ABSTRACT
When I started doctoral work in the mid-1980s, I intended to write about the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The group had fascinated me since adolescence; probably because I had narrowly missed being killed by a couple of their bombs and had friends who had lost loved ones in that confl ict. The hunger strikes of 1981, in which 10 men not signifi cantly older than me had starved to death for the right to be called political prisoners, had also made a huge impression. I wanted to write about the internal politics of an organization such as the IRA, about the reasons why men and women join such a group, but more importantly, about the reasons why they stay in, and the ways in which the organization shapes individual commitment. My mentor opposed the idea, arguing that my accent would get me killed in Belfast. I was told to pick a terrorist group that had called off its struggle. This was sound advice though not necessarily welcome news. However, without my mentor’s letter of support, I could not apply for doctoral research fellowships. And so it was that I ended up in Argentina, interviewing former combatants from groups that, incidentally, had also bombed me and kidnapped and killed relatives of people I knew well.
