The Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Morality of Terrorism
Timothy Shanahan
Abstract
Is terrorism ever morally justified? How should historical and cultural factors be taken into account in judging the morality of terrorist acts? What are the ethical limits of state counter-terrorism? For three decades, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA) waged an ‘armed struggle’ against what it considered to be the British occupation of Northern Ireland. To its supporters, the IRA was the legitimate army of Ireland, fighting to force a British withdrawal as a prelude to the re-unification of the Irish nation. To its enemies, it was an illegal, fanatical, terrorist organiz ... More
Is terrorism ever morally justified? How should historical and cultural factors be taken into account in judging the morality of terrorist acts? What are the ethical limits of state counter-terrorism? For three decades, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA) waged an ‘armed struggle’ against what it considered to be the British occupation of Northern Ireland. To its supporters, the IRA was the legitimate army of Ireland, fighting to force a British withdrawal as a prelude to the re-unification of the Irish nation. To its enemies, it was an illegal, fanatical, terrorist organization whose members were criminals willing to sacrifice innocent lives in pursuit of its ideological obsession. At the centre of the conflict were the then-unconventional tactics employed by the IRA, including sectarian killings, political assassinations, and bombings, which devastated urban centres – tactics that have become increasingly commonplace in the post-9/11 world. This book is a philosophical examination of the morality of the IRA's violent campaign, and of the British government's attempts to end it.
Keywords:
terrorism,
morality,
terrorist acts,
state counter-terrorism,
IRA,
armed struggle,
British occupation,
Northern Ireland,
legitimate army,
British withdrawal
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2008 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780748635290 |
Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: March 2012 |
DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748635290.001.0001 |