Paths to reconversion taken by Northern Irish paramilitaries

Although the Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998 by the main actors of the Northern Ireland conflict clearly mentioned the issue of the reintegration of members of armed groups who were imprisoned, the problems generated by this reconversion remain unresolved and are still a taboo subject. In the eyes of much of the population, these (former) members of armed groups can be placed in the same category as common criminals, and many of them have indeed turned to criminal activities such as racketeering and drug trafficking. The media attention that these activities attract nevertheless overshadows the considerable investment they make in other sectors so as to make the best of their integration into the political, economic, and social fabric. Many of them work in peace-building programmes funded by the UK or the European Union, while others are especially active in political, voluntary or cultural fields. While these various itineraries of reconversion seem insufficient for perpetuating or even renewing their collective identity, they nevertheless allow them to put their own war into words and into perspective, as well as to re-examine the meaning of a combat that they sometimes waged over several decades.