Who are the dissidents? : analysing changes in the sociological profile of violent dissident republicans in Northern Ireland

This thesis presents an empirical analysis of a unique data set of 427 men and women who have been charged with criminal offences as a result of suspected involvement in dissident republican activity in Northern Ireland between 1998 and 2014. The charges result from involvement in the four main dissident groups currently active in armed struggle in Ireland namely Continuity IRA (CIRA), Real IRA (RIRA), Oglaigh Na h’Eireann (ONH) and most recently the New IRA (NIRA). Both official Government publications and open source dissident news material was used to create a violent dissident republican personnel database. This database was then used to compare the dissidents with the Old IRA of the Irish Revolution between the years 1916-1923. This study is primarily comparing and contrasting the IRA and how it has changed in 100 years. Conclusions are made on gender and religion, age and marriage and status and class. It contains policy implications for both practitioners and academics on how to counter the contemporary violence of dissidents in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

other

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

London Metropolitan University

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Taylor, Francis

• 300 Social sciences
• 320 Political science

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

N/A

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.londonmet.ac.uk:1017