CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Rodgers, Amy |
|---|---|
| Title | "We're ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary situation" A Life History Analysis of Disengaged Northern Irish Paramilitaries |
| Summary | This thesis focuses on the processes that lead people to join (1), stay in (2) and leave (3) paramilitary organizations like the Irish Republican Army. Seeing as though there has been an upsurge in the amount of paramilitary activity by violent Irish Republican splinter groups since 2009, it is important to know what influenced the previous generation of paramilitaries the most. To this end, six disengaged paramilitaries were interviewed. (1) The data shows that the combination of youthfulness and personal victimization with a social context that creates a platform for active protest will most likely lead to radicalization. Youthfulness is also an important factor in explaining willingness to join paramilitary organizations. Similarly, personal relations have a significant impact on entry decisions: most of the interviewees joined with their friends. (2) With regards to the length of involvement the data shows that those that were coached when they first joined, stayed in the organization the longest. All the interviewees spent time in prison in the course of their involvement. While in prison, relative freedom to organize themselves played a significant role in furthering paramilitaries' engagement. Additionally, solitary confinement in combination with violent prison conditions lead to more emotional detachment and a higher dependency on glorifying violent behaviour. (3) If individuals no longer believe in the ideology, this is a more important factor in their decision-making process than the possible personal costs of leaving. Also, after a long spell in prison it is likely that individuals will disengage, at least temporarily, to experience normality. If someone’s time in prison was not a cause for disengagement, then the chances are higher that deradicalization and disengagement happen simultaneously. Lastly, those that are the most educated, are less likely to stay engaged very long. |
| Supervisor | Kovács, Andras |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/rodgers_amy.pdf |
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