{"id":5626,"date":"2019-06-06T14:29:59","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T13:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qpol.qub.ac.uk\/?p=5626"},"modified":"2019-06-06T14:29:59","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T13:29:59","slug":"how-some-agreement-generation-are-drawn-into-paramilitary-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/how-some-agreement-generation-are-drawn-into-paramilitary-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland: how some of the \u2018agreement generation\u2019 are drawn into paramilitary groups"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The events preceding the death of journalist Lyra McKee are familiar ones for some young people growing up today in Northern Ireland. Rioting broke out<\/a> as the police searched houses in Derry\u2019s Creggan estate in the run up to Easter. Shots were then fired from the crowd, resulting in McKee\u2019s death, which is still being investigated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civilians were the main casualties of Northern Ireland\u2019s conflict and many remain scarred by its legacies \u2013 divided space, residual violence and trauma related to the conflict. Areas like Creggan are more affected than most, not only due to disproportionate experiences of violence, injury, bereavement and imprisonment, but long-term historical underinvestment, gaps in essential services and a lack of employment opportunities.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sporadic violence, a lack of trust in the police and the continued presence of dissident paramilitaries are the everyday realities of some communities in Northern Ireland after the 1998 Belfast\/Good Friday Agreement which marked the end of the period referred to as the Troubles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research<\/a> my colleagues and I carried out in 2008 in six communities disproportionately impacted by the conflict, ten years after the Good Friday Agreement, revealed that many felt they had not benefited from the peace dividend. We reported<\/a> then that violence was still part of everyday life in communities characterised by uncertainty, unease, and a lack of investment. Adults and young people alike reported that dissident paramilitary groups continued to intimidate, physically attack, shoot and exile young people for so-called \u201canti-community behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other colleagues and I heard similar accounts from youth and community workers, children and young people in research<\/a> we carried out in 2016. This again revealed that as well as being the primary targets of attack and abuse<\/a>, some of the so-called \u201cagreement generation\u201d \u2013 who grew up after 1998 \u2013 are still being drawn into violence by self-proclaimed paramilitary groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To continue reading, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article originally appeared in The Conversation.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The featured image<\/a><\/em> has been used courtesy of Getty Images and a <\/em>Creative Commons license. <\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of those who grew up after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement are still being drawn into violence by self-proclaimed paramilitary groups says Dr Siobhan McAlister. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2551,"featured_media":5628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[250],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-and-society"],"mb":[],"acf":{"authors":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":null,"value":null,"field":{"ID":9774,"key":"field_66d0cbf58f930","label":"Authors","name":"authors","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"relationship","value":null,"menu_order":1,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":9772,"wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"post_type":["authors"],"post_status":["publish"],"taxonomy":"","filters":["search"],"return_format":"id","min":0,"max":10,"allow_in_bindings":0,"elements":["featured_image"],"bidirectional":0,"bidirectional_target":[],"_name":"authors","_valid":1}},"description":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":9776,"key":"field_66d2183027749","label":"Description","name":"description","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"wysiwyg","value":null,"menu_order":3,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":9772,"wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"default_value":"","allow_in_bindings":0,"tabs":"all","toolbar":"basic","media_upload":0,"delay":1,"_name":"description","_valid":1}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/76\/2019\/06\/Creggan.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"mfb_rest_fields":["title","jetpack_featured_media_url","jetpack_sharing_enabled","amp_enabled"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}