Who would have believed it?

After a political tour of Northern Ireland in 2002 I continued reading about the "Troubles". I was fascinated by the stories I heard from a few of the Catholic men imprisoned for merely marching in a parade, or, for showing up at a demonstration. All of my sympathies at that time rested with the disenfranchised minority in the North of Ireland.

I found a piece on the Internet regarding the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force). A man whose name I initially believed had been misspelled (Gutsy, right? Not, Gusty!), intrigued me. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 1967. Inside the Maze Prison he was the "leader" or the "commander" for the UVF. But, get this: ten years later, in 1977, Spence broke from violence and left the UVF altogether the following year, calling instead for reconciliation in Northern Ireland. He also became a speaker of the Irish language during his time spent in the gaol.

This is tremendous, unbelievable! For a Protestant to want to learn Irish??? Gusty - what in the world did you think you were doing? Released from prison in 1984, he soon became a leading member of the Progressive Unionist Party and a central figure in the Northern Ireland peace process.

Of all the paramilitary heroes, the Bobby Sands, the victims of Bloody Sunday - here was one of the foe who suddenly had violated all of my expectations of the Protestant hoods, thugs and vigilantes in Ulster. If he could change - and, what helped this transformation (?), there was hope for Armagh, Portadown....for everyone in the North.