Peace activist: People in Northern Ireland won't let violence return to where it was

Former member of loyalist paramilitary group as a teenager now works tirelessly for the rights of women and communities

Eileen Weir, Shankill Women's Centre, at UCC. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

A recent bomb scare at a peace event in Belfast that sparked panic and saw Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney evacuated, felt “quite calm” to one attendee, award-winning peace activist Eileen Weir.

But then, Ms Weir grew up through a bloody conflict, gathering milk bottles as a child to make petrol bombs in her close-knit protestant community in Belfast.