The Irish Republican movement

The previous chapter outlined the theoretical framework for conceptualising and analysing the de-radicalisation of social movements who are engaged in terrorism and political violence. While de-radicalisation has been understood more generally as a form of attitudinal change, the process of de-radicalisation for a social movement is far more expansive. When young people are born into a world not of their making and are inclined to sympathise and become active in a social movement, terms such as individual radicalisation and de-radicalisation only capture one part of the picture. Such approaches miss out the broader structural factors that enable certain attitudes to develop, resonate and diffuse. While the book seeks to make a broader point with regard to social movement de-radicalisation, its focus is on one type of social movement, namely, the Irish Republican movement. The first objective of this chapter is to map out and delineate this movement. Social movement de-radicalisation can often be instigated by a group dis-

engaging, at least partially so, depending on what provides the social movement with an impetus. Thus, the second objective is to outline the factors which have driven the Irish Republican movement, especially in the context of what can be considered different degrees of successful and unsuccessful group disengagement. Despite the hopes for a ‘long peace’ in Northern Ireland following the Provisional IRA’s disengagement in 2005, a glance at the history of the Irish Republican movement might give the impression that history will continue to repeat itself. When Irish Republicanism is examined as a movement historically, group disengagement and a decline in violence have often preceded the revival of a new iteration of the IRA: the Irish Free State’s campaign in the 1920s and the Border Campaign in the 1960s witnessed the ‘end’ of the IRA in different ways, only to see some continuation in the case of the former and a massive resurgence following on from the latter with the rise of the Provisional IRA in the late 1960s. Thus, the history of the Irish Republican movement has been marked by a number of attempts by groups to disengage from violence with different levels of success for the groups, yet the violent dimension of the movement has shown significant regenerative abilities throughout the century. Before there can be an attempt to make an informed assessment of whether this pattern looks likely to be different in the

2000s, it is important to understand what were the driving dynamics of the Irish Republican movement. This chapter provides an overview of the Irish Republican movement and

the factors that drive it. Underpinning the chapter is the question of why the various attempts at disengagement have not succeeded and how different iterations of the IRA have continued from one generation to another, re-emerging to form the Provisional IRA in the early 1970s. The chapter argues that three factors account for the continuity of the IRA and the lack of substantive disengagement of the Irish Republican movement: (1) there was a maintenance of political systems which produced and sustained grievances; (2) the role of family networks and Republican networks which provided inter-generational links and resources for future mobilisation; and (3) the limited disengagement frame diffusion and resonance among members when pursuing group disengagement or among the next generation. These arguments will be built and expanded upon to assess the extent that the current phase of group disengagement has led to a deeper and more durable form of social movement de-radicalisation. First, the chapter will map out what it considers as the Irish Republican movement.