International Studies Quarterly
Volume 45, Issue 3
September 2001
|
|
|
|
| Justice | Economic deprivation of everyone in the province created a system of injustice. Both parts of the community were victims. | The working class Irish of Northern Ireland, as well as all peoples of the world struggling against capitalist domination, were victims of imperial injustice. |
| Enemy Image | The community of Northern Ireland was unjustly exposed to violence by a few bad men. The enemies were the “men of violence,” especially the IRA and the rest of the republican movement. They kept out economic investment and made people live in fear. | The British colonial government and army, the middle class sell-outs in Dublin and Northern Ireland, and the Protestant operatives of the British pose threats to the lives of the Irish republicans. |
| Governance | The only solutions had to come from the negotiation of new institutions, which would bring about peace and growth. He talked a lot about how the context (especially change in elite alignment and international examples/help) pointed to hopes of productive talks. | The only discussions of institutions and laws emphasized that the unjust rulers and their institutions had to be “smashed.” |
| Storytelling | History should be used not to call for redemption of the martyrs but to learn the lesson that people will continue to die senselessly if they cannot resolve to live peacefully together. He does not try to deny that there were those who died for the cause, but he draws a very different meaning from the fact. Also, he draws the Protestant community into that history in a more positive way and “reminds” his audience that Protestants share similar, “enlightened” values. | The martyrs of the past had to be redeemed; the hunger strikers, the heroes of 1916 and the mythical figures of ancient Irish history could not have died only for the present republicans to give up the fight. |
| Identity | Hume primarily depicted the ingroup in a few ways. First, in Northern Ireland it was the whole community—Catholics and Protestants (he did not deny that there were two religious traditions, but often emphasized their similar plight). Protestants who were unionists—seeing themselves as only British (which in reality were most all Protestants)—were a separate (out)group. A second common depiction of the ingroup was all the peaceful, normal people (as opposed to men of violence). Third, more “global” ingroups he referred to were those of “democrats/social democrats” and “Europeans.” | The ingroup for Adams excluded middle-class Catholics in Northern Ireland and in the Republic, as well as Protestants who were merely tools of Britain. Along with working class republicans, for Adams all freedom fighters and victims of capitalism the world over were often part of the ingroup. |
| Representative Passages | “The continuing campaign of violence of the Provisional
IRA is legitimately a matter of overwhelming concern to both sections of
the community…We see in those parts of the community where the Provisional
IRA are more active the spread of a foul social cancer…What has followed
is the…pornography of death and nihilism on our gable walls, and the deep
corruption of the young…We say to the Provisionals: ‘You are not
Irish republicans; you are extremists who have dishonoured and are dishonouring
the deepest ideals of the Irish people.’” (1982)
“We all need a new and generous vision. We need both to abandon the sterile exclusivity of ‘ourselves alone’ [Sinn Fein’s motto] and we need the positive encouragement of the third party—the British Government—not by creating structures which underline and advertise our abnormality, but by patient public policy which commits them and us to a New Ireland forged by mutual respect and agreement.” (1982) “…We ought to be encouraged by the example of the European Community…In this century alone, the peoples of Europe have been locked in the savagery of two world wars with the bitterness and slaughter that goes far beyond anything we have experienced on this island. Yet 34 years after the second World War, as a result of an agreed process, they have been able to create one parliament to represent them, one community—and the Germans are still Germans, the French are still French. They have a unity in diversity. Is it too much to ask that we on this small island do precisely the same thing?” (1985) “Northern Ireland today represents unfinished business in the ancient conflict between our two islands…We are all of us at fault. We can indulge in an endless exchange of ‘What aboutery?’…What about Bloody Sunday? What about 1916? What about 1689? And so on, each whatabout being used to justify another tragedy….Let us instead, all of us, ask ourselves just one question. What about the future?” (1982) |
“[The British and Irish establishment] made the mistake
of believing their own propaganda. They believe that Sinn Fein flourishes
in conditions of deprivation, unemployment…Indeed, whilst recognizing that
Britain may make some concessions to Dublin and the SDLP, and that the
EEC and US financial aid may be made available as part of a mistaken analysis
that we will be undermined, any such concessions are not attributable to
the efforts of those politicians but can be claimed by the struggling nationalist
people…”(a)
“In expressing solidarity to those suffering in prisons we recall in
the 15th year of this last phase of our historic struggle for independence
those throughout the world who are engaged in similar struggles. To our
black brothers and sisters in Africa, and especially those who struggle
under apartheid in South Africa we express solidarity. To those in
Central America, oppressed by totalitarian regimes, to the Palestinians,
deprived of a homeland, to the Basques and to all men and women denied
freedom and to people committed to gaining freedom, we pledge our solidarity,
mindful that the successful conclusion of our struggle is a victory for
you, just as a victory for you is a victory for us.”(b)
|
(a) This statement is from 1985 but is similar to statements
made earlier. This one was chosen simply because it included most
of the “enemies” together.
(b) This statement is from the 1984 presidential address
to the annual conference, but is much like statements made in 1982 and
1983.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Summary of Individual Strategies and Representative Passages, 1996 |