[Footsteps] [Light switch clicking] This all seems very atmospheric.

I just realized there, Sian, you told me not to wear black.

[Laughs] and I've worn navy, which is... is it OK?

Does it look OK?

Sian McIlwiane: Um, that happens all the time.

Sorry about that.

I hadn't even thought, to be honest.

Um...

I hadn't even thought.

I'm sorry about that.

Sian: Well, here, you're grand.

Alan McBride: ...if we're going to do this, we should really invite this IRA guy to come with us.

But then, I had never met an IRA guy, so I didn't know how I was going to feel.

As we were chatting, this through, the IRA guy... Alan, voice-over: I did a talk in a school.

And I was telling my story.

Alan: It was one of those moments in my journey that was the breakthrough moment... Alan, voice-over: And this one guy, this kid, got up and he said, "Look, you know, "with the greatest of respect, "your stories are your stories, but they're not our stories, "and we don't want to hear them anymore "because as far as we're concerned, "the Troubles are over, and people are getting on with their lives," and he went on to say how he had as many Protestant friends as he had Catholic friends.

So, I just thought for a moment.

Then I asked the group of boys-- Catholic boys, probably about 16, 17 years old-- that when they left school and got a job and settled down, how many of them would consider buying a house or renting a house on the Shankill Road.

And not one person put their hand up.

Alan: And, of course, the reason for that is that we live in a divided society, and the fact is that the Shankill Road is a Protestant area and that you wouldn't be safe as a Catholic living there.

So if you know the Troubles are over, how come people wouldn't move into each other's areas?

Because we're not there yet.

You know, we have to have a shared society that respects and values everybody's contribution to this society.

Man, I'm talking now about, like, friggin', you know, like, John Lennon or something, I guess, you know, in terms of, you know, we may as well get the guitar and start singing peace songs and stuff.

But it's about that, you know?

♪ Singers: ♪ Are you living in an old man's rubble ♪ ♪ Are you listening to the father of lies?

♪ ♪ Are you walking with unnecessary burdens ♪ ♪ Are you trying to take them upon yourself?

♪ ♪ If you are, then you're living in bondage... ♪ Alan, voice-over: I'd known of Sharon for many years.

♪ You know that's bad for your spiritual health... ♪ Alan: We were both from working-class Protestant areas, but we were very different in many respects.

Her life from a very early stage was very much centered around the church, where mine wasn't.

Whilst I was out drinking and running about the country at discos and stuff like that, Sharon would never have down anything like that.

But I fell in love with her very quickly.

Person: Whoo!

[Kid laughs] ♪ Alan, voice-over: I guess life was pretty set.

You know, you sort of fell in love, got married, had a kid.

The Troubles were in full pelt, even though there were efforts to bring this to an end.

♪ Reporter: John Hume and Gerry Adams say their series of meetings made considerable progress.

♪ Alan, voice-over: I don't really think we had any huge expectations of real change coming.

You know, we just thought that we would always have the Troubles, and so you kind of get on with your lives in spite of the Troubles.

[Siren] You hardly stopped to think, "Oh, my goodness.

This is horrendous."

Go on.

Back.

Out of the way.

Come on.

Please.

[Indistinct conversations] Alan, voice-over: There was an acceptable level of violence.

Unless it was somebody that you knew, you know, it might as well have not have happened because you didn't really think about it at all.

♪ Reporter: Mr. Kielty was sitting in the office when two hooded gunmen entered around half past 11:00.

As his secretary watched in horror, they shot him several times at close range.

Mr. Kielty was the fifth person to be killed in the north in the past 10 days.

Patrick Kielty: My dad was a building contractor.

And rather than paying protection money to loyalist paramilitaries, he decided to go to the police.

You know, my dad was the chairman of the Gaelic football club, which would have been considered a Catholic organization.

So, you put both of those together, and, um, that was reason enough for them to kill him.

Reporter: Mr. Kielty's eldest sons, John and Patrick, carried the coffin.

THE UFF, a cover name for the UDA, admitted killing him.

Patrick: My main thought was that I wanted to be the person that my dad wanted me to be.

I wanted to do something, live my life in a way that he would be happy with how things have turned out.

And so, that was sort of the backdrop to my university years and getting into stand-up.

TV host: Our next contestant's from Dundrum, County Down.

Let's have a welcome for Patrick Kielty.

[Applause] Patrick!

Oh, my name is Patrick Kielty, and, uh, I'm down from Northern Ireland tonight.

Patrick, voice-over: You wanted to show people that you were functioning.

You wanted to show people that this sadness you were carrying, this brokenness that you had, wasn't everything about you.

[Deep voice] Well, Mr. O'Hare... [Laughter] let me state it for you tonight [Exaggerated voice crack] quite categorically.

[Laughter] Patrick, voice-over: I started doing more material about what was going on in the news, and you had an audience that had a real thirst for it.

And that became the Empire, the Empire comedy club, which changed my life.

[Cheering and applause] Hello, and welcome to the Empire comedy club in Northern Belfast.

This guy here, you could be a policeman, couldn't you?

You have--sort of the, yeah, with the hair there.

And you could be a Royal Irish Regiment soldier for all we know.

And, uh, this guy over here with the long hair, you just look if you're out of Long Kesh, don't you, sir?

[Laughter] So, yes, we all know what you could be.

And he's giving me that look: "I am."

[Laughter] Patrick, voice-over: This sense of humor is very strong in Northern Ireland.

You know, having fun in a bar, having craic because if you're being funny, you didn't have to talk about yourself.

Because nobody wanted to answer the question, How are you?

Terrifying.

Let me take a moment to actually work out how I am.

And then there was also that thing of, Well, if I am living, we have to live.

♪ Alan, voice-over: My dad was born in the Shankill.

I worked on the Shankill Road, in Moore's, the butcher's.

And I remember the UDA.

They were against the loyalist paramilitaries.

And they would ask us to put a poster up to say, "This shop no longer sells goods from the Irish Republic."

But the irony was that these guys were sitting there, drinking pints of Guinness with not a shade of, you know, hypocrisy about the fact they're drinking probably the Irish Republic's biggest export.

And then you had stalls selling counterfeit goods--CDs and whatever else, you know, and all of that money going to support the war against the IRA.

Nobody, nobody saying anything about it.

It was just normal life.

It was almost as though I was oblivious to what was going on around me, and I think the complacency was dangerous.

It was complacency on our part of the family that, you know, that meant that my wife and my father-in-law were working in that fish shop on that day.

And if somebody had a sat down with my father-in-law to say, "Desmond, this is a ticking time bomb, "where you have this shop, because at some time, "the IRA are going to come onto the road, "they're going to attack the UDA, and your shop is going to be in the direct line of fire."

The staircase to the UDA headquarters was literally right next to the door of the shop.

And it wasn't a secret.

People knew that's where the UDA had their headquarters.

[Laughter] Having difficulty with a mortgage?

[Laughter] Once your mortgage is in place, we will make that all-important phone call from any phone box in the country.

[Laughter and applause] Because when it comes to real estate, nobody shifts property quite like we do.

Thank you.

[Laughter and cheering] Patrick, voice-over: I played clubs on each side of the peace wall.

They sometimes very much laughed in different places.

There was no doubt about that.

But it was a--I don't know.

It was exciting.

And then, that Saturday... [Bird chirping] Alan, voice-over: It was a Saturday, a really, really, really nice day.

The sun was shining.

It was October, so it was cold, but it was just really, really nice.

So I decided, it being such a nice day, I would take Zoe for a spin on my bike.

I thought I would do this, and then I would come home, and I would watch "Football Focus," which I did every Saturday morning.

And we had a VHS recorder, a video recorder.

So, I asked my wife, who was much more technical than I was, if she could set the recorder for me.

So she did.

[Ducks quacking] Alan, voice-over: I remember the last conversation I had with Sharon was to ask her, "Did you remember to hit the record button on the video for the football?"

And she said, "Oh, Alan, I forgot.

I forgot to hit that."

And I says, "Oh for-- oh, come on."

And, oh, I was angry because I wasn't getting to watch the football, so I says, "Right.

That's just buggered up my Saturday."

And, you know, so she went off, and I went off.

And I did the bike ride.

♪ [Sirens, indistinct shouting] [Fire radio transmissions] ♪ Reporter: An IRA bomb in Belfast's Protestant Shankill Road exploded without any warning, killing 9 people and injuring another 57.

Different reporter: The IRA said its aim was to kill loyalist paramilitary leaders, but the people here believe that the planting of the bomb showed they didn't care who was killed.

♪ Different reporter: The victims include the owner of Frizzell's fish shop and his daughter Sharon.

♪ Alan, voice-over: They asked me then to go to the morgue to identify the body.

And I couldn't do it.

Just couldn't do it.

Um, didn't want to go.

So Beth, Sharon's sister, went.

I'd never even read the coroner's report, never went to the court case.

I just don't want to know.

I just--I want to think of her as a beautiful young woman.

You know, I don't want to think of her and the bomb.

And, I mean, was she intact?

Did she have all her, you know, her limbs?

I just don't want to know.

Do you know what I mean?

I just don't want to know.

Um... Yeah.

I'm sorry.

I just--yeah.

I'm just--yeah.

Um... ♪ [Woman singing indistinctly] ♪ ♪ Can there be unity?

♪ ♪ Can there be harmony... ♪ Alan, voice-over: When I got married, my friend actually said to Sharon to make sure you look after him.

You know, I was the man.

I should have been looking after her, but I was like a child when I was married.

And my wife was very strong.

And so this woman who wasn't only my wife and my soul mate but also, you know, the homemaker in our house.

The IRA had come onto the road that day, and they had taken it all.

You know, they'd taken it all.

♪ I was--I mean, I was in a rage, really.

I mean, and I was--you know, the rage never really subsided, and so it became a question then of, What do I do with this rage?

And then when I seen the images of Gerry Adams carrying the coffin of the guy that killed my wife, I interacted with him.

Reporter: Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams helped to carry the coffin of the IRA bomber Thomas Begley, who was killed in the blast.

Alan, voice-over: Thomas Begley was dead, and the other bomber, Sean Kelly, was in prison, and I didn't know who else was involved in the Shankill bomb, but Gerry Adams was giving it political cover.

He was the president of Sinn Fein.

Sinn Fein were the political wing of the IRA.

So I suppose, you know, he couldn't really cut them adrift.

And even though he was talking about building peace and reconciliation... Gerry Adams: We want to see an Ireland which is inclusive.

he was still presiding over an organization that were carrying out attacks against innocent civilians.

So it seemed to me that Gerry Adams was speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

Gerry Adams: The peace process in which we are engaged threatens no one.

And sometimes, you know, when I'm in my darkest moments, I come very close to hate, you know.

♪ Reporter: The SDLP leader, John Hume, insists that the murders make it more important for him to continue his search for a peace formula.

The purpose of the talks is to get a total cessation of violence.

And if I can do it by talking and saving human life, by talking, it's my duty to do so.

Different reporter: They came in their thousands to remember the Shankill dead and all the innocent victims of the Troubles.

[Indistinct singing] Patrick, voice-over: We got to the end of that week, and we thought, "Maybe we're through this."

You know, maybe the worst thing has happened this week-- those poor people dying on the Shankill Road.

But, of course, that wasn't the case.

That tragedy wasn't the end of the tragedy that week.

Greysteel happened a week later.

A bar had just been sprayed by loyalist paramilitaries in retaliation.

Reporter: UDA gunmen entered the Rising Sun Bar in Greysteel and shot dead 7 people.

[Siren] Two men came in and said, "Trick or treat," then sprayed the whole place with bullets.

♪ Patrick, voice-over: But in between, more people were killed.

These are people that are forgotten.

These are absolute, devastating human tragedies that are just the bit in the middle.

Reporter: The two council workers murdered by the UFF on Tuesday were buried after a joint service in west Belfast.

One of the supervisors said the attack was an attempt to kill as many Catholics as possible.

Different reporter: And last night, there was another attempt at mass murder by loyalists.

Two men burst into a bar, but their machine gun jammed.

Woman: Everybody knew something's gone wrong up at Shank.

So the deaths.

And even though we felt sympathy for the people in Shankill 'cause there were innocent people they'd gotten, too.

News anchor: If the same proportion of murders were carried out on the mainland of Britain in relation to the population, we'd have had a thousand dead in the past 8 days.

Patrick, voice-over: No one was going out.

I, um...I think that week helped to force a change.

Sometimes you need to stare into the abyss to realize that-- that this, this can't go on.

James Bluemel: You think it took something like that?

It took more than that.

It took all the years of it.

Reporter: This was the peace rally in Belfast.

It was yet another expression of the yearning for peace.

Woman: The people know that Northern Ireland has delivered a message to the paramilitaries.

You know, Get off our backs.

We don't want you anymore.

[Cheering and applause] Different reporter: While many parts of the province have been touched by the violence-- Enniskillen was gripped by it 6 years ago-- today, the townsfolk gathered again, a people divided joining together to call for an end to the killing.

Different woman: I want peace in our country, and I want peace for my children and for my grandchildren.

[Cheering and applause] Different reporter: "Remember, you took part in changing history," is how people in Strabane heard they should look back on today.

Man: I think people have had enough.

and just want to show that they've had enough.

There's been too many young lives lost.

And for what?

All we want is peace, to live with each other.

♪ Man, voice-over: You had a population that was war weary.

I was still very, very much a committed Republican.

The British government was still a problem, and their presence and their army in Ireland was still a problem.

Man: Keep up with... Second man: We're fine... Ricky O'Rawe, voice-over: But as far back as 1981, people in leadership positions were beginning to think this armed struggle tactic isn't gonna work.

[Indistinct chanting] Ricky: There was always a hardcore of Republicans who held out and who said, "Well, we support the struggle anyway."

But there was a realization.

There was people beginning to think, "I'm not so sure about it anymore."

"It's not gonna achieve anything."

There was a momentum building that politics would be a far better way to bring about a reunited Ireland.

So it seemed to me that it was a clear choice between armed struggle and peace.

It was as pure and as simple as that for me.

And I went for the peace.

I went for peace.

[Horns honking] News anchor: After 25 years of violence, the IRA has announced a cease-fire, which will start at midnight tonight.

[People cheering and banging lids] Reporter: The Republican movement hopes that it can now achieve by negotiation what it couldn't get by the gun.

But is it truly the beginning of the end of the war here?

[Whistles blowing, banging of lids continues] ♪ Gusty Spence: We offer to the loved ones of all innocent victims over the past 25 years, object of true remorse.

Loyalist military command will universally cease all operational hostilities as from 12 midnight.

[Child cheers] John Chambers: Any cease-fires that happened, I was never overconfident that it would lead to a permanent cease-fire.

I was always hopeful but not over hopeful because I knew that something would happen.

A lot of these people in the paramilitaries, I mean, they're psychopaths and they enjoy killing for killing's sake.

And you take that away from them, what have they got?

You know what I mean?

So they live for killing and all that madness.

Seven days after the loyalist paramilitary cease-fire, Northern Ireland is at peace.

This means we can move carefully towards the beginning of dialogue between Sinn Fein and the government.

Tomorrow morning's front pages: "Major agrees to talks with Sinn Fein" in the "Telegraph"; "Major pledge of peace talks by Christmas" in the "Times"; "Major paves way for start of talks with Sinn Fein" in the "Financial Times."

And the "Sun" has more news of Prince Charles' private life.

I just felt, it made us very vulnerable.

Compromising with the IRA?

Like, come on.

You know, this is nuts.

Stand stronger.

[Applause] Denise: I thought they hated all us Protestants, they hated us being there, they hated everything about us.

What happened on the Shankill Road was just horrific.

Does that not carry forward?

[Scoffs] You know, just... You know, you can't try to destroy a country and then turn round and go, "Oh, by the way, we're the people for peace."

Reporter: At the rally, a heckler called out "Bring back the IRA."

We haven't gone away, you know.

[Crowd cheers and whistles] James: Is Sinn Fein and the IRA very linked to you?

Absolutely, one and the same.

They are not different, one and the same.

Say one, you may as well say the other.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Reporter: If Gerry Adams was expecting a hero's welcome after his visit to the United States, he would have been sorely disappointed.

Up to 40 protestors were waiting for him.

Amongst those there was Alan McBride, who lost his wife in the Shankill bombing.

Alan: He justified the existence of the Provos, of Sinn Fein, of the IRA claiming that they were fighting for a just and lasting peace.

Well, I'm sorry, but I don't see how my wife's murder helped IRA/Sinn Fein achieve peace.

Um, it's hypocrisy.

Gerry Adams is a hypocrite.

[Onlookers shouting at once] Alan, voice-over: Wherever Gerry Adams was, I just wanted to confront him.

I just wanted him to know what he'd done, the hurt that he'd caused.

Then I started writing to him.

"This week, Mr. Adams, I should have been celebrating my wife's birthday..." Alan, voice-over: Phoning their offices almost daily.

Wrote to him a good few times, and I sent the photographs of Sharon.

I just wanted him to know who she was.

You know, I didn't want her to be a number, you know, just whatever it was, 3,700-odd people murdered.

Host: There's a Mr. McBride on the line.

Hello, sir.

Alan on radio: Hello.

Hello.

How are you doing?

Hello... Alan, voice-over: I remember phoning into a telephone phone-in thing that he was on, and I basically just asked him a question about the Shankill bombing.

But anyhow, I'll go ahead with my question.

That's good, Mr. McBride.

How does the murder... You can actually see him physically take a breath before he answered me.

...Sinn Fein's claims to be working towards a lasting peace?

Gerry Adams on radio: Sinn Fein accepts and realizes that all of these actions diminish every single one of us, and we want an end to it.

We ourselves have seen our children killed, and we want to see it all end.

Host: You're, in fact, you, Alan McBride... Alan on radio: I'm Alan... from the Shankill.

Yes.

Gerry Adams on radio: I can only attempt to comprehend the grief that you have been going through.

Alan on radio: You have no idea what it's like... No.

Well, I think I can try to.

You and I and everyone else in this situation, all the people who have buried wives and husbands and children, let us all move forward towards a peaceful situation in our country.

Host: All right.

Listen, thank you very much for that.

Sorry.

So many of you want to get through, obviously... Alan, voice-over: I know what I remember about that.

I remember being cut off and being raging by "Talk Back," that they cut me off and they let him have the last word.

And I was wanting to ask this man questions.

And I'm actually getting annoyed as I watched it and as I think about it and I see his reaction back then.

Um, I just remember where I was, I just remember who I was, I remember the anger that I had.

Um... ♪ Alan, voice-over: I mean, I was frightened as well, not quite knowing what was around the corner and how I'm ever going to cope with this.

♪ Bill Clinton: The history of Northern Ireland has been written in the blood of its children and their parents.

The cease-fire turned the page on that history.

It must not be allowed to turn back.

[Applause] Let it be our dream, and it's a dream that we will achieve with the powerful assistance of the president and his administration.

That dream is that there will be no killing in our streets.

Thank you, Mr. President.

[Loud cheering] Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the earth.

Merry Christmas, and God bless you all.

[Cheering and applause] The main feeling about all of that was, Can it possibly be real?

Reporter: When the talks began, there was a quiet determination to make them work.

[Indistinct conversation] [Camera shutters clicking] Different reporter: The British and Irish governments, nationalists, unionists all round the same negotiating table.

Patrick, voice-over: There was quite a few false tones, and, you know, there was a built-in realism, a built-in pessimism.

And then you had-- you had the bombing at Canary Wharf.

[Sirens] Reporter: The IRA's decision to end the cease-fire has put the whole peace process in serious jeopardy.

Different reporter: The government's message continues to be no cease-fire, no talks.

[Sirens] Different reporter: The explosion ripped through the center of Manchester, injuring around 200 people.

♪ Patrick, voice-over: So there were still terrible things going on.

[Siren] And that's why it was so stop-start.

That's why, you know, a lot of people weren't happy.

[Indistinct shouting] Reporter: The mood is unruly and defiant, with loyalists causing disruption and trouble.

Patrick, voice-over: The expectations were very low.

And yet you did have that sense that the right people who could make a deal were there.

[Cheering and applause] [Indistinct conversations] Terrorism, Republican, or so-called loyalism is contemptible and unacceptable.

I am prepared to meet Sinn Fein, provided events on the ground do not make that impossible.

♪ News anchor: An historic agreement for peace in Northern Ireland has been reached within the past few minutes.

We can see pictures now from Stormont, where the leaders of the 8 parties together with the prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the republic of Ireland are announcing details of an agreement which is intended to end nearly 30 years of conflict and which have cost more than 3,000 lives.

James: Do you remember the night that they announced it?

Yeah.

Yeah, I remember.

I was um...

I was filming a TV show at Shepperton, Shepperton Studios.

I was working in England, had gone over to work.

[Theme music playing] [Applause] But, no one in London was really, you know, "Oh, that's nice."

And you're going, "Yeah, it's lovely."

Nobody cared.

And they didn't really see this place as in any way relevant to their lives.

[Applause] Well, that is it.

We will see you next week So good luck and good night.

Bye-bye.

Good night!

I remember going to my dressing room, and I just--I was crying, but I didn't want to let anybody else know I was crying.

Wasn't crying 'cause I was happy.

I was crying because of... of what was lost.

Man: The agreement proposes changes in the Irish constitution and in British constitutional law to enshrine the principle that it is the people of Northern Ireland who will decide democratically their own future.

If this agreement is approved in referendums North and South, it offers the chance for a better future.

[Cheering and applause] Man: The details of this agreement are really pretty amazing, aren't they?

They're carefully balanced to give every party there something that they can use now to sell this to their followers.

Because all the political leaders will find hardliners in their own causes who will say, "You have sold out.

You should have got us a better deal than this."

[People shouting indistinctly] But there is something carefully balanced there for everybody-- something for the Ulster unionists, something for Sinn Féin.

You know, I wasn't totally for the peace process.

I was skeptical.

The Republican movement was my life.

Woman: The agreement states all paramilitary groups will have to decommission illegal arms.

It's like "Put your hands up."

That's the way I was feeling.

Man: Feel like surrendering.

Ah, it's like a surrender, you know, and...

But the more you sort of maybe talked to other Republicans and stuff like that, you go away and you think, "Maybe this is a way forward."

The war--the bombings, the shootings stops, but the fighting still goes on but in a different approach.

You know?

We'll still be fighting for united Ireland.

Man: You're prepared to accept a halfway house to united Ireland.

The answer tomorrow for the people of Northern Ireland will be no to Gerry Adams and no surrender to the enemies of Ulster.

Man: Ulster needs to say no and no surrender!

[Cheering and applause] Man: The people were asked quite simply to say "Yes" or "No" to the peace accord, and they came out in record numbers.

The turnout is estimated to be a massive 80% to 81%.

Woman: We'll bring you the result in a special program later this afternoon.

♪ Man: We were coming from our holidays.

We had a caravan, towing caravan.

And it come on the radio, and I remember I was driving.

I got out, and just busted into tears and cried uncontrollably.

Yes, 71.12% [Cheering] James: I just fucking erupted like.

Much to the dismay of my children.

My kids probably thought, "Now Daddy has lost his fuckin' mind altogether.

"We suspected he was sort of on the edge, but now he's finally flipped."

There was hope.

Finally there was hope.

Woman: On this extraordinary day, people took time off to witness history being made.

Man, on television: Yes.

71... [Cheering and applause] Woman: I just remember that day, just thinking, "Oh, my God."

There's an end coming to this.

We're finally got to somewhere," and let me tell you the shouting and the cheering and the yahooing that was going on and everybody beeping their horns.

[Horns beeping] Yvonne: There was like this feeling of euphoria.

♪ [People shouting indistinctly] Man: The "Yes" campaign has taunted the unionists who had spearheaded the "No" campaign.

But the DUP leader Ian Paisley insisted the majority of unionists were on his side.

I mean, I honestly--I just...

I wouldn't-- I--I wasn't in favor of, you know.

No.

No.

Um... it's just--to me, it's just a horrible time.

War was a horrible time, you know.

And it was a fearful time because you didn't know what was gonna happen.

[People shouting and cheering] Woman: The final batch of paramilitary prisoners has been released from the Maze Prison as part of the Good Friday peace agreement.

They include loyalist gunmen involved in the murder of 7 people in the pub at Greysteel.

Denise: I don't have the answers.

I just know that I just felt like letting prisoners out who had caused so much harm and hurt and pain and loss, you know... to--to do what, you know, run the streets again, terrorize people again?

I mean, it can't be peace at any cost, you know, 'cause then it's not really peace.

[Cheering continues] Man: 46 IRA prisoners were released, including Sean Kelly.

He was one of 2 men who placed a bomb in the fish shop on the Shankill Road in Belfast.

Like many of the other mass murderers to be freed early, he served only a fraction of his life sentence.

[Horns beeping] Man: Yeahhh!

James: What's weird for you, I guess, is that Sean Kelly is living in your town.

You could bump into him.

I have done.

Have you?

Yeah, several times.

Um, uh, yeah, um... yeah, and it has never been a pleasant experience, to be honest with you.

I mean, I've seen him.

I've just turned and walked away.

And I can remember the first time it happened, it was when the new ASDA opened at Yorkgate, George at ASDA.

And we were going into the--to the building, and there he was, and I just turned and walked away.

And I can remember thinking later being ashamed of myself for walking away, because I didn't do anything.

My wife was murdered by this guy, and it was him that should have been walking away.

And I suppose it was just the fact that he could live a life, he can live an ordinary life and of course, I mean, of course he's gonna live an ordinary life.

He's released from prison and I, uh, voted in the Good Friday agreement.

I allowed him to be out of prison.

You know I voted yes, and I knew that he was getting his liberty.

So all of those things running through my head, all those things running through my head.

[Sighs] [Cheering and applause] Bill Clinton: Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I really only have 2 points to make today.

The first is, you have come a long way since 1995, when I was here the last time.

[Cheering] Second point I want to make to you, is that while you have come a very long way, you and I know that this peace process is not complete.

People on both sides still have concerns and fears and frustrations.

[Siren] Man: All summer it's gone on, according to the Belfast police commander.

The most intense and sustained disturbances in 20 years.

[Shouting, popping] Different man: The peace holds, but the old hatreds are never far away.

[Glass breaking] [Screaming] Man: I remember going to a conference, and it said "Peace is tough."

And I remember thinking "Peace is tough"?

'Cause to me, peace should be easy.

All right there?

Man: Watch the crate.

[Telephone rings] So, it was only at that point in time, around 2001, that I began to think about my story in the context of forgiveness.

Call me naive, call me whatever, but it's worked for me.

[Pounding] ♪ Richard, voice-over: On the weeks and months that followed Bloody Sunday, everybody was angry.

I was at primary school.

And there was an army lookout post positioned at the bottom of the school playground.

And as I ran past it, I was 10 feet away from it... a soldier fired a rubber bullet that hit me here in the bridge of the nose.

[Siren] The only thing I remember is, I woke up in the ambulance.

I can remember me daddy was holding me hand.

He kept saying, "You'll be all right, Richard.

You'll be OK." And then that was when we went to hospital.

I thought that it was the bandages that were preventing me from seeing, all the bandages on me eyes.

But it was about a month after I was shot, I was out at home, me brother Noel said to me, "Do you know what has happened?"

And I says, "Yes."

I knew I was shot.

He said, "Do you know what damage was done?"

And I said, "No."

And that's when he told me that I'd be blind for the rest of me life.

And to be honest, I took it in me stride that day... until I went to bed that night and when I was in bed, that night I cried.

And I cried because I realized for the first time that I was never going to see me Mammy and Daddy again.

♪ Young Richard: I was hit with a rubber bullet.

Man: How did it happen?

I was coming up from school at [indistinct] beside the school.

I got 54 stitches in the face.

And uh, I was only in a hospital for 2 weeks, but-- Boy: He was just standing beside the gunman.

When I was shot, the gunman was about 10 yards away from me.

[Indistinct] I used to think there's no way that a soldier set out to blind me.

When I found out his name...

I wrote to him.

Said, "I'd love to meet you sometime."

[Computer keys clicking] You know, when I did meet him, it was-- it was kind of nerve-wracking, you know.

And, um... you know, when me and Charles were talking, I said to him, "Look, Charles, I'm not here "to be confrontational.

I'm here to let you know that I forgive you."

And Charles thanked me for that, and he said: "Well, Richard... "you know... "when I made the decision to fire the rubber bullet, I felt I made it for the right reasons."

He said that he felt justified... and that he never felt guilty.

And...

I remember thinking, "This is not who I wanted it to be."

I didn't think it was achieving what I envisaged.

But I, you know...

I accepted it.

[Horn beeps] Richard: If we want reconciliation, you can't meet the person that you would like to meet.

You've got to meet them for who they are.

Woman: Hello!

Richard: Yes, Charles, you all right?

Charles: Very well.

Richard: What's the craic?

Charles: A beautiful day.

The sun is shining.

Richard: About to say, the sun always shines when you're here, Charles.

Oh, well, that's true.

That's true.

Richard: I could nail Charles to a cross, and it's not gonna make one difference in my life.

It's not gonna give me back my eyesight, and it's not going to make me any happier.

Oh, no, I appreciate that.

It's great.

Are you always... Um, we've got to try and see each other at least once a year.

That's it, aye.

Yeah.

Richard: But what has made me happy is beginning to try and find a way that me and Charles can become friends.

Yeah, right, here we go.

down the round, this is us now walking on to the school football pitch.

Yep.

Richard: So, this is the area here where I was when I was shot.

And Charles would have been down-- there would have-- Down round there somewhere.

Yeah.

Richard: We're as close as we're gonna get where you and I first met.

Yes, indeed.

Ha ha ha!

Indeed.

Can't get any closer.

No.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

[Sounds of gunfire, yelling] Charles, you all right?

Yeah, yeah.

Absolutely fine.

♪ Oh, yeah.

Richard, voice-over: You know, some people said to me that I shouldn't have met him until he apologized.

If I had have done that, then me and Charles' journey would have never begun.

But finding out who he was does change everything.

He's no longer a soldier.

He's a human being.

He's a father.

He's a grandfather.

You know, it makes a person very real.

And then one night, 6 years after I met him, he said, "Richard, I am sorry."

[Indistinct conversation] Richard, voice-over: Peace is tough, but we got to keep working at it.

You never know where it's going to lead to.

♪ Woman: I just feel really angry that so many people in this part of Ireland had to suffer the shit that they did.

It should be Catholic/Protestant, policemen, soldiers, everything in between.

♪ and I'm not a victim of the Troubles.

I survived the fucking Troubles, and I survived all the shite that was going with it.

We all have it in us for a wee bit of changing.

Somehow there's a atmosphere about, you better change.

And it's astonishing what you can learn when you just open your ears and you drop the guard a wee bit and let the old state of thinking go.

♪ Alan, voice-over: When I think about it, there's just been so much.

And I think sometimes, you just need to take a step back and think about all the twists and turns, you know?

[Chuckles] Alan, voice-over: And I'm a grandfather.

[Indistinct] What she's looking at?

[Laughter] Alan, voice-over: Zoe turned 30 last year.

Zoe: Nature.

Alan: Nature.

Alan, voice-over: Sharon was killed when she was 29, and I think I realized for the first time just how young Sharon was when she was killed.

Yeah.

OK, then.

OK. Alan, voice-over: But it would do nobody any good if I was to hold on to the hurt and the pain and the anger.

Look.

Look at the ducks.

[Quacking] What do ducks do?

Quack, quack.

[Laughing] Alan, voice-over: And, you know, I desperately want a lot of years of my life, you know, to be better than the former years, um, growing up in a divided society, growing up with hostility, growing up with a fear that your father could be shot dead, um... growing up that, you know, there are certain roads that you can't walk down because you might be attacked.

Who wants to live like that, you know?

Nobody, nobody.

♪