Encumbered by data: Understanding politically motivated former prisoners and the transition to peace in Northern Ireland

Introduction Our previous work on politically motivated former prisoners (PMFP) has contended that the peace process in Northern Ireland has provided various and sustained examples of the role that PMFPs have played as both leaders of and agents in the delivery of conflict transformation. However, a more frequent and unsympathetic discourse directed at PMFPs remains tied to a representation of them as terrorist-inspired and insidious. As one academic has argued, when critiquing the approach of the authors, ‘the obsession with labelling actions as political, obscures the fact that the republican and loyalist campaigns were fundamentally sectarian and terroristic and undoubtedly criminal’. Within that perspective, past violent deeds remain as the barometer against which PMFPs ‘must’ remain measured. Such an interpretation appears incapable of countenancing the positive role that PMFPs have played in upholding and delivering peace, stability and the promotion of non-violent practice precisely because they used to be ‘terroristic’ [sic]. While academics will continue to ‘re-fight’ the conflict in scholarly journals, the real-life impact of such views are a daily experience for many PMFPs who grapple with the various consequences of the violence of the past. Moreover, many of the positive assessments of the significance and quality of PMFP work emanates from sources who would hardly be described as ‘fellow travellers’. In conducting our research on ex-combatants and PMFPs, we have stressed continuously that we do not naively eulogise them and unlike many who continue to rail against former combatants we are encumbered by data.