ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the general subject of the relationship between morality and political violence, with reference to the contemporary conflict in Northern Ireland. The politics of legitimacy and support for the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) is essentially a politics of morality. The IRA and INLA believe in all conscience that they are morally right because they are fighting a just war. Support for the IRA and INLA in Divis Flats was a complex variable. Some residents were for them, some against them, and some were "neutral"—neither condemning nor condoning them. Political anthropologists have made an important contribution by elucidating the role played by moral relationships, moral values, moral obligations, and moral constraints in social conflict and political violence. The "immoral" policies of the British government and "immoral" repressive actions of the Security Forces grant moral power to the IRA and INLA in the form of increased popular support.
