Who Were the Volunteers?¹The Shifting Sociological and Operational Profile of 1240 Provisional Irish Republican Army Members

Abstract

This article presents an empirical analysis of a unique dataset of 1240 former members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA). We highlight the shifting sociological and operational profile of PIRA's cadre, and highlight these dynamics in conjunction with primary PIRA documents and secondary interview sources. The effect of these changes in terms of the scale and intensity of PIRA violence is also considered. Although this is primarily a study of a disbanded violent organization, it contains broad policy implications beyond the contemporary violence of dissident movements in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. We conclude with a consideration of how a shifting sociological profile impacts upon group effectiveness, resilience, homogeneity, and the turn toward peaceful means of contention.

Bombing Alone: Tracing the Motivations and Antecedent Behaviors of Lone‐Actor Terrorists,,

“…This figure is comparatively much lower than Gill and Horgan’s 14 study of PIRA militants in which 41.4% had children, especially when we take into consideration that the lone-actor sample is a much older cohort of individuals.…”

“…Offender’s age ranged from 15 to 69, with a mean of 33, a mode of 22, and a standard deviation of 12. This average age is much older than studies that have focused upon Colombian militants—average age of 20 13, the PIRA—average age of 25 14, and finally al-Qaeda-related terrorists—average age of 26 15. In fact, it is the second oldest sample of terrorists that the authors are aware of, behind a sample of contemporary dissident Irish republicans—average age of 35 8.…”

Assessing Contemporary Trends and Future Prospects in the Study of the Suicide Bomber

“…The 219 Palestinian suicide bombers in this database have an average age of 21.58 years at the time of their suicide bombing (range, 16–72). This is a comparatively young age compared to similar research on the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( M = 24.9; Gill & Horgan, in press), global jihadists ( M = 25.7; Sageman, 2004), and contemporary dissident Irish Republicans ( M = 35.0; Horgan & Gill, 2011), and similar to Florez‐Morris’ (2007) sample of Colombian militants ( M = 20.0). There was no significant difference in the age between those suicide bombers who caused fatalities and those who did not ( t < 1).…”

Counterterrorism Killings and Provisional IRA Bombings, 1970–1998

“…These names were subsequently coded along a number of sociodemographic, operational and network variables using the Irish Times archives. 34 The above indicators help to measure PIRA brigade capacity to commit IED attacks. The aggregate measures for the IED related variables stem from a unique dataset of 5462 PIRA IED events.…”