“Doing a number”: adaptation of political violence in the aftermath of the Northern Irish conflict

Abstract

ABSTRACT Focusing on the contemporary iteration of the republican armed struggle in Northern Ireland this work posits that a scaled-down approach to the strategic outlook was developed by violent dissident republicans as a reaction to resource constraints and a post-conflict context. The adjusted strategic outlook became predicated on a strategy of provocation with the intent being to draw out some form of governmental response while maintaining a heightened state of emergency. As the post-conflict normalization in Northern Ireland represented a relatively easy target for the armed groups, this strategy of provocation could rely on rudimentary tactics, both violent and non-violent. This work concludes by exploring one such tactic that straddles the divide between the two, hoax devices, which have become a staple in the repertoire of violent dissident republicans.