The Construction and Mobilization of Collective Victimhood by Political Ex-Prisoners in Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT

This article attempts to challenge binary notions of “victim” and “perpetrator” categories by taking into account the complex interaction of actors who both participate in, and are impacted by, terrorist violence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with self-identified Republican (n = 25) and Loyalist (n = 27) ex-prisoners in Northern Ireland who are currently involved in self-described peace initiatives. Results suggest that political ex-prisoners evoke notions of collective victimization as a vehicle to bridge their transition from “paramilitary” to “peace maker” in this context. The implications are discussed in terms of understanding the functionality of collective victimhood for those who controversially adopt the label.

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1. Karola Dillenburger, Monte Fargas and Rym Akhonzada, “Victims or Survivors? Debate about Victimhood in Northern Ireland,” International Journal of Humanities 3 (2005), pp. 222–231.

2. John Darby, The Effects of Violence on the Peace Processes (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2001).

3. Marie Breen-Smyth, “Hierarchies of Pain and Responsibility: Victims and War by Other Means in Northern Ireland,” Tripodos 25 (2009), pp. 27–40.

4. Kenneth Bloomfield, “We Will Remember Them”: Report of the Northern Ireland Victims Commissioner, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield KCB (Belfast: The Stationery Office Northern Ireland, 1998).

5. Ibid.

6. Robin Eames and Denis Bradley, Report from the Consultative Group on the Past (2009). Available at http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/v\ictims/d\ocs/c\onsultative_group/c\gp_230109_report.pdf (accessed 16 May 2016).

7. See, for example, Sara McDowell, Who are the Victims? Debates, Concepts and Contestation in “Post-Conflict” Northern Ireland (2007). Available at http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/v\ictims/i\ntroduction/s\mcd07whoarethevictims.html (accessed 16 June 2014).

8. Peter Shirlow and Kieran McEvoy, Beyond the Wire: Former Political Prisoners and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland (London: Pluto Press, 2008).

9. See, for example, Gerry Adams, Before the Dawn: An Autobiography (Dublin: The O'Brien Press, 1997); Eamon Collins and Mick McGovern, Killing Rage (London: Granta Publications, 1997).

10. Bobby Sands, One Day in my Life (Blackrock, Cork: Mercier Press, 1983).

11. Sean O'Callaghan, The Informer (London: Book Club Associates, 1999).

12. See also Breen-Smyth, “Hierarchies of Pain and Responsibility.”

13. Kieran McEvoy, Peter Shirlow, and Karen McElrath, “Resistance, Transition and Exclusion: Politically Motivated Ex-prisoners and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland,” Terrorism and Political Violence 16(3) (2004), pp. 646–670.

14. Claire Mitchell, “The Limits of Legitimacy: Former Loyalist Combatants and Peace-building in Northern Ireland,” Irish Political Studies 23(1) (2008), pp. 1–19.

15. Brian Gormally, Shadd Maruna, and Kiaran McEvoy, Thematic Evaluation of Funding Projects: Politically Motivated Former Prisoners and their Families (Belfast: Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2007).

16. Shirlow and McEvoy, Beyond the Wire.

17. Herbert Lefcourt, Locus of Control: Current Trends in Theory and Research (London: Psychology Press, 1982).

18. Julian B. Rotter, “Generalised Expectations for Internal Versus External Control Reinforcement,” Psychological Monographs 80 (1966), pp. 1–28.

19. Kieran McEvoy and Peter Shirlow, “Re-Imagining DDR: Ex-Combatants, Leadership and Moral Agency in Conflict Transformation,” Theological Criminology 13(1) (2009), pp. 31–59.

20. Brian Gormally and Kiaran McEvoy, Release and Reintegration of Politically Motivated Prisoners in Northern Ireland: A Comparative Review of South Africa, Israel/P\alestine, Italy, Spain, the Republican of Ireland and Northern Ireland (Belfast: NIACRO, 1995).

21. In addition to identifying as politically motivated former prisoners, participants also self-identified as “community activists,” “politicians,” “restorative justice,” and “peace practitioners.” Participants were not asked in advance of the interview to state their religious or political affiliations (which are assumed to align with their paramilitary affiliations). However, the identity categories participants used in the interview (i.e., Catholic, Protestant, etc.) was noted and informed the analysis.

22. Colin Knox, “Establishing Research Legitimacy in the Contested Political Ground of Contemporary Northern Ireland,” Qualitative Research 1 (2) (2001), pp. 205–222.

23. Gale Jefferson, Studies in Conversation Analysis (Rev. ed. 1984. Reprint) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. ix–xvi.

24. Jonathan Potter, Representing Reality: Discourse, Rhetoric and Social Construction (London: Sage, 1996); Charles Antaki and Sue Widdicombe, Identities in Talk (London: Sage, 1998); Bethan Bentwell and Elizabeth Stokoe, “Discourse and Identity,” Gender and Language 1(2) (2008), pp. 315–318.

25. David Silverman, Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction (London: Sage, 2001).

26. See, for example, Henry McDonald, “Boston College Ordered by US Court to Hand Over IRA Tapes,” The Guardian, 25 April 2016. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/u\k-news/2\016/a\pr/2\5/b\oston-college-ordered-by-us-court-to-hand-over-ira-tapes (accessed 3 May 2016).

27. Derek Edwards, Discourse and Cognition (London: SAGE, 1997).

28. Paul Drew, “Complaints about Transgressions and Misconduct,” Research on Language and Social Interaction 31 (1998), pp. 295–325.

29. See, for example, Knox, “Establishing Research Legitimacy,” pp. 205–222.

30. Neil Ferguson, Mark Burgess, and Ian Hollywood, “Who are the Victims? Victimhood Experiences in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland,” Political Psychology 31 (6) (2010), pp. 857–886.

31. Emanuel A. Shegloff, “Preliminaries to Preliminaries: Can I Ask you a Question,” Sociological Inquiry 50 (1980), pp. 104–152.

32. Maykel Verkuyten and Angela de Wolf, “Being, Feeling and Doing: Discourses and Ethnic Self-Definitions Among Minority Group Members,” Culture and Psychology 8 (2002), pp. 371–399.

33. The Campaign for Social Justice in Northern Ireland, “The Plain Truth.” (1964). Available at http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/e\vents/c\rights/p\dfs/c\sj179.pdf (accessed 16 October 2016).

34. Shirlow and McEvoy, Beyond the Wire.

35. Dale T. Miller and Michael Ross, “Self-Serving Bias in the Attribution of Causality: Fact or Fiction?,” Psychological Bulletin 82 (2) (1975), pp. 213–225.

36. Neil Ferguson, Mark Burgess, and Ian Hollywood, “Who are the Victims? Victimhood Experiences in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland,” Political Psychology 31 (6) (2010), pp. 857–886.

37. Jonathan Potter, Representing Reality: Discourse, Rhetoric and Social Construction (London: Sage, 1996), pp. 137–139.

38. Ibid., pp. 223–234.

39. See, for example, Neil Ferguson, Mark Burgess, and Ian Hollywood, “Leaving Violence Behind: Disengaging from Political Motivated Violence in Northern Ireland,” Political Psychology 36 (2) (2015), pp. 199–214; Steve Bruce, The Red Hand: Protestant Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).

40. See, for example, James W. McAuley, Jonathan Tonge, and Peter Shirlow, “Conflict Transformation and Former Loyalist Paramilitary Prisoners in Northern Ireland,” Political Psychology 22 (2010), pp. 22–40.

41. Potter, Representing Reality, pp. 101–103.

42. Erving Goffman, Forms of Talk (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981), pp. 34–37.

43. Potter, Representing Reality, pp. 137–139.

44. Breen-Smyth, “Hierarchies of Pain and Responsibility.”

45. Shirlow and McEvoy, Beyond the Wire.

46. Lefcourt, Locus of Control, pp. 127–130.

47. Knox, “Establishing Research Legitimacy,” pp. 205–222.