Children Should Grow up Without Fear of Bombs

Pat Sheehan: I was imprisoned in 1979 and released in 1987. I was arrested again in 1989 and released in 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement; if this agreement had not been reached, I would have had to stay in prison for another 10 years.

Sheehan: The first time I was charged with causing an explosion in the centre of Belfast in which nobody was injured. That was at a time when the IRA was running a bombing campaign against shops. The second time I was arrested for murdering members of the security forces and the British Army, resulting in deaths. I was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Sheehan: Yes, we were together, Bobby Sands and others who had decided to go on hunger strike. I had been on strike for 45 days when they decided to call off the strike. I would probably have been the next to die, but it was decided to end the strike. I had nothing to do with this decision, but thanks to it I survived. My condition was critical and I would probably have had 48 to 72 hours to live. I was very lucky.

Sheehan: The British wanted to criminalise us, it started in 1918 when the first Irish Republican prisoners decided to go on hunger strike. Terence MacSwiney, the mayor of Cork, died in October 1920 after 74 days on hunger strike, bringing the Irish question to an international level. Many others followed him.

Sheehan: During our time, 10 prisoners died. The hunger strike was a reaction to the injustice that was done to us. We used the hunger strike as a weapon to embarrass political opponents and force them to recognise us as political prisoners. We were prisoners, we were involved in a political conflict because of the political conditions here. There was discrimination in all areas of life, in employment, housing, education and so on.

Sheehan: We believed it was the only way to achieve radical change. We had tried non-violently before, with peaceful protests. At that time, it wasn't about a united Ireland, not even about the withdrawal of the British. We were demanding state reform, an end to discrimination and similar measures. The state responded to these demands with violence. People - myself included - then believed that political change could only be achieved with arms. There had been many armed uprisings against the British presence in the past, going back centuries. The most famous was the Easter Rising of 1916 and the War of Independence that followed. We grew up in a historical context and believed we had the right to fight against the British. But instead of finding solutions, they formed a one-party unionist state. There was no end to the discrimination and there was no end to the violence of the unionists (those in favour of the union of Northern Ireland with Great Britain; editor's note).

Sheehan: Many important things. The agreement gave Irish republicans the opportunity to achieve their goals by democratic, peaceful and therefore non-violent means. The Agreement includes a provision for a referendum on Irish unity. We are confident that this will happen in the foreseeable future.

Sheehan: Absolutely!

Sheehan: I think there will be a referendum before the end of this decade.

Sheehan: The agreement states that it will cover the whole of Ireland and that a majority on both sides is required.

Sheehan: The British government will have to hold the referendum: they themselves guaranteed when they signed the Good Friday Agreement that they would accept it if the majority were in favour. But we need to prepare. We need to know what will happen to the health system, what will happen to the education system, we also need to protect the rights and cultural activities of Unionists in Northern Ireland, we need to decide what our flag will look like, what anthem we will choose, in short, all these issues need to be resolved.

Sheehan: The Irish language education system is quite small, but it is also the fastest growing system. The Unionists are still opposed to Irish language education and have hindered it but have not been able to stop it. West Belfast has the largest Irish language secondary school. When we started it there were about 500 pupils, now there are over a thousand and we are already thinking about opening another secondary school.

Sheehan: When I was at school, there was no opportunity to learn Irish. We had to travel to Irish classes in the Republic. Unfortunately, foreign language teaching - not just in Irish - is becoming less and less in schools. My partner is Basque and the children attend a Basque school where Spanish and English are also taught. Foreign languages are already taught there in kindergarten. In our country, on the other hand, there are no native language lessons and foreign language teaching in general is in sharp decline.

Sheehan: Yes, that was planned from the beginning, now we have simultaneous translation. We can also use Irish in court.

Sheehan: My father's generation lived in fear, we were aware of the injustices we faced. But today's young generation doesn't feel like second-class citizens, they live for the future. We live in a society that has completely changed.

Sheehan: There is no rational reason to be against a language, there is no rational reason to be against equality. We talk about equality, but the unionists are convinced that they lose something with equality. They fear that if Ireland is united we will do to them what they have done to us.

Sheehan: No. In a united Ireland, Irish republicans, myself included, will be the greatest defenders of unionism because the unionist community and its culture must not only be protected but enhanced. That's what I keep telling people. We don't want the North to be dependent on the South, we have great opportunities here to build a country based on equality, honesty and justice and we should all be proud of that. The children should grow up in this environment, without fear of bombs. I believe that will happen.