysis of the interviews undertaken in the research project, it became clear that the republican writers had resorted to playwriting as a means to provide a critical reflection on the strategies of the movement in the context of the politics of the time, and also as a means to counteract the negative narratives coming from a broadly hostile media, which was at times clearly responding to government coercion, and at others to more subtle promptings. As the peace processes became established and as the Provisional IRA committed to peace, the works have tended to consider the implications of the peace processes for those who dedicated their lives (and often their freedom) in the service of the cause.
- 43 Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill, Theatre and Politics in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland, p. 65-75.
- 44 Wallace McDowell, “Overcoming Working-Class Ulster Loyalism’s Resistance to Theatricality after the (...)
33The case with loyalist writers is somewhat different for reasons relating to the historically dominant position of the unionist / loyalist community in the culture of the region, and due to a sense that this position has been undermined since the advent of the peace. This has resulted in a substantial growth in works made by members of the unionist / loyalist community on overtly political themes since the turn of the second decade of the 21st century. I have written on this topic elsewhere,43 and argued that the reasons for this turn to theatre may result from a sense of a need to advocate for unionist / loyalist values, and the politics of that community at a critical time in its recent history. It has been noted by Wallace McDowell,44 among others that the sense of the erosion of old certainties and a historic position of pre-eminence led to a growth of theatrical works, at precisely the time that the tide of works by and about the republican movement seemed to be ebbing.
34It can be argued that these motives are present in the works of the two writers in the research project who have been active in loyalist paramilitarism. William Mitchell and Robert Niblock are both significant writers with UVF / Red Hand Commando affiliations, having served time in prison for combatant activities.
35Mitchell was imprisoned at the age of seventeen for UVF activities, and his early works include prison writings, and skits and small dramatic pieces written for other prisoners. Some of these involved collaboration with another prisoner, Robert “Beano” Niblock, who would go on to become a regular creative partner. Mitchell also took advantage of the educational opportunities available in prison, and subsequently completed his PhD in sociology.
36An early work called Yo Mister, made with director Tom Magill in 1998, resulted in a commission from professional theatre company, Tinderbox.
- 45 William Mitchell, interview with the author, 2023.
It was a monologue of a prisoner’s experience in the sort of early 80s and he is sitting in a prison waiting room waiting on his visitor. But I topped and tailed it with two other pieces, one preceded it the decade before of a woman sitting in a council house waiting on her teenage son returning during the 70s; and then in the 90s a teenager standing at the bus stop waiting on the bus. So I entitled the three of them Waiting’s Weight. And Tinderbox commissioned me.45
- 46 Ian Hill, “Arts: Playing for Time”, Belfast News Letter, 10 May 2001.
- 47 Ross Greer, “Arts: Webber Kick Starts a Belfast Show”, Belfast News Letter, 3 April 2001.
37His first major script was for a large-scale hybrid community / professional work called Playing for Time (2001) directed by Paddy McCoey at the Paint Hall Studios (now Titanic Studios) in Belfast, one of the largest film sound stages in Ireland. Set designs were by leading Irish artist Siobhán McDonald. At the time, the project was described as the most expensive stage production ever mounted, with press reports suggesting it cost over £100,000.46 In interview, Majella McParland, a member of the production team for play, put the cost at “nearly £100,000”.47
- 48 Martin Lynch’s works form an important part of the research project and are examined extensively in (...)
38Mitchell’s participation in the project was facilitated by Martin Lynch, one of Ireland’s foremost playwrights,48 and himself a former member of the Official IRA. Mitchell describes, in the interview conducted as part of this research and in various publications, how the play uses football as a proxy for the sectarian conflict in northern Ireland. The set up of the play shows a young football fan who has been left in a coma after a sectarian attack at a match between Belfast teams Linfield (protestant, south Belfast) and Cliftonville (catholic, north Belfast). The play then flashes back in time to show how this tragic outcome came to pass, in a lacerating critique of the sectarianism that is prevalent in northern Irish football, and in the society more generally.
39The creation of a play with a former member of the Official IRA (Lynch), a designer from the Republic (McDonald) and a queer director (McCoey) constitutes a bold statement of Mitchell’s commitment to intercommunal collaboration. Subsequent projects were developed specifically with the intention of using theatre with former combatants from the loyalist community through the Ex-Prisoners Interpretative Centre (EPIC) on the Shankill Road in Belfast. The project, in conjunction with Niblock, was to develop plays that would reach young people who were at risk of becoming involved in sectarianism,
- 49 William Mitchell, interview with the author, 2023.
[…] young people who weren’t going into normal youth provision. What we agreed was, let’s see could we create something about it, you know, a short play that would be integrated into the holistic experience whereby they would show videos, have material to read, have artefacts on display, all that usual exhibit type of stuff but within the middle of it we would create this creative piece.49
40The project gave birth to what was initially called EPIC Theatre Company, or ETC, but which eventually was constituted and registered as Etcetera Theatre Company. Etcetera, run by Niblock, Mitchell and Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) politician and former UVF activist Billy Mitchell, and supported by director Jo Egan and academic Connal Parr, would go on to stage works by Niblock, with production support from Mitchell and Egan.
- 50 Gareth Mulvenna, Tartan Gangs and Paramilitaries: The Loyalist Backlash, Liverpool, Liverpool Unive (...)
41Niblock’s first play Reason to Believe was written in 2009. Prior to this he had been working with EPIC, and with republican prisoners’ organisation Coiste na nIarchimí, and had trips to South Africa to undertake peace and reconciliation work. Reason to Believe drew the attention of Egan, who organised a small-scale production with seasoned theatre professional including Dan Gordon, David Ireland, Abigail McGibbon and Ivan Little. Their support emboldened Niblock, who had been working on what was to become the play Tartan (2014). This was to be the inaugural production for Etcetera Theatre Company, giving them a major success with the company’s first full professional production. The play emerged from Niblock’s own experiences as a young man in the Tartan gangs of east Belfast, documented by Gareth Mulvenna who interviewed Niblock for his book on the topic.50 In it, Niblock forensically examines the dynamics which had led young men like him into loyalist paramilitarism in the early 1970s, and offers a sympathetic portrayal of the young men who are often manipulated by politicians, and influenced by the sway of events into making life-changing decisions. The play garnered positive reviews, and enthusiastic audience responses, and its success led to other opportunities. His next notable project was a commission with professional company Partisan Productions, with director Fintan Brady. At the same time, he and Mitchell worked on a project about the compromises forced on security personnel during the conflict.
- 51 Robert Niblock, interview with the author, 2023.
[…] we interviewed a lot of ex-UDR [Ulster Defence Regiment] personnel, both male and female. Out of the stuff that we took from them and a series of interviews and residentials, I wrote up a play as well called We Taught Our Children How to Lie, which never seen the light of day on a big scale but we managed to put it out just before lockdown in a series of smaller performances, which went really really well.51
42His most recent work has been the longest in preparation. The Man Who Swallowed a Dictionary is a biographical portrait of David Ervine, former leader of the PUP and before that a UVF activist, and it details Ervine’s journey from loyalist paramilitary to key architect of the peace process. In presenting this story it explores Ervine’s own critical self-examination and his reassessment of the position of loyalism through the later years of the conflict, to the point where it became essential to abandon military activism and embrace peaceful means. The play continues to tour to the present time (June 2025).
Some conclusions from the project
43In assessing the value of community activism undertaken by former paramilitaries, McAuley, Tonge and Shirlow note that the structures of the organisations former combatants come from provide the scaffolding to make many of their community development and conflict resolution activities viable:
- 52 James W. McAuley, Jonathan Tonge, Peter Shirlow, “Conflict, Transformation…”, p. 35.
Former prisoners have been engaged in processes of change and have utilised the organisational capacity of paramilitary groups in reformulating skills, ideas, knowledge, and abilities into various channels of conflict transformation and positive community roles around, for example, restorative justice, campaigns against anti-social behaviour, and other positive inter and intra-community approaches.52
44This creates a rather thorny paradox for those in government, however, who aim to see the organisations disband. While there has undoubtedly been great value in the work former paramilitaries have done in communities to contain potential intercommunal conflict, and to support social development, the existence of the organisations that facilitate this work also provide the machinery by which paramilitary criminality is possible. The unavoidable fact, supported by ample evidence from law enforcement bodies, is that paramilitary criminality is rife in the region.
45Nonetheless, the evidence of the research project “Fighting Words” shows that former political and paramilitary activists are uniquely positioned to offer a challenge to the violence and criminality of their former comrades. The situation is delicately balanced between the benefits that accrue from having former activists engaged in work within their own communities that challenge the dominant ideas around paramilitarism, and that support a commitment to enduring peace, on the one hand; and the dangers that exist in allowing these organisations to continue to have any role in society. Clearly there is a tension between the views of the experts (such as the members of the IRC) and the politicians in the region (such as the Justice Minister, Naomi Long).
46Simultaneously, it is clear that politicians at a national level in the United Kingdom would like the problem to go away. In September 2023 UK Parliament passed the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 (the Legacy Act) in an attempt to close down court cases, civil suits, inquests, and criminal investigations into conflict-era crimes. In a rare show of unity, this legislation was opposed by all the main political parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Its legality has been questioned by numerous bodies, including the UK Parliament Joint Committee on Human Rights, Amnesty International, and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The Irish government lodged a legal challenge with the European Court of Human Rights, questioning the legality of the act. In the July 2024 election, the Labour Party was elected to government in the United Kingdom having promised to repeal the legislation from 2023.
47In this context, cultural productions are one of the few remaining forums or forms for addressing the traumas and injustices of the past – and trying to make the case for redress. And if the writer has been an actor in this history (an activist) then they might be ideally located to speak from a position of author-ity, and to offer challenges to the dominant narratives of the conflict, including those from within their own communities. Paul Gready makes an argument for just such a function of cultural productions in sites of transitional justice, and conflict transformation:
- 53 Paul Gready, “Culture, Testimony, and the Toolbox of Transitional Justice”, Peace Review, vol. 20, (...)
Culture has a role to play in this process of democratic thickening and re-imagining. It can keep sniping at the shortcomings of the past and present, ask the difficult questions, and nurture processes that forge a link between voice and democracy (co-production, new representational forms, building local capacities, self-reflection about power dynamics).53
48The work of the creative writer, of the playwright, acting with authority in an act of theatrical advocacy becomes a potentially vital resource for a society transforming from a site of civil conflict to a place of peace. In the absence of other forms of redress and in the absence of an official mechanism for dealing with historic acts of violence, these plays offer some ideas on how we might negotiate the past, challenge the certainties of the present, and frame a peaceful future.
Notes
1 Independent Reporting Commission, seventh report, 25 February 2025, online: https://www.ircommission.org/files/ircommission/2025-02/IRC%20Seventh%20Report.pdf. Throughout this article, the official legal term “Northern Ireland” is used for official bodies and their activities, and the term “northern Ireland” is used to denote the region more broadly.
2 Northern Ireland Office, A Fresh Start: The Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan, London, HMSO, 2015, p. 18, online: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80a8a5e5274a2e8ab516ce/A_Fresh_Start_-_The_Stormont_Agreement_and_Implementation_Plan_-_Final_Version_20_Nov_2015_for_PDF.pdf.
3 “Justice Minister Naomi Long Brands UK and Irish Government Proposals for Terror Groups ‘Madness’”, Belfast News Letter, 25 February 2025.
4 Quoted in Enda McClafferty, Finn Purdy, “Paramilitaries ‘Won’t Be Paid to Disband’, Says Benn”, BBC News NI, 26 February 2025.
5 Quoted in Rebecca Black, “Scoping Exercise over Paramilitary Engagement Branded ‘Madness’ by Naomi Long”, The Independent, 25 February 2025.
6 Quoted in Enda McClafferty, Finn Purdy, “Paramilitaries ‘Won’t Be Paid to Disband’, Says Benn”.
7 The study also included playwrights involved in political activism and street politics without a paramilitary aspect, and in this group women writers are prominent. The playwrights from paramilitary-political backgrounds discussed here are, like the organisations to which they belonged, overwhelmingly male.
8 Brian Gormally, Conversion from War to Peace: Reintegration of Ex-Prisoners in Northern Ireland, Bonn, Bonn International Centre for Conversion, 2001, p. 41.
9 James W. McAuley, Jonathan Tonge, Peter Shirlow, “Conflict, Transformation, and Former Loyalist Paramilitary Prisoners in Northern Ireland”, Terrorism and Political Violence, vol. 22, no. 1, 2009, p. 25.
10 Excluded from release schemes, and to this day committed to the use of military means to achieve their goals are several organisations on the Irish republican side, notably the Real IRA / New IRA, Ógliagh na hÉireann, and Continuity IRA.
11 Northern Ireland Office, The Belfast Agreement: An Agreement Reached at the Multi-Party Talks on Northern Ireland, London, HMSO, 1998, p. 25, online: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/619500728fa8f5037d67b678/The_Belfast_Agreement_An_Agreement_Reached_at_the_Multi-Party_Talks_on_Northern_Ireland.pdf.
12 Gladys Ganiel, “Ex-Combatants and Post-Liberal Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland: Challenging Cultures of Militarism”, Peacebuilding, vol. 8, no. 3, 2020, p. 344-362; Clare D. Dwyer, “Expanding DDR: The Transformative Role of Former Prisoners in Community-Based Reintegration in Northern Ireland”, International Journal of Transitional Justice, vol. 6, no. 2, 2012, p. 274-295.
13 John D. Brewer, Bernadette C. Hayes, “Victimisation and Attitudes towards Former Political Prisoners in Northern Ireland”, Terrorism and Political Violence, vol. 27, no. 4, 2015, p. 742.
14 Ibid., p. 744.
15 Claire D. Dwyer, “Risk, Politics and the ‘Scientification’ of Political Judgement: Prisoner Release and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland”, The British Journal of Criminology, vol. 47, no. 5, 2007, p. 795.
16 John D. Brewer, Bernadette C. Hayes, “Victimisation and Attitudes…”, p. 744.
17 Élise Féron, “Path to Reconversion Taken by Northern Irish Paramilitaries”, International Social Science Journal, vol. 58, no. 189, 2006, p. 447.
18 Brian Gormally, Conversion from War to Peace…, p. 9; Claire D. Dwyer, “Risk, Politics and the ‘Scientification’ of Political Judgement…”, p. 795.
19 John Jupp, Matthew Garrod, “Legacies of the Troubles: The Links between Organized Crime and Terrorism in Northern Ireland”, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, vol. 45, no. 5-6, 2022, p. 389.
20 Ibid., p. 393.
21 Ibid., p. 390.
22 Ibid.
23 Niamh Hourigan, John F. Morrison, James Windle, Andrew Silke, “Crime in Ireland North and South: Feuding Gangs and Profiteering Paramilitaries”, Trends in Organized Crime, vol. 21, no. 2, 2018, p. 141-142.
24 Ibid.
25 James W. McAuley, Jonathan Tonge, Peter Shirlow, “Conflict, Transformation…”, p. 28.
26 Ibid.
27 Harry Mika, Community-Based Restorative Justice in Northern Ireland, Belfast, Queen’s University Belfast Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2006, online: http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/app/uploads/2015/09/HMikaReport.pdf; Kieran McEvoy, Harry Mika, “Restorative Justice and the Critique of Informalism in Northern Ireland”, The British Journal of Criminology, vol. 42, no. 3, 2002, p. 534-562.
28 Gladys Ganiel, “Ex-Combatants and Post-Liberal Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland…”, p. 346.
29 John D. Brewer, Bernadette C. Hayes, “Victimisation and Attitudes…”, p. 754.
30 Ibid., p. 755.
31 James W. McAuley, Jonathan Tonge, Peter Shirlow, “Conflict, Transformation…”, p. 23.
32 Peter Shirlow, Brian Graham, Féilim Ó hAdhmaill, Kieran McEvoy, Dawn Purvis, Politically Motivated Former Prisoner Groups: Community Activism and Conflict Transformation, Belfast, Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, 2005, online: https://cora.ucc.ie/server/api/core/bitstreams/d92d2536-2be7-4089-b972-b8c53d4f4b5d/content.
33 Ian Hill, “Dubble Trouble”, Fortnight, vol. 380, 1999, p. 21-22; Ian Hill, “Forced upon Us”, The Irish Times, 2 August 1999; Damian Smyth, “Shots in the Arts”, Fortnight, vol. 381, 1999, p. 22-23.
34 Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill, Modes of Authorship in Applied Theatre for Community Advocacy in Northern Ireland, 1998-2018, PhD thesis in creative writing, Ulster University, 2021.
35 These interviews took place at a range of locations including community venues, cafes, theatre company offices, and the homes of the interviewees, according to their preferences. A small number were conducted online using conferencing apps.
36 Olivia Byrne, State of Play: The Theatre and Cultural Identity in 20th Century Ulster, Belfast, Linen Hall Library, 2001, p. 5.
37 Victor Turner, From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play, New York, Performing Arts Journal, 1982.
38 Tom Maguire, “Binlids at the Boundaries of Being: A West Belfast Community Stages an Authentic Self”, Kunapipi, vol. 22, no. 2, 2000, p. 106.
39 Ibid., p. 111.
40 Danny Morrison, interview with the author, 2019.
41 Danny Morrison, quoted in Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill, Theatre and Politics in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland, Exeter, University of Exeter Press, 2025, p. 40.
42 Paula McFetridge, interview with the author, 2023.
43 Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill, Theatre and Politics in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland, p. 65-75.
44 Wallace McDowell, “Overcoming Working-Class Ulster Loyalism’s Resistance to Theatricality after the Peace Process”, Contemporary Theatre Review, vol. 23, no. 3, 2013, p. 323-333.
45 William Mitchell, interview with the author, 2023.
46 Ian Hill, “Arts: Playing for Time”, Belfast News Letter, 10 May 2001.
47 Ross Greer, “Arts: Webber Kick Starts a Belfast Show”, Belfast News Letter, 3 April 2001.
48 Martin Lynch’s works form an important part of the research project and are examined extensively in it. However, given the volume of works of significance written by him, and the limitations of space, they are not discussed in detail here. For a fuller examination of Lynch’s works see Lisa Fitzpatrick, “The Politics of Performance: Theatre in and about Northern Ireland”, in The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance, Eamonn Jordan, Eric Weitz (eds.), London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, p. 51-66; Liam Harte, “Conversations on a Collaboration: An Interview with Martin Lynch”, Irish Studies Review, vol. 26, no. 1, 2018, p. 124-134.
49 William Mitchell, interview with the author, 2023.
50 Gareth Mulvenna, Tartan Gangs and Paramilitaries: The Loyalist Backlash, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2016.
51 Robert Niblock, interview with the author, 2023.
52 James W. McAuley, Jonathan Tonge, Peter Shirlow, “Conflict, Transformation…”, p. 35.
53 Paul Gready, “Culture, Testimony, and the Toolbox of Transitional Justice”, Peace Review, vol. 20, no. 1, 2008, p. 47.
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Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill, « Challenges from Within: Paramilitary Playwrights in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland », Études irlandaises [En ligne], 50-2 | 2025, mis en ligne le 05 décembre 2025, consulté le 17 janvier 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/etudesirlandaises/21011 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/15aa3
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