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From ‘former comrades’ to ‘near enemy’ : the narrative template of ‘armed struggle’ and conflicting discourses on violent dissident Irish republican activity (VDR)
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Hearty, Kevin (2016) From ‘former comrades’ to ‘near enemy’ : the narrative template of ‘armed struggle’ and conflicting discourses on violent dissident Irish republican activity (VDR). Critical Studies on Terrorism, 9 (2). 269-291 . doi:10.1080/17539153.2016.1154305 ISSN 1753-9153.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2016.1154305
Abstract
This article critically evaluates how competing discourses on what has been labelled Violent Dissident Republican activity (VDR) can be mapped onto pre-existing narrative templates on “armed struggle” that have featured in internal Irish republican politicking for generations. As such, this article conducts an in-depth dissection of how competing narratives on the utility of VDR, the scale of and support for VDR, and the underlying motivations behind it have drawn neatly from pre-existing scripts adroitly constructed during many of the previous splits within that constituency. In looking beyond the mere rhetorical value of respective discourses, it interrogates the political value in adapting past narratives for present consumption in an increasingly fragmented constituency where the gulf between the pragmatic and the pure has immeasurably widened in recent years. Drawing out narratives of pragmatism and purity, of the “micro-group”, “felon setting” and the “near enemy”, the article establishes how these narratives are vitally important to the parent group as it tries to maintain its dominance while embracing constitutional politics and, equally vital to the breakaway group, as it seeks to justify its very existence in a rapidly changing political context where there is ever-decreasing communal appetite for “armed struggle”.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) U Military Science > U Military Science (General) |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Irish Republican Army--History, Provisional IRA--History, Real IRA--History, Sinn Fein--History, Republicanism--Ireland--History--20th century, Political violence--Ireland--History--20th century, Guerrilla warfare--Ireland--History--20th century, Political violence--Northern Ireland, Ireland--History, Military--20th century, Ireland--History--20th century, Northern Ireland--History | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Critical Studies on Terrorism | ||||||
| Publisher: | Routledge | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1753-9153 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 12 April 2016 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 9 | ||||||
| Number: | 2 | ||||||
| Page Range: | 269-291 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1080/17539153.2016.1154305 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 8 March 2016 | ||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 12 October 2017 | ||||||
| Funder: | Northern Ireland. Department of Employment and Learning |
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