Professor Paddy Hillyard
Mr Gary Potter

Post-Conflict and Identity: Re-integration of Former Combatants

This research will look at the personal identity of former prisoner ex-combatants in Northern Ireland post- conflict. I will conduct in-depth life history interviews of 15 former republican combatants and 15 former loyalist combatants. The purpose of the study is to investigate what becomes of the warrior identity post conflict, how individuals construct life stories to make sense of their past, present and future when conflict has been a central part of their identity, and to explore similarities and differences between the former loyalists' and former republicans' identities pre- and post –conflict.