Mr. Tim Attwood:

I will comment on the first and last points. Ms Weir will have comments about paramilitaries. Obviously, there has been an ongoing debate in the media in the North yesterday and there was a debate in the Assembly yesterday. It is a very live issue for a long time and, 26 years after the Good Friday Agreement, it is important it is addressed as soon as possible. It came up last year in the broader consultation across the board on the peace summit 2023, particularly in April when we had the youth peace summit and young people were saying that paramilitaries are still a problem for young people. As one young person said, they want to see the end of paramilitary violence as it is a big issue in today’s society. Young people recognise it because they see it in some of their areas. One talked about the shooting of Lyra McKee and the impact that had on young people because she was so young. It is something they have highlighted that they want to have addressed.

On the issue of women, and Ms Weir can speak better than me on this, the Chair’s mandate may be ending shortly but a month ago in Derry, Foyle Women’s Aid launched “'When you know what they are capable of’: Paramilitary-related Gendered Coercive Control”, a report which it commissioned by Professor Aisling Swaine, professor of politics, from UCD. It did not get as much publicity as it should. It is a devastating report about the realities of women living under the threat of abuse and intimidation from paramilitaries from across the board. It is a really hard-hitting report and deeply researched. Professor Swaine is now doing comparative work in other parts of the world to compare what is going on here. It is very important. It is right up to date and it is detailed. It is not just somebody’s view. These are the words of very courageous people who have come forward to participate to highlight in some detail what Ms Weir will know happens on the ground. They will speak at a Hume foundation event during Human Rights Week on 3 December in Belfast. It highlights how, today, so many women are under coercive control from paramilitaries from all sides across the North. It is pretty shocking. The testimonials from the individuals, which can be found on the Foyle Women’s Aid website, show the reality of the control that paramilitaries still have today.

On the last point about narration, many young people say they just do not get taught about the past. It is so important it is done. The high water mark for the narration about the past was the decade of centenaries. The Irish Government played a very significant role and so did local authorities in the North in presenting a range of narratives at events. I was on Belfast City Council at the time and we had civic events for the Somme and the Easter Rising. We funded a whole range of events within loyalist, republican and nationalist communities. It was very inclusive. A whole range of narratives were given an opportunity to be displayed. That was all based on the community relations council’s policy principle of ethical remembering and I think we have stepped back from that. I think we have to get back to a situation where there are principles of ethical remembering. Everybody has a right to tell their narrative but it means all narratives need to be told. There should also be some locations where collective narratives are told. In Belfast City Council there is a small exhibition where you get a taste, not detail, of the different narratives in Belfast and the new minority narratives. It is very important to go back to first principles and the principles the Irish Government supported and that local government supported during that decade of centenaries, which gave a template for the way forward to do that in an ethical and inclusive way.