FOUR former British soldiers have travelled to Derry to meet with four ex-IRA members as part of a dialogue and peace initiative.
The meeting, witnessed by The Guardian newspaper, will be followed by more meetings.
A former IRA member at the meeting told the paper: “Sometimes it is important to walk in someone else’s shoes for understanding in order to bring about reconciliation.
“I feel lessons can be learned from the past conflict here in Ireland, by talking and engaging in an open and honest way, lessons which could be useful in other parts of the world.
“We made mistakes in dealing with conflict. These mistakes should now never be repeated anywhere in the world: that’s why I welcome this engagement between former enemies.”
He joined the IRA after Bloody Sunday.
The London-based paper said that the meeting was one of a series organised by Veterans for Peace UK, the British branch of a US anti-war group for former members of the military, and Coiste na n-Iarchimí, a Belfast-based support group for republican ex-prisoners.
The former soldiers also spoke to the newspaper.
One of the soldiers Kieran Devlin – who lives in a unionist area of the North – said he had been branded a traitor by some in the unionist community. He said he feared travelling to Derry.
“There was an element of fear there and, I have to be honest, a bit of mistrust,” he said. “I had never met a republican before except when I was on operational duties with the army, which is quite shocking really.
“I was taken aback by their hospitality and, for want of a better word, their normality, and they weren’t aggressive to me. They had a good point to make which was easily understood once I sat and listened: why they were involved in the armed conflict.
“Initially, I didn’t tell them very much. I was guarded. But it didn’t take long to come around. Their story is not really much different from our story as soldiers. I think the key to the reconciliation process is listening.”
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