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for a past which includes intermarriage, breaches of principle and exceptions to the rule. Nor do they allow for precedents to be set by people beyond these shores, or outside the approved community.
In many places - El Salvador, Mozambique, Lebanon - decommissioning has been seen, not as an issue which signifies victory and defeat, but rather as an act which is beneficial to the whole of society.
Irish soldiers serving in Nicaragua oversaw the destruction of the Contra rebel arsenal using huge shears. Their commandant said: "By the time we were finished I was sick of the sight of guns." It is a phrase which many in Ireland would echo; but getting rid of them requires that all sides acknowledge that it has its precedents and that the community which shapes the past has many values and different hues.
Sean McDougall recently co-wrote Dilemmas of Decommissioning, published in London by Politeia. He is Research Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary British History
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