The challenge of peace for Irish Republicans

Dr Sally Watson

Cessation of armed struggle has enormous significance for the IRA, who regard themselves as defenders of the 1919 Dailwith a clear mission to secure Irish freedom fromBritish colonialism through physical means. Indeed, thisarmed force tradition is reflected in the annual ritu -als taking place over Easter, which serve to remind republicans of the death of 1981 hunger striker Bobby Sands and of their ideological roots.

Political progress

The memorial of Bobby Sands also marks the massive politici -sation of Northern republicans, and the emer gence of a radicalpolitical agenda as an alterna tive to armed struggle. In theearly `80s, hunger striking became an alternative front inwhich activists could engage that indicated a more complexlink between republicans and their past than a simplisticromanticism.
    Bobby Sands became arepublican martyr and his death 24 years ago pre-empted a seis -mic shift in the republican stance on electoral politics. Thestrategy of "Armalite and Bal lot Box" --made famous byDanny Morrison --emerged at the republican annual gather -ing, the Ardfheis, later that year. The foundation was laid for arepublican political agenda that would evolve and sustain overtwo decades through new dis courses that explored peace, for-giveness and reconciliation.
    This enabled the Northernrepublican leadership, at the time, to make a subtle changein their political strategy . An alternative battlefront openedup that enabled IRA volunteers in prison to remain soldiersengaged in a "noble struggle". The hunger strikers acceleratedthe political mobilisation of republicans and resulted in theeventual and dramatic political change in the republican atti -tude to abstention. My own interviews with two of the firsthunger strikers confirm the importance that republicansplace on the political shift affected by the current leadership.
    Given the significant political progress made by the republicanmovement, it is important to consider alternative explana -tions of December' s Northern Bank raid and more important ly the implications for the peaceprocess.

Alternative explanations

The crudest explanation is that with declining US support inthe aftermath of 11 September 2001, parts of the republicanmovement are now starved of funding. However, reactions to11 September have also made it more important to republicansthat the IRA is not perceived as a violent group. Interviews Iconducted with republican activists in Belfast and Armaghin September 2001 confirm that many republicans are keento present their struggle as a political project designed toachieve Irish freedom and selfdetermination. Thus it is diffi -cult to conceive why the IRA would jeopardise two decades ofdevising strong moral ar guments for securing justice forNorthern Ireland.
The second explanation points to a reduction in theinfluence of the Sinn Fein lead ership across the broader repub -lican movement. My research suggests that the term "dissi -dent" is being used to describe republicans who do not sharethe current political position held by the Sinn Fein leader -ship. This is an interesting use of language to categorise repub-licans who still espouse the tra ditional ideology and refuse toaccept the pragmatism of the current political position. Thelabel of dissident appears to have emerged in response to theembarrassment caused by IRA projects and the subsequentimpact on Sinn Fein' s electoral position in Northern Ireland.
The third explanation is that the raid was an unauthorisedproject from within the repub lican movement. The Sinn Feinleadership is perceived, by some republicans, as trading toomuch away to the British gov ernment. To traditional IRAactivists the image of Sinn Fein politicians sitting in a Britishparliament represents a betrayal of the 1916 legacy, a betrayal of the republican struggle in theNorth and certainly a betrayal of what Bobby Sands died for.

The challenge

The tension between the republican political agenda and con -tinued violence gives clues as to how the republican movementis managed. Sinn Fein leader ship is clearly influentialamongst grassroots and politi cal activists and appears to havethe power to veto IRA opera tions. The latest crisis bringsinto focus the decision-making process within the IRA thatlegitimises projects at an opera tional level.
    Republicans have tended to claim political moral highground by explaining key events as alternative fronts in the longstruggle for Irish freedom. The leadership has become skilful atgenerating fresh messages to secure moral ground and thepeace agenda is a good example of this development. In the1990s a new language of peace represented a radically newpolitical p ath and new alterna tive front for a traditional strug-gle. It is interesting that warrior talk and battle themes stilloperate within republican dis course alongside the peace agen-da. The e mergence of the peace agenda further consolidates the moral high ground for republi -cans and the electoral successes are a testimony to the signifi -cant political support in the North and the emer ging sup -port in the South.
    The latest scandals to affectthe Sinn Fein leadership involve a bank robbery and the murderof Robert McCartney. The bank raid is, allegedly , one of manyviolent incidents in a long list of republican political history andthe treatment of the story in the press is indicative of the media' sneed to interpret the political agenda of Gerry Adams andMartin McGuiness as a question of opposing forces within therepublican movement.
    The Irish republican projecthas survived nearly a century of political crises pre-empted byphysical violence. During this time, the republican messagehas evolved and adapted to secure a form of moral highground. Indeed, Irish republi cans have developed an impres -sive linguistic ability to create narratives about themselves thatdisguise the highly complex nature of their community. Mul-tiple narratives of peace, politics, tradition and transition co-existand offer explanations to a range of audiences both inside andoutside the movement.
    The latest IRA operation may be an attempt to bank roll IRA activity and members of other IRA groups may beinvolved. My research questions why the IRA would engage inactivity that could derail the republican goal to secure Irishfreedom. Both idealists and pragmatists operate within therepublican movement. Having researched 30 years of republi -can discourse, it is clear that the Sinn Fein leadership is skilful atmanaging political crises and retaining the support of thegrassroots.
    What is more interesting isthe signals that are thrown up by the activity of IRA groupsand their relationship with a Sinn Fein leadership that hasclearly nurtured a peace agenda for 10 years, engineered an IRAcessation and navigated around the demands for decommission -ing since 1997. It could be argued that a bank raid is an actof defiance to remind the world that republican muscle has notgone away . The murder of Robert McCartney, allegedly anact of drunken violence, has not as yet affected voting patterns.
    There is a need to consider alternative explanations becauseof the clear gap between badly advised and executed opera -tions, criminal acts and the political agenda of the SinnFein leadership. Republicans have established their moralhigh ground for social, economic and political freedom consis -tently through political means and the peace process is bothwell established and well publicised across the world. This isnot the time to destabilise the republican movement. Sally Watson is Director of the Management Development Divison at Lancaster University, and a Member of the Richardson Institute for Peace Studies . She continues to research and write about Northern Ireland. This article is part of a series of three by Sally Watson on the political crisis facing the republican movement. The next two will be available at Peace News Online to Peace News websubscribers. See http://www.peacenews.info/websub/ for details.