Former republican and loyalist prisoners join forces for human rights talk

Two former paramilitary prisoners, one UVF and the other INLA, are in Co Cork tomorrow as part of a human rights project.

Alistair Little and Gerry Foster will visit Kinsale Community School where they will talk to students about their experiences.

The events are being organised by the Kinsale Peace Project, a human rights group founded by businessmen Padraig Fitzgerald and Gerard Timmons.

“We want to encourage dialogue and discussion and increase the level of understanding between people of all cultures and all denominations,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

Mr Little, who has never visited the south west before, admits to being “apprehensive” about the trip. “I am always conscious that by doing talks like this, you are entering into other people’s lives, people who may have lost a loved one to violence in the North,” he said. He joined the UVF when he was 14 and was sentenced to 12 years in Long Kesh for murdering a 19-year-old when he was 17. While in prison, he began to realise the ultimate futility of violence.

“I came to the realisation violence was not producing what I thought it would — it was counter-productive and the killing could go on endlessly,” he said. He believes forgiveness isn’t a one-off: “It is a living thing that people struggle with, and it takes courage.”

Today he is actively involved with community groups in East Belfast and in other parts of Ireland, sometimes working with Gerry Foster and organising Peace and Reconciliation workshops in trouble-spots such as Israel and Palestine.

The pair met at the Glencree Centre which Mr Foster initially thought was a complete waste of his time.

The former INLA man said: “Alistair and I had what you might call a lively verbal confrontation. When he got in touch with me later about giving a talk, I wondered why he’d ask me. There were some people who told Alistair to cut me loose. But he didn’t listen.”

Mr Foster met 50 family members of soldiers killed during the Troubles during an event at Glencree.

“There was an elderly man at Glencree that night. His name was Ralph and he’d lost his son. During the course of the talk he became extremely emotional. It was very difficult and I wanted to leave. But I didn’t. I had to pass the group later on and I wasn’t sure how they were going to react.

“Ralph stepped away from the others and held out his hand. He said he hadn’t liked some of what I said, but he was glad I had said it and we shook hands.

“Some people say that you have to re-humanise the enemy …but the first step is seeing the humanity in yourself before you can humanise others.” *www.kinsalepeaceproject.com