Copying to be Different: Violent Dissident Irish Republican Learning

Abstract

While the impact of the Troubles retains centrality within much of Northern Irish political life, the spectre of almost daily violence is becoming a more distant memory. Peace has come to the region. In spite of this, however, there are those who wish to maintain the utility of violence to achieve their stated aims. Most dominant amongst these are the violent dissident republican groups. No longer is their existence solely defined by their desire to bring about a united Ireland. In order to have any opportunity of longevity, they must first legitimise their continued existence, and in turn distance themselves from their former Provisional comrades. This paper assesses how groups, such as the Continuity IRA, Óglaigh na hÉireann and the IRA/New IRA utilise the lessons learned from their Provisional history to differentiate themselves from the politicised dominance of Sinn Féin. This evaluation is carried out through the analysis of interviews with leadership and rank and file members of both political and paramilitary dissident groupings, which is complimented by the analysis of the Violent Dissident Republican (VDR) events database. These sources are supplemented with the assessment of organisational statements, from 2007 to the present day. The article focuses on violent, and non-violent, learning.

The Fight for Political Status in Portlaoise Prison, 1973–7: Prologue to the H-Blocks Struggle

“…The PIRA was a learning organisation, willing to adopt their tactics to new developments; most of these changes originated either in the prisons or in connection with prison protests, as has been shown previously. 118 As I argue elsewhere, republicans learned from the failure of organising a broad campaign in support of the Portlaoise hunger strikers by setting up the broad-front committee H-Blocks/Armagh Committee in support of the 1980-81 hunger strikers in Northern Ireland; and, as this article shows, so did the British government. 119 In other words, understanding of republican imprisonment in the Republic and, in particular, the developments within Portlaoise is vital for the understanding of the Troubles.…”

Fascist aspirants: Fascist Forge and ideological learning in the extreme-right online milieu

“…Hundeide, 2003;Pearson, 2015;Wilner & Dubouloz, 2011), with some narrowing the focus to specific types of people, for example, children who fall into the hands of militant groups (Horgan et al, 2017;Hundeide, 2003), novices who join ideological cells or networks (Everton, 2016;Kenney, 2017Kenney, , 2018Wali, 2017), or those who seek to identify with or model themselves on radical exemplars (Crone, 2016;Körner & Staller, 2018). Other studies have looked at learning from the perspective of groups, for example, with a focus on how recruits or converts acquire new knowledge and skills (Galonnier & de los Rios, 2016;Inge, 2016;Wiktorowicz, 2005), how charismatic leaders transmit their teachings to followers (Beekers, 2015;Gendron, 2017;Wali, 2017), or how groups learn from one another (Morrison, 2017;Ranstorp & Normark, 2015). One study suggests that terrorist learning occurs across diverse interdependent agents, including individuals, groups, and entire generations (Kettle & Mumford, 2017).…”