"Sometimes I wish I was an 'ex' ex-prisoner" : release and reintegration : the experience of 'politically motivated' former prisoners in Northern Ireland

In particular, it examines the modalities of release and the particular role of community based ‘self help’ organisations in the process of reintegration. The analysis explores a number of key issues which have shaped the process of release and reintegration, namely the importance of ‘naming’ the experience of political imprisonment itself and the mechanisms devised to overcome both the definitional hurdles and the formal/informal recognition of a ‘special type’ of prisoner in Northern Ireland.

I argue that prisoner release, under the recent peace agreement, was achieved by a politically informed but nonetheless pragmatic, instrumental and technical approach to peacemaking. I further contend that whilst these legalistic mechanisms were utilised successfully to circumnavigate ideologically charged discussions on political motivation, the failure to formally recognise the political character of those imprisoned and released has continued to bedevil the process of reintegration.