Peace & Reconciliation?

[Lance Dopestrong]

Have you ever actually been a soldier though? Until you've been one, and even better actually served in NI, it's difficult to truly comprehend the pressures and contradictions. I was at Crossmaglen when One Shot Paddy was on the loose popping squaddies from near the border, and there is something utterly surreal about spending 6 months on UK soil where every waking minute out of the sanger you're vulnerable to mortar or sniper attack. Not the 'stans, not Iraq, but home soil. I'd done a tour of West Belfast earlier in my career and that was nothing, a different planet. Even now I'm not sure my brain has processed the full implications properly.