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On 10 April 1998, 25 years ago, the Good Friday Agreements were signed in Northern Ireland, the historic treaty that put an end to the so-called “Troubles”, the period of violence between Northern Irish independence activists and unionists in which for over thirty years In the late 1960s and late 1990s, terrorist attacks were carried out throughout the country. Despite the more than two decades of peace, the divisions between the two sides they are not finished, and some forms of violence continued. Particularly in the poorer areas of Northern Ireland, paramilitary groups remained active and became more and more of a problem as time went on.
During the Troubles, unionists, mostly Protestants, were in favor of Northern Ireland remaining in the UK, while republicans, Catholics, wanted to join Ireland (Northern Ireland is mostly Protestant). . Both sides could count on paramilitary formations: the Irish Republican Army (IRA), linked to the republicans of the Sinn Féin party, and the Ulster Defense Association (UDA), linked to the unionists of the Ulster Unionist Party (UPP).
With the Good Friday Accords, the unionists formally won, as Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom: but their more radical factions have always considered those accords an incomplete victory, threatened by the possibility of a future reunification of Ireland. Groups such as the UDA and other smaller ones, such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) or the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), have never ceased to exist, and over time they have extended their criminal activities, for example in the trafficking of drugs, and often with internal feuds that further escalated the violence.
To a lesser extent they continued to perform attacks also nationalist extremist groups such as the Continuity IRA and the New IRA, both inspired by the IRA, opposed to the Good Friday Agreements and in favor of the reunification of the two Irelands.
A Belfast street in 1999: the writing on the wall, ‘not a bullet, not an ounce [unità di misura del sistema britannico corrispondente a circa 28 grammi]» was one of the slogans of the military organization IRA (Irish Republican Army) (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
One of the latest attacks occurred at the end of February this year, when the New IRA attempted to kill John Caldwell, Chief Inspector of Police, with ten shots, seriously wounding him. Following this episode, MI5, the UK’s internal intelligence agency, he raised the level of terrorist threat in Northern Ireland from “substantial”, i.e. with attacks deemed probable, to “severe”, i.e. with attacks “highly probable”.
Also because in recent years the tensions between the two parties have been contributed by Brexit, which has made the status of Northern Ireland and its separation from Ireland much more uncertain, destabilizing the delicate balance reached with the 1998 agreements.
Between 15 and 30 per cent of Northern Irish people have been harmed by the activities of paramilitary groups, including beatings, shootings, kneeling, arson or petrol bombs being thrown at transport or buildings, according to Northern Irish Government data. . One of the latest attacks hit a house in Donaghadee, declared a few days before the best place to live in Northern Ireland: in that case the attack was attributed to a feud within the UDA over drug trafficking.
A bus set on fire in Belfast, Northern Ireland, probably by a loyalist paramilitary group (AP Photo/Peter Morrison
The activities of paramilitary groups seem to proliferate especially in the poorest areas of the country, where there are greater social inequalities and lower levels of education. An anonymous source cited by Financial Times he recounted some of the ways in which the two unionist groups recruit new members: through the control of the trade in marijuana and cocaine they attract teenagers who turn to them to buy them, becoming dependent on them and in many cases accumulating debts. When they fail to pay them, the group offers them two options: to be punished – with beatings or more violent actions – or to enlist.
According to Colm Walsh, a sociologist at Queen’s University of Belfast, unionist paramilitary groups number about 12,000 members, and have become “something much more similar to organized crime and even mafia groups” than to a group motivated by political objectives. Adele Brown, director of the Northern Irish Government’s Paramilitary, Crime and Organized Crime Programme, told the Financial Times that today paramilitary groups are responsible for the “criminal exploitation of children, abuse of women, coercive control, economic crime” and extortion, among other things.
Countering the activities of paramilitary groups is complicated, also due to the now very deep roots they have in some areas, where they have created bonds of trust with the local population. There are people who turn to the paramilitaries to solve problems or to get justice because they trust them more than the police. According to Brown, “in some areas, people feel safe even if these groups commit crimes against their own communities.” A recent example occurred in Newtownards, a town east of Belfast, when recently residents they turned right to a unionist paramilitary group to ask for help against a criminal gang that had carried out several attacks, including one in a shopping centre.
According to Quintin Oliver, a political consultant who led the Yes campaign in the referendum for the Good Friday Accords (i.e. to support the accords and end the “Troubles”), the strength and power gained by the paramilitary groups are the result of a series of political actions that have “allowed the development of a two-speed society: the working class and all the others”.
– Read also: The complicated matter of unsolved murders in Northern Ireland