An Analysis of Ideologies of Nationalist-Separatist Irish Terrorist Organizations

by
Taylor M. McCarty
Thursday, April 25, 2013

PL SC 439: Section 001

The Politics of Terrorism
Dr. James Piazza

Abstract
Irish nationalism has gained a reputation of violence through a variety of terrorist
organizations throughout the years. Groups like the Fenians, the Irish Republican Army
and the Provisional Irish Republican Army have fought for a free and independent Irish
State to escape the British repression that they have faced for hundreds of years. While
nationalism is not synonymous with terrorism, these organizations have not hesitated to
used violence and acts of terror in an effort to achieve their goals. These three
organizations are no longer active, however they have made great strides forward for
Ireland, like Michael Collins negotiation of the Anglo-Irish treaty, but acts of terror
have also left a permanent scar on Ireland. I argue that the ideologies of these terrorist
organizations were nationalist in nature with separatist goals, not religious, despite the
predominately Catholic population.

Introduction: A History of Violence

The Emerald Isle is no stranger to bloody conflict. The Irish have been
prosecuted for thousands of years from a variety of unwanted invaders. However, the
violence that Ireland has experienced which is most notable is that with their neighbors
to the east, the English. The conflict between the Irish, especially Northern Ireland, and
the English is not a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics; while religious
strife has certainly been a contributing factor in the events that took place, the primary
source of conflict was the British repression. Through this repression, tensions began to
increase like a festering wound, and resistance organizations began to form; the Fenians
and the Irish Republican Brotherhood were prominent in the nineteenth century,
followed by perhaps the most well known in the twentieth century, the Irish Republican
Army.
The Irish Republican Army was born after the Easter Rebellion of 1916, when an
attempted coup by prominent Irish politicians and leaders went awry, leading the
assassinations of Irish nationalists, men such as Patrick Pearse. At the beginning of the
Easter Rebellion, Pearse read the following proclamation:
In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national
freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have
asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in
arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish republic as a sovereign
independent state (English 2005: 4).
Thus, the violence began.
Michael Collins, referred to endearingly as Mick by his supporters, saw these
assassinations of men like Pearse as an insult to the Irish, formed the Irish Republican
Army and revolutionized the fight for Irish independence. Collins was quoted saying
the Republic which was declared at the Rising of Easter Week, 1916, was Irelands

expression of the freedom she aspired to. It was our way of saying that we wished to
challenge Britains right to dominated us (English 2005: 3). While Collins worked
within the legal system in an attempt to achieve his goals, he and the rest of the Irish
Republican Army were by no means hesitant to use violence, assassinating the heads of
British intelligence when necessary.
In the 1960s, ideological differences within the Irish Republican Army would
cause the organization to split; the younger, more radical members, including none
other than current Sinn Fin president, Gerry Adams, who still supported the use of
violence by any means necessary would branch off to form the Provisional Irish
Republican Army. While differences existed between the two organizations, the goal
was always the same: an independent Irish state, free from the crushing grip of English
political repression.
Historian Eric Hobsbawm said in his book The Age of Empire that the Irish were
not nationalist because they believed in leprechauns. (Hobsbawm 1987: 85) This
tongue in cheek comment states that the Irish were not unified or considered
nationalistic due to their common culture, but for their desire for home rule. While
religion is by no mean unimportant, the goal of the Irish Republican Army, and later the
Provisional Irish Republican Army, was purely political and legal in its aims. The Irish
Republican Army is classified as Second Wave terrorism, which means it was an anticolonial force with three goals: to gain popular support for objectives, provoke colonial
power into repression and to impose costs on the colonial power (Rapoport 2005).
While the Irish Republican Army was a terrorist organization that was very successful in
obtaining their goals for Ireland, the Provisional Irish Republican Army was not so
lucky. A Third Wave terrorist organization, the provisional army was a fringe group

whose acts of terror achieved nothing substantial for the Irish people, but used the
Bloody Sunday attacks of 1972 as a remarkably successful recruiting effort to fight
against the British.
Through a variety of previous studies, a review of Irish history and an analysis of
primary sources, with particular attention to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, I argue that
the violence and acts of terror performed by Irish nationalist groups such as the Irish
Republican Army and the Provisional Irish Republican Army were political in nature as
opposed to religious, and that these aforementioned terrorist organizations were
nationalist-separatist movements.
Literature Review and Analysis
In The Age of Empire, the second book in a three book series by acclaimed
historian Eric Hobsbawm, provides a brief history of Irish politics, beginning with
Charles Stuart Parnell, considered one of the greatest Irish politicians of all time, even
after his personal life eclipsed his political achievements when his affair with a married
woman was exposed, and in Hobsbawms words the Parnell myth long survived the
man (Hobsbawm 1987: 95). Eighty-five out of 103 members formed a disciplined
phalanx behind the (Protestant) leader of Irish nationalism, Charles Stuart Parnell.
(Hobsbawm 1987: 92) Parnell is largely well respected amongst the Irish as a whole,
regardless of his religious affiliation. Hobsbawm continues to discuss Irish nationalism,
electoral processes, and Irish party politics and even says, the emergence of mass Irish
nationalism shattered the structure of established politics (Hobsbawm 1987: 96). In
The New Ireland. X. The Nationalists, written by Sydney Brooks in 1909, Brooks says
the following about Charles Stuart Parnell, and the Irish Nationalist movement:

To lead the Irish successfully you must be one of two things. You must either be
magnificently Irish yourself, as OConnell was; or, like Parnell and, to some
degree, Isaac Butt, you must have little or nothing characteristically Irish about
you. The one being the Irish will not follow is the mediocre Irishman (Brooks
1902: 27).
Considering the time that Brooks wrote this piece and the political events she addresses
in the work, one could assume that OConnell refers to Daniel OConnell, the man
responsible for allowing Catholics to hold seats in parliament by the year 1829
(ODoherty 2013), however OConnells intentions were purely political (Smith 1901:
839). Perhaps Brooks is biased when she refers to OConnell as being magnificently
Irish, due to his religious affiliation; OConnell was a Catholic and Parnell a Protestant.
However, Brooks does believe that both men made great strides for Ireland, regardless
of their religious affiliation.
The Irish nationalist organization that was prominent during Parnells time was
an organization called the Fenians. A discussion could not be had about Irish
nationalist groups without first understanding the Fenians. The Fenians worked closely
with the Irish Republican Brotherhood, another nationalist organization. The goal of
both was to create a network of Irish nationalists who would continue to oppose British
rule in Ireland, by force and terrorism if necessary (Lerner & Lerner 2006: 108). The
Fenians would pave the way for such organizations like the Irish Republican Army, and
the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The Fenians also looked towards diaspora
communities of Irish immigrants in the United States for donations to help the cause,
and to aid the fight against the British (Lerner & Lerner 2006). It is likely that members
of the IRA and the Provisional IRA had the Fenians in mind when they too started
collecting donations from Irish immigrants in America. The Fenians certainly used
violence and acts of terror as a tactic, but to a lesser extent than the IRA and Provisional

IRA. It was the intention of the Fenians to use violence until British authorities
suppressed it (Lerner & Lerner 2006: 108). After a series of relatively unsuccessful
attacks, often times only resulting in the freeing of Fenian prisoners but accomplishing
no more, the Fenians goals of violence were mostly used to disrupt British politics and
to impose costs on the government that had been suppressing the Irish for hundreds of
years.
Brendan OLearys Mission Accomplished? Looking Back at the IRA explicitly
lays out the framework of the Irish Republican Army: its ideology, its goals and whether
or not those goals have been achieved over the years. In the Irish Republican Armys
initial constitution from the spring of 1922, stated its three objectives: To safeguard the
honor and maintain the independence of the Irish Republic, to protect the rights and
liberties common to the people of Ireland, and to place its services at the disposal of an
established Republican Government which faithfully uphold the above objects (OLeary
2005: 219). While religious rights and freedoms are assumedly protected under item
two, religious intentions are not a direct concern of the Irish Republican Army. After
the Irish Civil War ended in May of 1923, a new constitution was drafted by the member
of the IRA, this time enriching the language of their previous platform, but adding a
fourth objective:
Guarding the Republics honor and upholding its sovereignty and unity;
establishing and upholding a legitimate Irish government with total control over
the Republic; securing and defining citizens civil and religious liberties and their
equal rights and opportunities; and, lastly (a new item), reviving the Irish
language and promoting the best characteristics of the Irish race (OLeary
2005: 219).
In this new draft, the third item is clarified to explicitly include religious
liberties (OLeary 2005: 219), but places a particular emphasis on the Irish race and

language1. Of course, religion is very important to the Irish people. However, without
the political and legal intentions of nationalist groups like the IRA or the Provisional
IRA, religious freedom could not be attained. The IRAs membership was mostly
Catholic in its origins, but the Catholic clergy and bishops of Ireland regularly
condemned it (OLeary 2005: 221). The Irish Republican Army had no direct affiliation
with the Catholic Church, and nowhere in their platform did the IRA promote or require
attending church or Catholic mass. In fact, the IRA proclaimed a civic republicanism,
true to the heritage of the eighteenth-century revolutionaries, the United Irishmen, in
which Protestants and other minorities would have full citizenship rights (OLeary
2005: 221). This acceptance and of Protestant people, and the granting of rights to
Protestants shows that the IRAs intentions were not to rid Ireland of the Protestants,
but to rid Ireland of British control.
In Kristin Archicks Congressional Research Service Report entitled Northern
Ireland: The Peace Process, Arc hick describes multiple attempts by the Irish and
British governments to make amends through a series of peace talks and treaties. While
considerable progress has been made since the late 1960s, these political processes
remained flawed. An effort nearly thirty years later began in 1998 with the Good Friday
Agreement. After many ups and downs, the two governments and the Northern
Ireland political parties participating in the peace talks announced an agreement on
April 10, 1998. The resulting Good Friday Agreement (also known as the Belfast
Agreement) called for devolved governmentthe transfer of power from London to

In the literary sphere, this was known as the Celtic Revival (an effort to revamp Irish culture and to
promote the use of the Irish language) by such artistic geniuses like William Butler Yeats and Lady
Gregory. However, while this was well received by other literary types, outside of the artistic world, this
was somewhat of a failure; the majority of Irish people today speak English, even though the country
recognizes both Gaelic Irish and English as their official languages.

Belfastwith a Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive Committee in which unionist

and nationalist parties would share power. The agreement also contained provisions on
decommissioning (disarmament), policing, human rights, UK security normalization
(demilitarization), and the status of prisoners. (Archick 2013: 2) However, the
devolved government was suspended for the fourth time in October 2002 amid a loss of
trust and confidence on both sides of the conflict (Archick 2013: 2), which led to the
talks of another deal, this time between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fin,
who finally reached a deal by 2010, paving the way for the devolution of police and
justice powers. (Archick 2013: 2) Archick outlines that the goals of these peace talks,
agreements, treaties et cetera were a devolved government, police reforms, and security
normalization. Nowhere in her report does Kristen Archick mention religious
differences as being the reason for a desired peace treaty (Archick 2013).
The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 laid the foundation for legal action towards peace,
like those mentioned in Archicks congressional report, and is perhaps one of the most
influential legal documents in Irish history. Influential Irish politician and founder of
the Irish Republican Army, Michael Collins, was sent to London on behalf of amon de
Valera, the man who would become the president of the Irish Free State. Upon Collins
return to Ireland, the Angl0-Irish Treaty had been drafted, which would grant Ireland
partial independence; Ireland would be divided between Northern Ireland (largely
Ulster), and the new Irish Free State. This division of the land raised many eyebrows,
but Collins strongly defended it, claiming it could be used as a stepping stone to

establish Irelands formal- and republican- independence from Great Britain2 (OLeary
2005: 222).
The Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed on December 6, 1921, includes eighteen items
detailing the rights of the Irish people and the new nation that as a result of the treaty
would be called the Irish Free State. The treaty addresses issues such as the
constitutional status of the new nation, public debt and defense strategies (The Treaty
Between Great Britain and Ireland 1921). Religion is not mentioned until item sixteen,
the second to last concern of the Anglo-Irish treaty. Item sixteen says the following in
regards to religion:
Neither the Parliament of the Irish Free State nor the Parliament of Northern
Ireland shall make any law so as either directly or indirectly to endow an religion
or prohibit or restrict the free exercise thereof or give any preference or impose
any disability on account of religious belief or religious status or affect
prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money
without attending the religious instruction at the school or make any
discrimination as respects state aid between schools under the management of
different religious denominations or divert from any religious denomination or
any educational institution any of its property except for public utility purpose
and on payment of compensation. (The Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland
1921)
Considering that seventeen of the eighteen items in the Anglo-Irish treaty discussed
were political, legal or economic issues, it is clear that religion was not the primary
concern of Irish politicians and Irish Republican Army members, like Michael Collins.
This brief mention of religion calls for religious freedom, it is not a discussion as to
whether the new Irish Free State should be deemed Catholic or Protestant. The primary
amon de Valera would later refuse to support or sign the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, disagreeing with
the division of Ireland, creating the Irish Free State but leaving parts of Northern Ireland under the
control of the United Kingdom. To add insult to injury, in the oath taken by Irish Parliament members,
they were still required to pledge allegiance to the English king. Michael Collins would later famously
accuse amon de Valera of sending Collins to London to negotiate the treaty because de Valera himself
knew he could achieve no better than partial freedom for Ireland. While de Valeras refused to sign the
treaty, Michael Collins and the majority of Irish citizens supported the treaty as a step towards peace and
independence. However, this difference in opinion resulted in the Irish Civil War in 1922.

concern of the Anglo-Irish treaty was to establish an independent Irish state, and to a
certain extent, this was accomplished. Religious freedom was also achieved, however it
was not a primary concern.
Ernest Boyds article, Ireland: Resurgent and Insurgent was published in
September 1922, shortly after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed the previous year. Boyd
claims that the Irish Question had been answered, and details the Irish fight for
autonomy, saying the British authorities evacuated their strongholds, withdrew their
troops, and handed over the country to the Irish people who had demanded nothing
better for seven hundred years (Boyd 1922: 86). After the treaty was signed and the
Irish Civil War broke out, Ireland was embroiled in yet another conflict. According to
Boyd:
And in a short space of time the whole area of the 26 southern counties of
Ireland was plunged into a civil war, not between Protestant loyalists and
Catholic Nationalists, as had been so confidently predicted, but between the great
majority of the population and small bands of armed idealists (Boyd 1922: 87).
Boyd is very critical of amon de Valeras refusal to accept the treaty, even comparing
the violence of de Valera and those fighting against the treaty to that of the darkest
period of the Black and Tan period3 (Boyd 1922: 86). Boyd draws attention to the
Catholic Nationalists and Protestant Loyalists, but disputes the idea that these were the
groups fighting against each other, and says that those fighting against the treaty to that
of the darkest period of the Black and Tan period (Boyd 1922: 86).
In regards to the the Irish Question, author Goldwin Smith discusses it at
greater length in his article with the same title. However, it is glaringly obvious that

The Black and Tan period takes its name from the uniforms of the British soldiers in Ireland in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who wore black and khaki colored uniforms. This is still a sore
subject in Ireland; for instance, it is greatly frowned upon to order the beverage, Black and Tan, in an
Irish bar.

Smith writes with a strong bias in favor of the British. In The Irish Question, Smith
says Irish disaffection is still alive, and that as the United States has the Negro problem,
Great Britain has the Irish problem demanding solution at home before she undertakes
to solve problems on the other side of the globe (Smith 1901: 838). Despite Smiths
bias in favor of any Irish nationalists enemy, Smith still states that the root of the
conflict between the Irish and the English was the ownership of the land, the struggle
for which, reappearing in different phases, has pervaded Irish history to the present
hour (Smith 1901: 838). The struggle for the ownership of land has been a constant
struggle between Ireland and England until the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, and
supporters of the Provisional Irish Republican Army may argue that the struggle has
never ceased.
The emergence of the Provisional Irish Republican Army is discussed at length in
chapter three of Richard Englishs book, Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA.
According to English, the emergence of the Provisional IRA in 1969 occurred in four
specific stages: the death of the IRA; a non-nationalist civil rights movement; loyalist
aggression; the birth of the Provisionals (English 2005: 81). The more Marxist ideas of
the younger generation of the IRA caused the organization to split into the old IRA and
the Provisional IRA, and in 1972, the original Irish Republican Army ceased to exist
after declaring an official ceasefire (Provisional Irish Republican Army 2006). English
claims that while the IRA and the Provisional IRA had conflicting ideologies, the old
IRA unwittingly helped to produce the conditions from which the new one was to
spring (English 2005: 81). Perhaps their only similarity was their resentment of the
English. The tactics of the Provisional IRA were initially threefold: the disruption of
economic and civil life in Northern Ireland by targeted bombing; attacks on military and

police installations to undermine the British presence; and the "protection" of Ulster's
Catholic community (The Provisional Irish Republican Army 2005). With events like
Bloody Sunday in 1972, after a Catholic demonstration had been attacked, the
Provisional IRA had a particularly easy time recruiting new members when it was
discovered that 13 people had been shot in the back by English soldiers, and even more
were left injured. The old IRA focused on gaining home rule, and creating the Irish Free
State, while the Provisional IRA was largely concerned with civil rights for the Catholic
minority in Northern Ireland (English 2005). However, defending the Catholic minority
is not enough to classify the Provisional IRA as a religious terrorist organization;
members of the Provisional IRA were fighting for civil rights of the Catholic minority in
Northern Ireland, not to eliminate the Protestants, bring about the apocalypse or any
other outlandish, nonnegotiable goals that often characterize religious terrorist
organizations. Religious organizations are generally more difficult to negotiate with;
this does not apply to the Provisional IRA. During the 1990s, it entered two ceasefires,
while its political wing, Sinn Fin, held peace talks with the British government,
culminating in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 (Provisional Irish Republican Army
2006: 659). In July of 2005, the Provisional IRA had announced its official
disbandment (Provisional Irish Republican Army 2006).
Dominic M. Beggan, a political science professor at Lamar University, published
a work entitled State Repression and Political Violence: Insurgency in Northern
Ireland, in which he outlines three criteria that influence political violence duration,
consistency and magnitude of formal and informal repressive policies, the existence of
large economic disparities and the level of democratic development attained. (Beggan
2006: 61) Dominic Beggans case study draws particular attention to historical events

like Bloody Sunday. Beggan explicitly says, the primary issues of conflict in Northern
Ireland remain the socio-economic and political inequalities and the future of the state.
(Beggan 2006: 62) Beggan claims that violence between the English government and
terrorist organizations like the Irish Republican Army or the Provisional Irish
Republican Army will increase when the state uses inconsistent, severe repressive
measures and when unemployment levels remain high. Conversely, political violence
will decrease when the opposite occurs and when the state introduced a greater degree
of democratic inclusiveness into the system. (Beggan 2006: 63) Not only does Beggan
clearly state that the motives behind the violence were due to British repression, he adds
to this by noting economic repression as a s serious concern and perpetrator for acts of
terror. In an interesting link to economic theory, Beggan expands upon Tedd R. Gurrs
(1970) relative deprivation hypothesis of political violence by broadening his definition
of relative deprivation to include the capacity of the state to address relative deprivation
through the use of force (repression) and/or by increasing the level of democratic
inclusiveness (maturity). (Beggan 2006: 67) Beggan does draw attention at the
beginning of his study of the Protestant majority and the Catholic minority in Northern
Ireland, however notes that this is not central to conflict or the violence perpetrated by
Irish nationalist terrorist organization (Beggan 2006).
Conclusion
While the Fenians may seem to far back in history to be relevant to modern
politics, the Irish Republican Army and the Provisional Irish Republican Army are still
considered a part of recent Irish history. The Provisional Irish Republican Army
announced its official disbandment less than a decade ago, in 2005 (Provisional Irish
Republican Army 2005). Former members of the Provisional IRA, who may or may not

openly admit to their affiliation, lead normal lives. Gerry Adams, current president of
Sinn Fin denies that he was ever a soldier for the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
In 2005, the year that the Provisional IRA had disbanded, Adams won the presidency of
Sinn Fin with 70.5% of the votes, and again in 2010 with 71.1% (The Guardian 2013).
Gerry Adams was also a member of the British Parliament until his resignation in 2011
(Crick 2011).
Martin McGuinness, who is not nearly as shy about his affiliation with the
Provisional IRA, has also been in the spotlight within the last year. In June of 2012,
McGuinness, an admitted and known assassin for the Provisional Irish Republican
Army, shook hands with Queen Elizabeth II. This handshake was huge international
news because not only was this handshake unexpected, but Anglo-Irish relations took a
momentous step forward. (The Guardian 2012) This event was in response to the
Queens successful visit to the Republic of Ireland in 2011. However, the handshake was
not only political, but personal as well; McGuinness was a senior member of the IRA
when it killed the Queen's cousin Lord Mountbatten in a bomb blast in 1979. (The
Guardian 2012) Gestures like these between once rival enemies would have been
unthinkable without a successful peace process between the Provisional Irish
Republican Army and the government of Great Britain.
In my research for this paper, I had the most difficult time finding interviews
with former IRA or Provisional IRA members- perhaps because this is such recent
history, and likely still a controversial subject. However, a group of students at Boston
College students did come across a series of interviews with former Irish Republican
Army members. Former IRA members were interviewed between 2001 and 2006 as
part of The Belfast Project, a resource for journalists, scholars and historians studying

the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland known as The Troubles. (LaVoie 2012)
Denise LaVoie, reporter for Huffington Post, says that the interviews were conducted as
part of an oral history project, and participants said they were supposed to be kept
secret until their deaths. (LaVoie 2012) The court ordered that these interviews be
turned into the government of Northern Ireland, which could expose former IRA
members of crimes they committed and were promised that their identities would be
kept anonymous. The interviews included information about the killing of Jean
McConville, a mother of ten children, who was murdered over forty years ago by the
Provisional IRA because members within the organization believed that she was spying
for British intelligence (La Voie 2012). The crime remains unsolved and a touchy
subject in Ireland; the interviews discovered by Boston College students could very well
be the last bit of evidence needed to avenge McConvilles death.
After sifting through the research I have compiled throughout the previous
months, it seems that there isnt much conflicting evidence that states that the
ideologies of organizations like the Fenians, the Irish Republican Army and the
Provisional Irish Republican Army were anything other nationalist or separatist in
nature. The intentions of all three of these organizations had one ultimate goal, which
was eliminate the presence of the English in Ireland and to establish an independent
Irish state. The ideologies of such organizations are nationalist and separatist in their
roots: nationalist in their support for the revival of Irish culture and a consensus of
national identity, separatist in the fight for independent statehood. Groups like the Irish
Republican Army and the Provisional Irish Republican Army differ from other terrorist
organizations such as Hamas due to their lack of religious fundamentalism; Hamas is
also separatist in their goals to create an independent Palestinian state, but a state that

is rooted in Islamic fundamentalism, where as the IRA and the Provisional IRA have
absolutely no involvement with religion outside of basic protection of religious freedom
for all Irish citizens. The protection of religious freedoms is the extent of any religious
involvement and by no means the main priority of these Irish nationalist terrorist
organizations. The IRA and Provisional IRA have no ties to the Catholic Church, or any
church for that matter, and according to Brendan OLearys piece entitled Mission
Accomplished? Looking back at the IRA the Catholic clergy and bishops of Ireland
regularly condemned it (OLeary 2005: 221).
The last argument to be addressed is whether or not groups like the Fenians,
Irish Republican Army and Provisional Irish Republican Army have been successful or
not. The Fenians, outside of disrupting political life in Great Britain had not achieved
much for Irish in the fight for independent statehood. The IRA has been the most
successful of the three organizations due to things like Michael Collins negotiation of
the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, a treaty that gave Ireland partial independence, leaving
Northern Ireland in British hands; many saw this as a stepping stone for Irish
independence and an end to violence, while others couldnt have disagreed more with
the division of Ireland and acceptance of anything less than full independence. The goal
of the Provisional IRA was to rid Northern Ireland of British control, leading to the
formation of a unified and free Ireland. This has yet to be obtained, and since the
Provisional IRA announced its disbandment in 2005, it will not be achieved by this
terrorist organization, to which I argue that the Provisional IRA was not successful
whatsoever in their aims. According to a BBC statistic, between 1969 and 1999, 3637
deaths occurred due to violence perpetrated by the Provisional IRA, the bulk of which

were civilians, Catholic and Protestant alike (BBC 2013). With so many deaths,
especially those of civilians, it puts the legitimacy of the Provisional IRA into question.
While the Fenians, IRA and Provisional IRA are no longer active terrorist
organizations, the issue of Irish nationalist terrorism remains a touchy subject. Two
years ago, A survey was conducted by the University of Liverpool, whose results show
that 14% of the nationalist community have some "sympathy for the reasons" why
groups like the Real IRA and Continuity IRA continue to engage in violence. (McDonald
2010) These small fringe organizations gain support from young nationalist workingclass males (McDonald 2010), however these groups are of minuscule threat compared
to the former Provisional IRA. The support for these terrorist organizations is slowly
fading away, despite the scar they have left on the Irish people, those who they claimed
to be protecting.
Gestures between once bitter enemies like Martin McGuinness and Queen
Elizabeth II have shown hopes for diplomacy, and are a step in the right direction to an
open dialogue about the continuous improvement of Anglo-Irish relations. Through a
series of successful peace talks, treaties and negotiations over the years, a great deal of
progress has been made to gain rights for Ireland and the Irish people while
asphyxiating violence amongst groups who formally committed acts of terror in hopes to
achieve their goals.

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