Individual Dialogue

The Foundation brought together a former soldier who served in Northern Ireland and a former member of the IRA.  The former soldier travelled to Belfast with a member of Foundation’s team and met the former IRA member in a neutral and private space.  Both men were quite nervous and anxious at the start, but the conversation started with asking each other questions about when they had been involved and what they both thought about the conflict now.  Personal details were left out of the conversation so as to protect identities but over the course of the four hour conversation, both men were struck by the commonalities of the feelings they had both in the time of the conflict when they were active, but also how they perceived it now with time and distance from events.  Both men had been injured in the conflict and both talked about the impact on their families and lives in the following years.