The Bars that Still Exist for Former Paramilitary Prisoners Life on the outside for former paramilitary prisoners can be harsh, with high rates of unemployment, family break-ups, and ill-health according to research carried out by university academics.

The academics studied 100 Republican ex-prisoners and 40 relatives in North Belfast and found:

• 42% said their physical health was either poor or very poor.This ranged from 58% of those aged 55-plus to 35% in the 25-35 age bracket.
• A range of reasons were given for ill-health including socio-economic deprivation after release and beatings and poor conditionswhile in jail.
• At least 75% of ex prisoners showed some symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Nearly 60% of ex prisoners and their relatives described their emotional well being as either poor or very poor. Those who had served sentences of more than 10 years and those who were divorced exhibited the highest levels of emotional stress.
• 52% of those studied were divorced - 17% higher than the Belfast average. Many relatives said the former prisoners were unable to communicate effectively with them when they were released from jail.
• Many ex-prisoners found it difficult to get a job with many being long-term unemployed.

However the researchers - Dr Peter Shirlow from the University of Ulster and Kieran McEvoy and Karen McElrath from Queen's University - found that the prisoners still retained much of the sense of 'community' that had sustained them in prison.

And Republican ex-prisoner groups were active in lobbying under the proposed Bill of Rights and Equality Act legislation for the employment bar on former prisoners to be dropped. The authors noted the irony that former prisoners were barred from employment in the civil service but Republic ex-prisoners could, and did, serve in the Northern Ireland Assembly and even as Government Ministers.

The research is published in a special edition of the peer-reviewed journal Terrorism and Political Violence (Vol 16,3) which looks at the complexities of conflict transformation and other political realities that have affected Northern Ireland since the first paramilitary ceasefires of 1994.

The journal is edited by Dr Peter Shirlow and Dr Rachel Monaghan, both from the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Ulster.

The journal contains a wide range of articles by university academics covering such topics as political violence; an examination of contemporary loyalism; an examination of Sinn Fein; paramilitary punishment attacks and community relations.

For further information, please contact:

David Young
Telephone: 028 90366074
Email: David Young