ABSTRACT
The "military" competition of Irish National Liberation Army generated no alternative Republican center, only another addition to the turmoil of the Troubles, and so a net Provisional advantage. The Troubles were made actual for the first time for those who had never smelled cordite or seen a smashed knee cap, stepped in a pool of blood, or stood by an open grave. Sometimes it appeared as if the Troubles had been reduced to numbers, more dead, more talks, more time in prison or suspects arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The Troubles had become not aberration in Anglo-Irish history but institution. In Northern Ireland the Troubles had become institutionalized, accepted as normal, the violence hardly noticed beyond the site and the evening news. In Ireland the local cast members, Gerry Adams, John Hume, Paisley, and the rest, were as familiar as the cat.
