Expanding DDR: The Transformative Role of Former Prisoners in Community-Based Reintegration in Northern Ireland

Community counts: The social reintegration of ex-combatants in Colombia

“…Related to this first hypothesis, we also hypothesize that, as actors with individual agency, ex-combatants in environments with fewer opportunities for participation in existing organizations will seek to form their own organizations. This coincides with recent DDR literature that emphasizes the active role of former combatants in post-conflict scenarios, especially for the case of Northern Ireland (Clubb, 2014; Dwyer, 2012; McEvoy and Shirlow, 2009). While several studies have warned against the risks of persistent ex-combatant networks, such legal organizations of ex-combatants may also help them find employment or feel less isolated after demobilizing (de Vries and Wiegink, 2011).…”

Masculinities in Transition? Exclusion, Ethnosocial Power, and Contradictions in Excombatant Community-based Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland

“…In certain respects, findings mirror those from previous studies (McAuley, Tonge, and Shirlow 2010; Rolston 2007; Shirlow et al 2005), which indicate how some exparamilitary prisoners consistently show genuine effort in facilitating cross-community cooperation, albeit on nonpolitical—or “practical”—matters. At the same time, according to our data, the extent of the “transformative role of former prisoners in community-based reintegration” (Dwyer 2012) is actually quite limited. To some degree, the contention that funding community organizations run by former combatants “replicates societal divisions” and reflect “ethnosocial power structures of paramilitarism” (Edwards and McGrattan 2013, 353) is, in certain respects, supported by the findings.…”

“…As conditional for the cooperation of paramilitary groups from both ethnopolitical blocs and thus the successful implementation of the 1998 Agreement, Amnesty was given to political prisoners detained for violent offenses and without any concomitant state mechanism to deal with unresolved disputes and resentments over legacies of political and sectarian violence (Rolston 2006). Subsequently, “peace money” from foreign donors was allocated to local grassroots, community-based organizations employing or run by former paramilitaries, who have since come to serve with some success in community leadership roles (Dwyer 2012; McEvoy and Shirlow 2009; Shirlow et al 2005). The Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, for example, has led in the promotion of offender-based, cross-community restorative justice initiatives, facilitating the development of Coiste an n-Irarchimi and the Ex Prisoners Interpretative Centre (EPIC)—Irish Catholic and Protestant exprisoner coalitions, respectively—which engage together in a variety of cross-community projects (McAuley, Tonge, and Shirlow 2010; Rolston 2007).…”

Shadow policing: the boundaries of community-based ‘policing’ in Northern Ireland

“…In reference to the former, this has been 'reflective of a mindset which fears genuine community involvement and ownership in the process of justice ' (McEvoy et al 2002, p. 197) -especially where many of those involved in local security arrangements are themselves former combatants or protagonists in the conflict (Shirlow et al 2005, Shirlow and Murtagh 2006, Dwyer 2012). Yet on a more pragmatic level, such limited knowledge is due to the fact there has simply been no systematic 'mapping' of existing non-state 'sources' of policing in Northern Ireland, nor an assessment of their rationales, practices or the issues this may poses for state policing arrangements (Wood 2004).…”