Irish Republican Terrorism: Learning from and Teaching Other Countries

Violent nationalism in Northern Ireland has drawn inspiration from a tradition of physical-force republicanism that dates back centuries. The consequence has been a strong tendency for Irish republicans to draw on that history as a source of ideas for their conduct of campaigns of violence. However, during Northern Ireland's most recent Troubles from the late 1960s to the 1990s, external influence on the republican movement was evident in some of the tactics adopted and, even more strongly, in the turn toward negotiations. At the same time, Irish republicans have directly assisted other groups from Spain to South Africa in the employment of particular means such as the culvert bomb. But it is more striking that republicans have tended to eschew some of the means that have been widely associated with terrorism elsewhere since the 1960s such as the hijacking of aircraft for the taking of hostages. Transnational influences on Irish nationalists have been greater at the level of political ideas and as a source of legitimization than as a model for their own campaigns.