ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the discursive construction of legitimacy in the early phase of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.1 The empirical material analysed centres on the debate on internment without trial from August 1971 until December 1975 – a debate which had at its heart conflicting claims of legitimacy. Some strongly defended internment as a legitimate step in the fight against the IRA, whilst others regarded it as an illegitimate measure employed by a corrupt political regime. These conflicting claims of legitimacy entailed a ‘conceptual battle’ (Burton 1978: 104) concerned with the construction and authorisation of political order. The chapter explores this battle along three dimensions: law, violence and democracy. The introduction of internment was meant to curb the escalating conflict in Northern Ireland. However, when internment was ended four years later, this aim had not been achieved: ceasefires had come and gone, peace proposals had emerged and failed, and more than 1,300 people had died.2 The general conclusion of most analysts since has been that internment widened the conflict and, in particular, that it further alienated the Catholic population in Northern Ireland from its political institutions (see Arthur 2001: 114; Murray 1998: 18; McAllister 1977: 97-103; Ruane and Todd 1997: 130; Staunton 2001: 276).
