Don't swallow the Provos' line

Sean O'Callaghan, a former IRA member, is serving 20 years for murder. As Northern Ireland goes to the polls, in preparation for possible all-party talks, he warns nationalists against any alliance with the IRA

Gerry Adams said recently, in his speech to the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis, that republicans had to engage in the battle of ideas. When Adams starts talking about "ideas", I have to work very hard to stop laughing. These guys are not interested in "ideas". Adams, and the Provisionals in general, have never had a single "idea" beyond nationalism.

By "ideas" Adams simply means strategic awareness. He is not seeking to persuade opponents (Unionists) that his "idea" is best, but is seeking to enlist nationalists in a broad strategy. It is within what is broadly and somewhat lazily referred to as nationalist Ireland that the battle of ideas will be fought.

Unionists are not stupid and are well aware of what is going on. Pan- nationalism, or the nationalist consensus, call it what you will, is the single most dangerous "idea" in Ireland today. The Provisionals in their own internal document said that they were prepared to opt for an unarmed strategy because they had got Fianna Fail, the SDLP and Irish America to agree to their basic republican principles. Of course they still held on to their guns and Semtex. Why? Because they believe, and Martin McGuinness has said this publicly, that Unionists may resist, that there could be a backlash, but it would be fairly easy to "put down".

There cannot be real peace in Ireland until Irish nationalism stops trying to undermine the very existence of Northern Ireland. While nationalists and Provisionals differ only on the methods of subversion, an escalation is inevitable in the long term. Very little has changed inside the Provisional world and very little ever will. Provisionalism is a monster and will not be bought off or appeased. If constitutional nationalism does not disentangle itself we are likely heading for violence on a scale we have not yet seen.

So why do people join the IRA? The tribal and sectarian nature of Northern Ireland ensures that there is no shortage of recruits. Family background often plays a part; close relatives may have been killed or imprisoned because of their republican activities.

Most people who join the IRA in Northern Ireland do not, in my experience, join because of a considered rational decision to advance the IRA's goal of a 32-county Socialist Republic. The decision is invariably an emotional one. The experience of living in ghetto areas where the IRA are seen as defenders against the "prods and the Brits" must never be underestimated. Joining the IRA in certain republican areas is regarded as an honourable, sometimes the only honourable thing to do.

Peer pressure, status within the community. The attraction of the "secret army" and the excitement thereby engendered in young lives otherwise deprived of hope or passion for the future. These are the factors that propel uneducated and immature young people into the ranks of the IRA. A simplistic version of Irish (nationalist) history imbibed at home and school does the rest, providing the necessary historical and moral cocoon that justifies, in the minds of IRA volunteers, the most revolting acts of violence.

A clear distinction should be made between the broad republican leadership and the young cannon fodder on the ground who do the dirty work for that utterly cynical leadership. Maximum blame for the obscenity that is provisionalism must be placed where it belongs, at the door of Adams, McGuinness and the other leading strategists.

Why do people leave the IRA? Fear of imprisonment and violent death. Some are not "tough" enough for the violence. Sometimes a long period of imprisonment provides time for reflection but this is unusual. The IRA tends to keep a very tight hold on its prisoners. Prison is where the real political indoctrination takes place; where the "soft" are separated from the "hard core". Marriage sometimes breaks the link; a partner may not share the same views. The arrival of children can sometimes bring a maturity. But, in terms of IRA volunteers in Northern Ireland, family and community pressures often militate against a clean break. Often it is only by leaving the area - not so easy - that people find the courage to leave it all behind them.

Up until now I have concentrated on IRA recruits from Northern Ireland. There are clear distinctions between them and IRA volunteers from the Irish Republic. In the south, community or peer pressure does not exist. There are no republican ghettos, no "Brits" or "prods" to hate. We are left, almost invariably, with a family history of republican involvement. The historical legacy of a state brought into being by republican violence is powerful: the notion that "Brits" only understand force.

I was born in County Kerry in the Irish Republic and joined the IRA at 15 in 1970. Why? Youthful adventurism, misguided idealism, the emotional impact of the pogroms of 1969. The experience of meeting Catholic refugees who fled south after being burned out of their homes in Belfast. A family history soaked in republicanism. The entire nationalist/republican ethos which reigned unchallenged in the Ireland of youth. Any number of reasons explain my joining up, but of course it was me that committed murder. My fault. I alone take the blame for that.

Why did I leave? Because nothing in my background had prepared me for the awful sectarianism that fuels northern nationalist fundamentalists. It is that "hard edge" which often distinguishes southern from northern IRA volunteers. After about 18 months in Northern Ireland I realised that I was taking part in a sectarian war directed primarily against the Protestant, Unionist people of Northern Ireland. So I resigned.

So what should be done to about the IRA? The Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), or something similar, is absolutely necessary in the fight against terrorism. I have never met anybody who joined the IRA because of the PTA. I never heard it discussed within the IRA at any level. The PTA is necessary but it will not, of itself, stop IRA attacks in Britain.

Most IRA attacks in Britain originate from the Irish Republic. In the absence of vigorous action against the IRA in the Irish Republic, it is even more necessary that the British police should have the power to protect people from terrorists.

Until a clear and co-ordinated strategy against terrorism, involving the security forces in Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic and mainland Britain, is formulated, the IRA will continue to have the capacity to bomb England almost at their leisure.

A longer version of this article is published in the June edition of 'New Dialogue News', pounds 1, obtainable from 22 Westwood Avenue, Middlesbrough, Cleveland TS5 5PY.