Victimisation of Communities

There has naturally been a strong concentration on individual pain and loss, often to the neglect of whole communities who have been victimised during the conlict. These were the communities that were least equipped to deal with the added burden because they were already the most socially and economically deprived. Such communities existed and still exist on both sides of the divide.

The Group heard how they had to endure over many years the presence in their midst of their ‘own paramilitaries’ and at the same time absorb the concentration of heavy military and police presence. Those presences over the years became more and more oppressive. The burden was further added to when their ‘own paramilitaries’ acted as judge and jury in punishing anti-social behaviour in the most harsh and brutal manner.

These punishments often resulted in horrendous injuries to the individuals concerned and further emotional disruption to their families. Others were exiled from their communities because they were suspected or accused of anti-social behaviour or of providing information to the security forces.

While the Group recognises that intelligence gathering is an integral part of security activity, the sense of oppression was even further increased by the numbers of people who were recruited by the State and induced to act as informers. The Group was told that a significant number of such agents were recruited, many more than was imagined at the time. Whatever service they did for the State, it was at a price to their own lives and the self-esteem within their own community.

These communal stories must form part of the storytelling recommended in this Report. Forgiveness and reconciliation need to take place within communities as well as between communities. Some of the stories will be difficult to tell and to listen to but all the more important that they be told and that they be heard. This, of course, will only happen and then only tentatively when people and communities are convinced that the conlict is over and done with and that a truly safe place exists for all.

This is not to recommend that people from within these communities publicly admit to having been recruited as agents or to having passed on information to the security forces but rather to face the truth that these communities were never completely of the same mind or conviction as to the legitimacy of what was being done. These communities were made up of people who were fallible and under enormous pressure.

Some acted according to their own moral code while others bent under the pressure.

The Group, therefore, recommends that the Commission for Victims and
Survivors for Northern Ireland (CVSNI) should facilitate the telling of these stories about intra-communal difference. his should be done in a manner which enhances reconciliation within; which engages both the paramilitaries and the state agencies; and where all are aware of the residue of hurt and bitterness still present in some of these communities and are challenged to find better ways to relate and interact.

The Impact on Young People

Throughout the consultation, one of the issues that most exercised people was the impact the conflict had, and has, on young people.

Thirty years of violence have led to problems in Northern Ireland which affect our children and young people, some of whom still need particular support and help.

Several groups represented these needs and expressed concern about the extent to which parents are passing on their prejudices and bitterness, wittingly or unwittingly.

This results in ongoing sectarian division and even violence in society.

Many want to ensure that future generations will not repeat the mistakes and horrors of the past. They are concerned that resources are not being made available to support the next generation to cope with the legacy of the conlict and these are needed to assist them to guard against any distorted perspective on normality.

For young people one of the key messages of the conflict has been that life itself has little value. This is seen by some as a contributing factor to the high suicide rates now seen in Northern Ireland. The Group also heard of high rates of dependency on alcohol or drugs or both. A number of sources suggest that, in order to properly address these issues, services for young people - as with other victim, survivor and trauma services - need to be more coordinated and holistic.

Young people whom the Group met were strongly of the opinion that the stories about our past need to be shared. As one young person said “we need to know whether we would have done anything different if we had walked in their shoes”.

Organisations devoted to youth provision experience the same problems facing other victim and survivor groups. Securing and retaining funding in the medium to long term was a common problem. This was acutely felt where the work undertaken, for example in the educational field, was considered by funding bodies to be a statutory responsibility and not something they were prepared to fund.

Many emphasised the importance of education in building a better future and suggested that there should be more opportunities for integration. In order to address properly the ills of the past and the isolation of communities, they said that we need to look at segregation within our society in all its manifestations. While some were committed to an enforced system of integrated schooling, others felt that Northern Ireland society was not ready for such a step.

People also suggested that more value should be placed on good citizenship, for example through volunteering, and the skills for living with diference. As there is no common understanding of the conflict, others highlighted the value of specific education programmes to encourage and enable young people to understand better the nature and causes of the conlict and how society has emerged from it. In this context the benefit of using creative arts as a means of enabling young people to engage with, and express their views on, the conflict and its legacy was highlighted.

Such analysis will, we were told, be all the more fruitful because of the increasing emphasis that is being placed on emotional and social intelligence, for example Personal Development and Mutual Understanding (PDMU) which is part of the revised curriculum.

REFLECTIONS

While we in society have no right to place the burden of securing a better future on the shoulders of the next generation, young people are an important influence on the older generation. They may be best equipped to challenge sectarian norms and assist society towards a shared and reconciled future.

The stories about the impact the conflict had on children and young people across the communities need to be told and listened to. The Group acknowledges that the needs of children and young people will differ across and between communities but the many examples that exist of collaborative working between schools should be developed with these storytelling needs in mind.

There is impressive work done by many statutory and non-statutory groups in attempting to engage young people in society generally, but also specifically on legacy issues. But even they agree that more needs to be done. he focus needs to be kept firmly on the future and those who will take us there. The good work done by many groups needs to be supported.
The Group is encouraged by the many joint schools’ initiatives enabling pupils from both sides of the divide to work together on social, humanitarian and overseas development programmes. The Group takes the view that such cooperation builds new understanding and trust between young people at a formative stage in their development.

But you cannot lay the burden on schools as they cannot provide the answers that society is not providing itself.

Even if young people claim not to be well educated or interested in the past they are actually finding their own ways to re-enact the age old conflict. But they now do so through online social networks or in their loyalty to, and following of, certain football teams.

Furthermore, as conflict has come to an end, the transitional period from paramilitary control to acceptable policing has created a context in which anti-social behaviour has gone unchallenged. There is a responsibility on all, parents and community groups alike, to collectively address these issues and to provide direction. Under the devolution of policing and justice higher priority should be given to the development of creative community policing initiatives, which have a particular emphasis on engaging with young people.

The Group therefore recommends that the Legacy Commission, proposed in Chapter 7, should, working through the Reconciliation Forum, ensure that young people are encouraged to participate in storytelling initiatives and that education programmes are developed which inform young people, in a balanced way, about the nature and impact of the conlict.