Brendan Shannon, 49, former IRA member:
"I never thought we could beat the Brits – the Germans couldn't with panzer
divisions, so how could we? Opposing them was good enough for me.
"Decommissioning is a crime. Thousands of people gave money to buy IRA
weapons and went to jail for looking after them. My father brought handguns
into the Falls in 1969 to protect the community. I was later jailed for
arms' possession.
"I joined the Belfast Brigade's 'D' company at 16. We carried out three or
four operations a day. It was continuous war from when you got up in the
morning until you went to bed. I never had moral qualms. The British have no
right to be here.
"I was interned at 17 for three years. I don't believe I wasted my youth – I
just missed out on three years fighting the Brits.
"Then, I was caught with guns in 1979. I was married with a child and my
wife was pregnant again. I went on the blanket and the dirty protest. They
were awful times.
"I know people who lie in 18 of the 22 graves in the republican plot in
Milltown Cemetery. Some of our leaders did no fighting. We trusted them to
do the talking but they let us down.
"This war ruined most of our lives, our children's lives, our marriages, and
our health. My comrades, the ordinary volunteers, were the bravest of the
brave.
"I'm no rabid militarist; I believe in politics. I did support the peace
process. I took part in Sinn Féin protests at Stormont and canvassed in
countless elections.
"I thought we'd wreck the state from within but all the leadership wants is
power. They have betrayed republicanism."
Aileen Quinton, 47, lost her mother in the 1987 Enniskillen bomb:
"No-one has ever been brought to justice for Enniskillen. The government
might allow the on-the-runs to return. I'll be sickened if those who
murdered my mother and 10 other people – and carried out countless more
atrocities – can come back and walk the streets freely.
"I saw Gerry Adams on TV after the IRA statement. I switched over to The
Bill. I'd do the same if Hitler came on, and at least he was defeated.
"Why should I be grateful to the IRA for stopping doing what they'd no right
to do in the first place? You shouldn't get brownie points for not murdering
people.
"They've broken all their previous promises to abandon violence. Only the
IRA would try to sell the same horse over and over again, and only the
English would buy it.
"My mother, Alberta, was 72 when she was murdered. She was from Donegal. She
was in North Africa, Yugoslavia and Italy as an RAF nurse during World War
Two. She always said they never had time to mourn their dead then and that
was why Remembrance Sunday was so important to her. She wore her medals
every year.
"I was in my flat in London crocheting a table-cloth for her when there was
a news flash about the bomb. She was missing but I thought 'she is a trained
nurse, she is off helping the injured'.
"At the funeral, my three brothers and I threw poppies onto her grave. She
fought fascism in the war; I'm doing my bit now. I fear Tony Blair will
reward the IRA for their statement. Unfortunately, terrorism pays."
Una Gillespie, 43, former Sinn Féin councillor and co-ordinator of the West Belfast Economic Forum:
"The IRA has given everything. There is nothing left for them to give.
Pressure should now be on the British and the unionists. What will they do
for the peace process?
"In terms of equality and human rights, we're worse off in the North now
than 30 years ago. Republicans have been courageous. They have taken
initiatives and risks but nothing has been reciprocated.
"The DUP still won't share power with Catholics. There has been no peace
dividend in working-class nationalist areas. The latest figures show that
seven of the 10 most deprived electoral wards in the North are Catholic.
"Since the 1994 ceasefire, there are fewer government-sponsored jobs and
more unemployment, benefit dependency, and lower wages in West Belfast.
"Northern Catholics are still twice as likely to be unemployed as
Protestants – that figure hasn't changed in three decades.
"But nobody wants to talk about this. Nobody cares about the daily lives of
ordinary Catholics. It doesn't make headlines the way IRA decommissioning
does.
"Loyalist paramilitaries have been running rampage through Protestant
estates this week. Could you imagine the reaction if the IRA was doing that?
I don't see the police firing plastic bullets at loyalists like they did at
nationalists in Ardoyne.
"I worry that the IRA has given too much too soon, while the British and the
unionists get away with behaving as they always did."
Jimmy Spratt, 54, former RUC officer and Police Federation chairman:
"I've been told by police that, despite the IRA's ceasefire, they've been
targeting me within the past 18 months. I don't believe they've turned over
a new leaf with their statement. I hope I'm wrong.
"I joined the RUC at 21. My motto was 'treat everybody like you'd treat your
mother, wife or brother'.
"I'm angry that young people who joined the IRA since 1994 could be let into
the police. Standards are dropping. I'd have been barred for a driving
offence.
"In 30 years in the RUC, I saw horrendous things. I was on the scene after
nine officers were killed in a mortar attack in Newry in 1985. We picked
bits and pieces of colleagues from the debris.
"There were 302 RUC officers murdered in the Troubles. I knew plenty of
them. Sometimes, you'd visit three bereaved houses in one evening. My life
was saved at least twice by Special Branch.
"As part of the RUC's senior management team, I sat in on many intelligence
briefings. The IRA are sophisticated and cunning. I'd never under-estimate
them.
"When they were growing up, I drilled my four sons into saying 'dad's a
farmer' if anybody asked. My wife could never hang my green RUC shirts on
the washing line.
"I still take security precautions. I'm a DUP councillor now and I know the
IRA remains lethal."
Tom Kelly, 41, Policing Board member, MD of Stakeholder Communications, and former SDLP communications director:
"I come from Newry, the most bombed town in Northern Ireland. I'm glad the
IRA leadership have made their 'go home and have your tea now boys'
statement but they should have done that 31 years ago.
"Those dozen or so paragraphs could have been written any time from 1974.
The Council of Ireland in the Sunningdale deal offered nationalists far more
than the cross-Border bodies in the current agreement.
"Sinn Féin has accepted a constitutional nationalist settlement. Better late
than never but what have those three decades been for? Is war something that
starts in certain leaders minds and then ends when they say so?
"There has been such waste of life. In 1973, Kevin Heately, a 12-year-old
Newry schoolboy was shot dead by the Brits. I remember it well because he
was the same age as me. In 1981, a Catholic police officer, Neal Quinn was
killed while drinking in my local, the Bridge Bar.
"All the Protestant policemen had moved out of Newry because it was so
dangerous but Neal had stayed. He was doing what police should do – living
and socialising in the community where they work.
"I hope Sinn Féin is at last able to meet the challenges of policing. I
look forward to Gerry Kelly sitting on the Policing Board. Republican
leaders have built a powerful organisation and they've never lacked
commercial sense. I think they can bring their expertise to business life
here."
