‘We are not criminals’: political identity as resistance

Political identification, it’s also justification for what they did. They know that the world sees them as murderers or bombers or what have you, which are very negative things, and a bit of that has been conveyed to them in various ways. I think that while they can reinforce the political motivation to themselves, they almost, in a way, can excuse themselves, sort of validate what they did, and sanitise it to themselves (official visitor, Maghaberry).