The Origins and Rise of Dissident Irish Republicanism: The Role and Impact of Organizational Splits PDF
Preview The Origins and Rise of Dissident Irish Republicanism: The Role and Impact of Organizational Splits
The Origins and Rise of Dissident Irish Republicanism NEW DIRECTIONS IN TERRORISM STUDIES A series edited by Max Taylor Professor in International Relations (retired), University of St Andrews, Scotland where he was formerly Director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence P. M. Currie Senior Visiting Fellow at the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, Scotland John Horgan Professor of Security Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Director of the Center for Terrorism & Security Studies. New Directions in Terrorism Studies aims to introduce new and innovative approaches to understanding terrorism and the terrorist. It does this by bringing forward innovative ideas and concepts to assist the practitioner, analyst and academic to better understand and respond to the threat of terrorism, challenging existing assumptions and moving the debate forward into new areas. The approach is characterized by an emphasis on intellectual quality and rigour, interdisciplinary perspectives, and a drawing together of theory and practice. The key qualities of the series are contemporary relevance, accessibility and innovation. The Origins and Rise of Dissident Irish Republicanism The role and impact of organizational splits JOhN F. MORRISON NEW YORK • LONDON • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc 1385 Broadway 50 Bedford Square New York London NY 10018 WC1B 3DP USA UK www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2013 © John F. Morrison, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. eISBN: 978-1-6235-6677-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Morrison, John F. The origins and rise of dissident Irish republicanism : the role and impact of organizational splits / by John F. Morrison. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-62356-844-3 (hardback) 1. Irish Republican Army–History. 2. Provisional IRA–History. 3. Real IRA–History. 4. Sinn Fein–History. 5. Republicanism–Ireland–History–20th century. 6. Republicanism–Northern Ireland–History–20th century. 7. Ireland–Politics and government–1949- 8. Northern Ireland–Politics and government–1969–1994. 9. Northern Ireland–Politics and government–1994- I. Title. DA963.M59 2013 322.4’209415–dc23 2013029985 Typeset by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India For Mom and Dad. For believing in me, and supporting me every step of the way. Contents Foreword viii Acknowledgements x 1 Towards 2016 1 2 The affirmation of Behan? 13 3 The tinder piles up 39 4 The Officials split again 85 5 The beginning of the end 105 6 The steps into peace 149 7 United in their division, divided in their unity 175 Appendix A: Table of interviews 203 Index 205 Foreword Irish poet and playwright Brendan Behan joined the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA’s) youth wing when he was 14 years old. In retrospect, his subsequent involvement in ‘adult’ IRA was hardly surprising. His experiences in the youth wing, na Fianna Eireann, were steeped in lessons about Irish mythology, his- tory and tradition. These were lessons Behan would first embrace and ulti- mately question. Behan quickly became fluent in the Irish language, before graduating to fully-fledged membership of the IRA. An astute observer of human behaviour, Behan is now synonymous with his apparently off-hand quip that one could always count on ‘the split’ to be the first item on the agenda at just about all IRA meetings. In fact, so inevitable was the tendency for all Irish Republican militant groups to splinter, factionalize and break apart that for his PhD thesis at the University of St Andrews, John Morrison asked whether the development of Irish Republicanism could best be characterized as ‘the affirmation of Behan?’ In this carefully researched and meticulously detailed book, John Morrison cautiously navigates the alphabet soup of ‘spoiler’ groups that have arisen both before and since the Northern Irish accords finally offered a pathway to stability and a future for a community long denied it and still dealing with the legacy of decades of ethnic violence. If that was all this book did, John would already be providing a valuable service to those who seek to understand the recalcitrant nature of terrorism in Ireland. Yet Origins and Rise of Dissident Irish Republicanism offers so much more than that. John’s analysis is also informed by his thousands of hours of interviews with participants in this activity. Not content with relying on second- hand information or event-driven data, John went to the source – the dissidents themselves – carefully asking them questions about the nature of their continued struggle both to discredit the existing peace process and to themselves alone offer their (admittedly obscure) alternative to peace and prosperity in this region. It is his interviews with leaders and followers alike, both north and south of the Border, that distinguish his ability to decipher the difficult question of just who precisely are today’s Irish Republicans in an era where just about everyone safely assumes – I thought Ireland’s terrorism problems were over? FOREWORD ix Today’s dissidents are small, seemingly disorganized and apparently lacking in both vision and organizational acuity such that the dissident Republican scene is as chaotic as it is diverse. The affirmation of Behan? Definitely. A threat to peace and prosperity in the region? Possibly. They may be small, without much support, but just as the Provisional IRA itself proclaimed on the steps of a Dublin house in 1970, today’s dissident Republican groups take their inspiration from the past. They maintain the capacity to choreograph attention in Northern Ireland through selective assassinations and characteristic disruption through low-level attacks, hoaxes and threats. They see themselves as nothing less than representing the true fundamentals of Irish Republicanism while Sinn Fein and the IRA leadership have, in the dissidents’ eyes, sold out. Attempting to understand the dissidents’ position is as much a challenge of understanding the psychology of betrayal as it is history. As the hundredth anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rebellion is almost upon us, those who would seek to dismiss the dissidents as irrelevant would be wise to avoid premature speculation. It is fortunate then that this book provides the answers to the multitude of questions that arise from any attempt to make sense of these groups. John Morrison has done something extraordinary. He has presented us with nothing less than the definitive account of the origins and evolution of dissident Irish Republicanism. Professor John Horgan Series Co-Editor New Directions in Terrorism Studies
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