Destruction of Surrendered Guns Triggers Hope in Northern Ireland

The province’s shaky peace process was given a boost Friday when one of Northern Ireland’s most ruthless paramilitary groups surrendered a cache of weapons in the first such hand-over in 30 years of sectarian violence.

Amid a blaze of sparks and a cloud of acrid smoke, two munitions experts working for the province’s disarmament commission used metal cutters to destroy the first of nine weapons handed in by the extremist Loyalist Volunteer Force, a Protestant group dedicated to maintaining the province’s link to Britain. The group turned a total of nine submachine guns, rifles and pistols, 350 rounds of ammunition, six detonators and two pipe bombs.

“I never thought I’d see the day,” said a teary-eyed Michael McGoldrick, father of the first person killed by the Protestant group.

“One of those weapons could very well have been used to kill my boy,” said McGoldrick, whose son was abducted and shot several times in the head in 1996. “I’m just so, so glad they’ll no longer be used to kill anyone else.”