Pathways to political violence: the micro-mobilisation of southern Irish into the republican movement

A wealth of material exists on the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and wider Republican Movement; however, it is limited in terms of empirically driven data on the micro-mobilisation processes of individual entry into that Movement, and into political violence. Through qualitative interviews, this work seeks to contribute to our understanding of individual pathways into the Republican Movement in the south of Ireland; therefore, individuals who lived beyond the immediate conflict zone of Northern Ireland (1969-1994). All interviewees were active in either the pre-69 IRA, the Provisional IRA, Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil or Na Fianna Éireann, before laterally entering the ‘dissident’ republican milieu. Further, the interviewees under examination joined the Movement at different points between the 1940s and 1990s, thus providing valuable insight into different entry points in time. Employing a social movement theoretical lens, this work provides insight into the contributing factors and influences that led individuals in the south into the Republican Movement and the IRA. Whilst focused on the Irish Republican Movement, this article makes a wider theoretical contribution to our understanding of individual pathways to political violence and radical political mobilisation, with a particular focus on individuals from beyond the immediate primary conflict zone.