Loyalist Perspectives on Apology, Regret and Change

Abstract

If the Northern Ireland conflict is at an end, what place is there for apology and regret among those who orchestrated and carried out violence and what do attitudes about each of these areas from the protagonists tell us about moral responsibility in a ‘post conflict’ society? This chapter is a tentative attempt to explore such questions with specific reference to loyalists who engaged in acts of violence and murder. Although one might expect different reactions about apology and regret dependent on the extent of violence and murder perpetrated, it is evident that for most of the loyalists interviewed here a preoccupation with apology and regret is seen as counterproductive to the challenges of a changed political environment, as well as likely to entrench the interests of conflict rather than help move beyond that conflict. It is this perception and the understandings which surround it that I particularly want to explore in this chapter.