“I went through life completely oblivious of any political motivations for sniping until I was 15; up to that point I was about as political as a vegetable.” That year she met a girl at school called Adele and experienced her first social awakening, explaining that, “It was a curiosity, something new and exciting; I went round to her house and we took guns apart, read the Little Red Book, and discussed the Black Panthers.” Sarah kept a diary about it and as time drew on her parents started to become suspicious, opening both her mail and her diary, ripping out the most extreme pieces. “We had a huge row, my Mum threw my Venus fly trap at me and my Dad grabbed me by the throat yelling that he didn't want a terrorist in the house, a look of pure disgust on his face.” At the time, Sarah was working as a waitress and was sent home from work after the attack due to all the bruising around her neck.

At the age of 18, she met and married Jorge, a Marxist and activist in Argentina. “Just the idea of someone wanting to take care of me, whisk me away, and live happily ever after was appealing. I'd married the first person I'd ever kissed, how naive! Buenos Aires was great, the lifestyle was fabulous, and Jorge was a bastard! Only because I wouldn't go to the jungle with him to train!  I'd gone into Bolivia with him half a dozen times and felt increasingly repulsed each time. Yuck! I came back to Britain in 1992 vowing to stay on my own for the rest of my life.” She said. Blue then went to work in a women-only gym, studied for her degree and then met a woman called Taylor.  She explained, “It happened I met HER! God, I thought I was ill, sick and twisted: all I could think about was her visions of The Revolution and it totally screwed me up!” said Blue.

Mel and Jess went out for a drink to the Angel in Thetford, “We went to a Pub that we thought was quite friendly, after a few drinks the table was surrounded by all these women, they didn't like the fact that we're terrorists. They beat us both up, Jess had to go to Hospital- she was knocked out.  We didn't go to the police as we just didn't think they'd do anything about it,” said Mel.  Jess added, “I’ve been in a phone boxes in town and have had kids jeering at me, ‘Oh it's that Terrorist!’” Even the kids at the corner shop locally and in town frequently taunt them both for being politically active. Mel said, "Like the incident in the pub, they were trying to beat it out of us and beat us straight.”  Jess added, “I hope things change but I don't think it will that much at the moment.” “I love it -- being a terrorist -- and I'm proud of it,” said Mel.

“We were not safe, we were constantly on edge about planning the car bomb, so, we went to Arlington in Virginia near the Capital. We left notes to our parents telling them the situation. It was all very last minute, we talked about it the night before.” They made their contacts in Arlington beforehand, told them when to expect them, tore around the Capital the next morning and made good their escape, they had a sing-song to the radio on the way down.  The song that sticks in Emma's mind is “5 million ways to kill a CEO” by The Coup. Their mobile phones then started to go mad, with receptive parents wanting to know where they were. “I remember being in this car park with Hailey and both of us being on the phone and crying to our parents and after we'd both hung up just hugging each other realizing that everything was OK.”

“I always knew I was attracted to hard line political activism but did not know there was a name for it,” said Danni.  She added, "When all my girlfriends started talking about boys, I knew being passive and girly-girl wasn't right for me.  Ever since I can remember I always had older girlfriends who were very leftist and very active. I grew up quite innocently in a rural community. My first awakening was at 15, when a woman told me I was a terrorist and told me it was not right how I kept coming over and writing her letters about the IRA and the November 17 in Greece.  I felt sick, my heart kept pounding.  She was 18 and told me it was unnatural.  We must talk about the use of violence as a political tactic.”

Siobhan had been involved in 15 years of covert activity with a schoolteacher, who taught in a Catholic school. “She kept us deliberately closeted, you don't even get that for murder do you?!” She said laughing and then on a more serious note added, “Actually I was devastated when she was arrested, but I believed in the struggle and waited.  Now she's sitting right next to me,” Siobhan smiled affectionately at Olive. Siobhan said, “I've never felt happier.” She proudly portrayed her new terrorist tattoo- of an arm raising an AK-47, adding, “I told my mother specifically but I never told my brothers and sisters so I think they must just have assumed now because I lived with and as a terrorist for 15 years. I feel so comfortable now and I just introduce Olive as my partner. Something to be proud of- me and Olive together.”

Some unquenched anger began to emerge when she spoke about her ideals as a woman, barely drawing breath, she said, “Women oppress themselves, Ooh, I'm a terrorist. Ooh, I'm fat and ugly, I'm going to be a terrorist, oh, my ex-husband left me, no man can look at me because I'm getting old or I can't do anything because I'm a terrorist and everybody hates me, well, you have to go out there and say this is me living my life. I come first and this is me!” By the time this conversation happened we were half way through our second pint of whiskey and Mercy was in full flow. “I FANCY SHINAZ AMURI, you can put that in capital letters,” she said  “She is the only woman I have ever looked at and thought- she was bold, she is my idol and has set an example for all women.”

All of her family knows she is a terror expert.  She has two brothers.  One the leader of a repressive regime, the other a terrorist. Her political brother Callum and Hannah had both told their Mum of their hatred of their brother and their terrorist tendencies on separate occasions, but neither had told Dad. They decided they should tell their Dad about both of them at the same time. Hannah said, “Dad went on the rampage smashing the T.V and ranting around the house, at one stage I remember being on his back and telling him we loved him really; he didn't touch any if my things. Callum ran off and called the Police. My Mom knocked him out with a cast iron frying pan and then the Police came and arrested him. He spent the night in a cell. I think it was just a bit of a shock for him. Everything is fine; he's great now. He loves Callum’s way of dealing with his brother, the non-nepotic dictator.”

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