'No justification' for dissident violence today, says Anderson

Former Sinn Féin MEP and IRA prisoner Martina Anderson says there is no justification for dissident violence today.

In April a bomb exploded outside a police station near Belfast with police claiming it was intended to kill officers and cause maximum damage.

Last month, a bomb was found in County Monaghan during an operation targeting dissident republican activities.

Anderson says the situation is very different to the one when she was in the IRA.

"Context is everything. Where we are today is a completely different place, a completely different environment, a completely different world than the world that I grew up in.

"The world that I ended up in prison in. Everything is different now.

"There are opportunities now to advance the reunification of Ireland now that I didn't have before. We are in a different political environment now."

Speaking to BBC News NI's Red Lines podcast she added: "There are opportunities now to advance the reunification of Ireland now that I didn't have before. We are in a different political environment now"

"We need to promote and sell the opportunities we have for those people in our country that want to see this country reunited to use those legislative tools and democratic tools to move this forward. We all have a role to play to protect what we have."

"There's no sugarcoating a conflict. Wars are terrible things. There's no romanticism in wars.

"The success, of the generation I've been a part of was not fighting a war but it was ending it."

Anderson also addresses her decision to have an abortion in 1985 when she was in her early 20s.

She had been charged with possession of a firearm and causing an explosion four years earlier.

She was on the run in Donegal and was due to take part in what she calls "a planned IRA mission to England".

"I wasn't going to let my comrades down. My involvement in the struggle was not over. I made the hardest decision of my life. I made the most painful decision of my life.

"It wasn't easy. I found the whole experience horrendous. I chose the struggle. I have put the struggle first throughout my life and that's why I made the decision I made. It is a decision I am not asking people to agree with."

She admits she was worried about telling some members of her family because of their Catholic faith.

"I have lived in a society that, despite changes that has taken place in the north and in the south of this island around the issue of termination and abortion, we are told to be quiet, never speak about this. It is politically and socially unacceptable for you to speak."

Anderson describes some of the reaction to her revelation of the abortion as "an onslaught of misogyny, hate, and social media attacks".

"Someone asked me, 'Did you prepare yourself for that?'

"And for me, it was akin to asking a woman to prepare yourself for your partner or for your friends to come in and attack you because you've upset them because you've made them feel, and I don't think we should have to do that."

Asked by Mark Carruthers if it was the case she had an abortion because she reached a view that no baby was going to stand in the way of her taking part in a bombing mission in England, Anderson said people "make decisions based on their own circumstances of their life at that moment in time".

"I wasn't asking for approval. I'm not asking for forgiveness. I'm not asking for converts.

"I'm asking people to understand that life is complicated, and people make the decisions based on the circumstances that they find themselves in. And it was my choice to make, and I made it, as other women have also made such a choice."

Anderson added: "Some people conflate regret and pain. I do not regret the decision that I made. I regret the circumstances that made that decision, in my view, in my mind, necessary. I wish there had been no conflict. I wish life had been different."

Anderson served as a Sinn Féin elected representative for 14 years but stood down from her Stormont seat in 2021 after the party asked two Foyle assembly members to consider their positions following a review of election results in the constituency.

"There was a review. I was asked to stand down. It was a body blow I didn't expect to be asked to stand down. But the struggle was bigger than me. That's what I concluded, I stood down and I took on other roles," she said.

Anderson said she didn't feel betrayed by her party.

"I have never stopped being an Irish republican. I never stopped for one minute, for one day. I never questioned the republican struggle or where we were going."

At the time Anderson's family released a statement saying she had been crushed by the decision and claimed she had been sacrificed by the party in what was a massive miscarriage of justice.

Anderson attributes that to the "fierce loyalty" of her sisters.

She is currently employed by Sinn Féin.

"I have moved on. I was always ok with the party. One difficult experience does not erase a lifetime of commitment. I love my party."

The full interview with Martina Anderson is available as a Red Lines Podcast on BBC Sounds.