Trailer for ‘When Terror Gets Old,’ GlobalPost’s new mini-doc

For 30 years, Belfast, Northern Ireland stood alongside Beirut and Baghdad as one of the world’s terror hotspots.

Vicious fighting between Catholic nationalists seeking to join Ireland and Protestants loyal to the British crown claimed more than 3,500 lives. Bombs, bullets and horrific crimes inflicted incalculable damage across Britain in a war it seemed would never end.

But in 1998, the Good Friday Agreement brought peace to Northern Ireland. The fighting stopped. The world moved on. And a generation of combatants who’d dedicated their lives to war found themselves with nothing left to do.

At a time when it feels like Britain and the US are waging an endless war on terror, Northern Ireland is a reminder that all wars end eventually.

So what happens when the fighting stops? What happens to terrorists when they retire? What happens to extremist movements that ended in peace, but not victory?

Find out in “When Terror Gets Old,” a new short documentary coming soon from GlobalPost. UK Senior Correspondent Corinne Purtill and video journalist Mark Oltmanns meet the ex-fighters of the IRA and other paramilitary groups of Northern Ireland’s war. They find men and women in their 50s and 60s discovering that survival comes with its own struggles, and find out what they think about redemption and regret.

Watch the full mini-documentary and print series.