Shaun McDaid

Social movements, structural violence and conflict transformation in Northern Ireland: The role of Loyalist paramilitaries

This article analyzes how social movements and collective actors can affect political and social transformation in a structurally violent society using the case study of Northern Ireland. We focus, in particular, on the crucial role played by collective actors within the loyalist community (those who want to maintain Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom) in bringing about social and political transformation in a society blighted by direct, cultural, and structural violence both during the conflict and subsequent peace process. Drawing on data obtained through in-depth interviews with loyalist activists (including former paramilitaries), the article demonstrates the role and impact of loyalists and loyalism in Northern Ireland’s transition. We identify 5 conflict transformation challenges addressed by loyalist actors in a structurally violent society: de-mythologizing the conflict; stopping direct violence; resisting pressure to maintain the use of violence; development of robust activist identity; and the measurement of progress through reference to the parallel conflict transformation journey of their former republican enemies. The Northern Ireland case demonstrates the necessity for holistic conflict transformation strategies that attempt to stop not only direct attacks but also the cultural and structural violence that underpins and legitimize them. In so doing, the article contributes to a broader understanding of how and why paramilitary campaigns are brought to an end.

Radicalisation and higher education: Students’ understanding and experiences

ABSTRACT Since 2015 universities have been placed under a legal duty of “due regard to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.”1 This reflects the belief in UK counter-terrorism policy that radicalisation exists and can be countered. Advice to universities is largely silent on how this duty applies to teaching. Yet many degree programmes generate lectures and seminar discussions where views of an allegedly radicalised nature could be aired. This article presents focus group research which elicits students’ understanding of radicalisation, and provides insights into their experience of debating contentious issues such as identity, community cohesion, and the causes of terrorism. We argue that students’ understanding of radicalisation is conflated with extremism and we explore students’ anxiety about debating these issues and reliance on educators to create the right environment for such discussions. Finally, the data presented here challenges some of the assumptions underpinning contemporary counter-radicalisation policy in the domain of higher education, which are premised on ideas of active grooming. We argue that this does not accord with students’ own experiences, as they regard themselves as discerning, critical thinkers rather than inherently vulnerable to manipulation by those espousing violent extremist views.

The Crisis in Ireland: Where Did It All Go Wrong?

The books under review attempt to explain recent political events in Ireland against the backdrop of the collapse of the Celtic Tiger in 2008. Collectively, they offer insights into both the causes and the consequences of the economic crisis, identifying underlying weaknesses in Irish structures of governance which contributed to it. Four key problems are identified throughout the four volumes: a highly centralised state; an executive that dominates parliament; a dysfunctional electoral system; and a conservative political culture that is resistant to reform. Economic recovery will depend on European elites as much as Irish policy makers. Therefore, despite the turbulence of the 2011 general election, prospects for radical change in the structures and political culture that facilitated Ireland’s crash remain bleak. Byrne, E. (2012) Political Corruption in Ireland, 1922–2010: A Crooked Harp? Manchester: Manchester University Press. Gallagher, M. and Marsh, M. (eds) (2011) How Ireland Voted, 2011: The Full Story of Ireland’s Earthquake Election. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Hardiman, N. (ed.) (2012) Irish Governance in Crisis. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Kirby, P. and Murphy, M. P. (2011) Towards a Second Republic. London: Pluto Press.

Truth Commissions after Economic Crises: Political Learning or Blame Game?

This article addresses an important but understudied aspect of the recent Great Recession in Europe: the institutional strategies political elites deployed to learn from past policy failures and address accountability, more specifically, truth commissions. We raise two overlapping puzzles. The first concerns the timing of the decision to adopt an economic truth commission: while Iceland established a truth commission at an early stage of the crisis, Greece and Ireland did so much later. What accounts for ‘early’ versus ‘delayed’ truth seekers? The second concerns variations in learning outcomes. Iceland’s commission paved the way for learning institutional lessons, but truth commissions in Greece and Ireland became overtly politicised. What accounts for these divergences? This article compares truth commissions in Iceland, Greece and Ireland and identifies two types of political learning – institutional and instrumental – related to the establishment of a truth commission. It argues that political elites in countries with higher pre-crisis levels of trust in institutions and public transparency are more likely to establish economic truth commissions quickly; this is the ‘institutional logic’ of learning. The ‘instrumental logic’ of learning, in contrast, leads governments interested in apportioning blame to their predecessors to establish commissions at a later date, usually proximal to critical elections.

Bosnia on the Border? Republican Violence in Northern Ireland During the 1920s and 1970s

Unionist politicians have argued that Republican political violence on the Irish border, during both the partition of Ireland and more recent Northern Ireland conflict, constituted ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Protestant/Unionist community in those areas. These views have been bolstered by an increasingly ambivalent scholarly literature that has failed to adequately question the accuracy of these claims. This article interrogates the ethnic cleansing/genocide narrative by analysing Republican violence during the 1920s and the 1970s. Drawing from a wide range of theoretical literature and archival sources, it demonstrates that Republican violence fell far short of either ethnic cleansing or genocide, (in part) as a result of the perpetrators’ self-imposed ideological constraints. It also defines a new interpretive concept for the study of violence: functional sectarianism. This concept is designed to move scholarly discussion of political and sectarian violence beyond the highly politicised and moral cul-de-sacs that have heretofore characterised the debate, and has implications for our understanding of political violence beyond Ireland.

Divided we stand: the strategy and psychology of Ireland's dissident terrorists

drama as figures who spring out of nowhere in 1918. This work steps back from that and looks at the key movements and actors, and traces their road to 1918; it provides the first rounded treatment of their political development, and of how opinion in the city developed during the First World War. The work is a fine example of a historical monograph, but the presentation is traditional. Statistical tables are dropped in, but not always discussed. Some, like Table 2.1 showing the ratio of enlisted men to available manpower in 1916, may lie on the edge of the statistical comfort zone of the average reader. Reworking the data into simpler forms would make it more accessible to the less numerate. Similarly, the narrative presentation of the overlapping memberships of the many nationalist organisations prior to the war, while very well written, is a case which cries out to the digital humanist for the additional clarity which could be provided by visualisation. On a more basic level, a map would be useful, particularly as many of the important street names have since changed. As we move through the centenary of these years, this work deserves to be part of the essential reading list for everyone interested in a deeper understanding of the transformation of Cork and Ireland during the war. While very few can do this as well as Borgonovo has, there is an urgent need for other young scholars to apply his method and model to other cities and counties around Ireland.