home > our work > accord > armed groups > contents > abstract: Assessing groups and opportunities: a former government minister’s perspective
Assessing groups and opportunities: a former government minister’s perspective Mo Mowlam interview (2005) Mowlam describes her efforts to understand armed groups in Northern Ireland before the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998. Among the numerous challenges were: evaluating and interpreting information from a variety of (mainly biased) sources; dealing with mutually-associated organizations with overlapping membership such as the IRA and Sinn Féin; and responding to the use of violence during the peace process. In recounting her visit to the Maze Prison for a face-to-face meeting with imprisoned paramilitaries, she shows how she understood their behaviour and what made her able to connect with them enough to keep the peace process on track. The article concludes with some recommendations on the importance of working to make the process as inclusive as possible and keeping everyone informed on progress.
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