N. IRELAND: FORMER UDA MEMBER BILLY MCQUISTON INTERVIEW

(19 May 1998) English/Nat

The Provisional IRA thought an all-out offensive would force Britain and its troops out of the province - it did not.

Instead their bloody campaign spurred the growth of pro-British Protestant gangs some of which killed Catholics in revenge for IRA violence.

Now the prospect of peace appears to be in sight when on May 22 the people of Northern Ireland will have their chance to vote on the Stormont Agreement which could finally bring peace to the war-torn region.

APTV spoke to two men who were in the frontline of the bloodshed - once staunch enemies who now embrace the peace process.

Billy McQuiston is now a free man.

He was once a terrorist - taking part in a campaign of violence for the Pro-British Ulster Defence Association (UDA.)

He joined the Protestant paramilitary group when he was 15 - he is now 40.

Half of his adult life has been spent in prison on weapons and armed robbery charges.

The IRA have tried to kill him several times, and years on, he still has to watch his back because he is still a prime target for Republican splinter groups.

McQuiston, who now runs a community advice centre, was released from jail last October.

He wants peace.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"During the course of these Troubles, the Provisional IRA have tried to
kill me 5 times. They have tried to kill my wife and daughter. Between personal friends
and family members the people who I have lost through these Troubles runs into double
figures. The house I live in has steel doors and close-circuit television. I can only see my family maybe twice a week and there was nobody more involved in this war than I was I served 12 and a half years in prison through what I believe to be right in this war, and if I can vote yes to this, if I can live with this,I don't see how anyone else
can't live with this."
SUPER CAPTION: Billy McQuiston, Former UDA member

Martin Meehan joined the IRA when he was 21.

He quickly rose to become a commander in Belfast.

Now 53, he has spent a total of 22 years in prison.

He kidnapped a British soldier and spent 66 days on hunger strike and escaped from Crumlin Road jail in 1970.

Now a member of the IRA political wing,Sinn Fein, Meehan has renounced violence as a means to achieve his aim - the unification of Northern Ireland with the Republic.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well I was a commander in the Irish Republican Army from the outset right through most of the conflict.In saying that I don't diminish in anyway the sacrifice and the determination of the men and women of the Irish Republican Army. They have been the cutting edge that has made us arrive at this settlement that we have achieved today. The settlement, or the Agreement as you would call it is not everything that we would desire, but as I say it is a bridgehead on the beach where we can move forward, move the
process forward to achieve our objective."
SUPER CAPTION: Martin Meehan, Sinn Fein and former IRA commander

More than three thousand people have died in the violence which has plagued Northern Ireland for nearly thirty years.

Members of the IRA who lost their lives during the so-called Troubles are remembered at this cemetery in Belfast.

They died fighting for their cause of a united Ireland - a cause that Martin Meehan now believes can be achieved through the ballot-box and not down the barrel of a gun.

It is a strategy Meehan took years to accept.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
political struggle and to me the two can't be detached."
SUPER CAPTION: Martin Meehan, Sinn Fein and former IRA Commander

SOUNDBITE: (English)







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