Phase Three: Power-Assisted Steering

Critical Engagement

“…As such, they 123 The Patriot Dead transcend temporal barriers by continuing the struggle of past martyrs and showing the way for future martyrs. 12 The prevalence of the memory of Adem Jashari, 'The Legendary Commander' in Kosovo, is a case outside of the North of Ireland that demonstrates these points. Jashari's memory has been projected beyond the confines of the Prekaz region where he was killed into the collective Kosovar Albanian memory that ties him seamlessly with past Albanian heroes.…”

“…Having opted to stay with the Officials following the Official-Provisional split in 1970, they later split from the Officials in 1974. 12 Opposition was also forthcoming from socialist republican group Éirígí, which had been founded just prior to the policing debate amidst discontent with the changing direction of Sinn Féin policy. Focused on non-violent direct action to promote left-wing internationalism and antiimperialism, the party has no formal links to militant 'spoiler' groups.…”

“…11 Likewise, it is necessary to acknowledge that the impact political violence had on the RUC and the fact that this was often construed -rightly or wrongly -as sectarian by the Unionist community from which the force was largely recruited, are silenced in the Irish republican policing counter-narrative. 12 The British state narrative is defined by the wholesale silencing of security force complicity in the conflict, usefully leveraging support for its neutral referee self-image from the Unionist narrative.…”

“…This ambiguity reflects how Irish republicanism has been cultivated by 'a complex and diverse range of intellectual and ideological antecedents, many of which are often not merely competing but contradictory'. 12 Thus, despite contemporary elites attempting to draw ideological continuity with those espousing past versions of the ideology, the reality may in fact be, as McGovern notes, that as a loosely defined ideology differing from one historical stage to the next Irish republicanism is 'characterised by discontinuity'. 13 On one level McGovern's assertion may seem anomalous.…”

“…Notable cases are in Tamil-speaking areas of Sri Lanka to help recruit for the Sinhalese-dominated police force 11 and in Bosnia through quotas for Bosniacs, Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs. 12 Quotas purportedly increased police ownership by having a common Bosnian identity displace narrower lenses of competing ethnicities. 13 The recruitment quota policy was therefore neither novel nor unique to police reform in Northern Ireland.…”