Good Friday Agreement was a win for republicans, says former paramilitary internee

Loyalist prisoners who believed the Good Friday Agreement secured Northern Ireland’s place in the UK now view the deal as a win for Republicans, a former paramilitary internee has said. Jim Wilson from east Belfast was a member of the Red Hand Commando during the Troubles and was involved in dialogue with loyalist inmates at the Maze prison in the lead-up to the signing of the peace accord in 1998. Mr Wilson, who was interned without trial in the early 1970s at the age of 19, said the handling of the Brexit process, with the creation of trading barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has undermined much of what the deal achieved.