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No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine De Valera's objections in the light of his statements prior to the negotiations and of his proposals during the debate in the Dail.

One of the foremost reasons for the success of the Northern Irish Peace Process has been the ability of the national leadership of the Provisional Republican Movement to bring the majority of their membership away from the armed campaign and towards the acceptance of peaceful politics. This dissertation analyses how they were able to achieve this. This is carried out by considering the processes of the four major splits in modern day Irish republicanism from 1969 to 1997. Each split was analysed so as to derive why the split took place and why one side was more successful than the other in the aftermath. The cases were used to test a stage-based process model of split designed by the author. The data from thirty-eight semi-structured interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). This analysis treated the three Provisional splits as three micro-processes within the macro-process of Provisional Republican involvement in the ‘Troubles', as it did the two Official splits with respect to the Official macro-process of involvement. The results of the analysis showed that the success of the later Provisional leadership was significantly tied to their method of changing strategies, tactics and policies one step at a time rather than by attempting to implement a variety of substantial changes within a short space of time as the leadership of the 1960s endeavoured to. This research outlines how the acceptance of peaceful politics for a terrorist organisation is a gradual stage-based process and that in order to be successful the significant changes must be implemented in a patient manner.

This thesis outlines the evolution and roles of the political fronts in Northern Ireland and their potential for attaining political change. It will assess the impact of a number of selected 'variables', both 'internal' and 'external', on the utility (or lack of utility) of these fronts. The variables that have been selected for consideration are: 1) Ideology, structure and leadership, 2) The notion of violence as a habit, 3) Popular support, 4) State response and 5) Other factors and events in the External Environment. Alexander George's 'structured, focused, comparison' methodology will be employed and the selected cases are the Irish Republican Army, the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force. Although all of the 'variables' have had a significant impact the thesis argues that the greatest motivation behind the use of Simi Fein has been the desire to mobilise or tap perceived existing support. In the case of the loyalist political fronts the domestic external environment, specifically the perception that the loyalist working classes had been manipulated by 'respectable' unionist politicians, was the most important factor behind their greater use. Paradoxically, it is unionist culture (such as its 'law abiding' nature and division of labour ethos) that has presented the most significant obstacle to their utility. The thesis will then assess whether or not political fronts represent moderation towards the use of violence on the part of the groups. It will suggest that they have in the loyalist cases. Although the following argues that political fronts are very much part of the 'terrorist machinery' as the political voices and propaganda outlets for terrorist groups, and that it is a misconception to view them as the 'moderate half of a movement, the thesis will contend that Sinn Fein has also ultimately come to represent moderation towards the use of violence. The conclusion will then suggest that the selected variables be tested in other examples and, assuming that Sinn Fein has come to represent moderation towards the use of violence, will then attempt to draw some lessons from the case of the IRA and its political front that might be considered when studying other cases.

This thesis examines the 1981 hunger strike by republican prisoners in Northern Ireland against the removal of special category status from newly convicted paramilitary prisoners on 1 March 1976, the fast was part of a protest that began in 1976. The thesis opens with an examination of the origins of the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1969 and the emergence of a younger leadership in the late 1970's, and evaluates the significance of the prisons in Irish history. The development of the prisoners protests ranging from the refusal to put on a uniform and perform prison work to the rejection of sanitary or washing facilities, is analysed. The prisoners demands are examined in the context of British and international law. The campaign in support of the republican prisoners conducted outside the Maze Prison, including the formation of the Relatives Action Committee and the National H-Block/Armagh Committee is surveyed, and the female "dirty" protest at Armagh Prison is examined. The medical, ethical, and moral dilemmas presented by hunger striking are identified and the thesis examines the debate whether the men who died were suicides or martyrs. The 1980 and 1981 hunger strikes are examined with particular attention to the efforts to bring about a compromise with the British government and the factors leading to a new hunger strike in 1981 and to the intervention of the Catholic Church with the prisoners relatives which ended the fast. The hunger strike is analysed regarding its effect internationally in building up republican support, and in the Province where it acted as the base for the future success of Provisional Sinn Fein later in the decade.

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voluant au sein d’un contexte global de crise de la représentativité démocratique, les partis politiques sont plus que jamais remis en question quant à leur légitimité. Ils font face à de nombreux défis, notamment vis-à-vis l’émergence sans cesse grandissante de nouveaux mouvements sociaux et divers partis extrémistes, qui témoignent de ce phénomène. Certains parmi eux arrivent à brouiller les cartes théoriques, soit les partis dits «antisystèmes». Néanmoins, afin d’aspirer à gouverner et de ne pas s’aliéner de potentiels électeurs, des partis autrefois marginaux peuvent décider de participer aux institutions en modifiant leurs agendas et stratégies. Par conséquent, pourquoi et comment des partis à la fois nationalistes et antisystèmes optent pour la voie de l’intégration institutionnelle, alors qu’ils ont initialement pour objectif d’exercer une forme radicale d’opposition envers les autres acteurs et le système politique dans son ensemble? Ce mémoire explore dans une perspective comparative les raisons derrière ce processus d’intégration en étudiant les cas du Parti québécois au Québec, du Scottish National Party en Écosse et du Sinn Féin en Irlande du Nord. Les données utilisées sont théoriques et empiriques, relevant de l’analyse de leur historique grâce à la création de lignes du temps exhaustives ainsi que de leurs plateformes électorales par le biais d’un indice original, l’Indice antisystème pour les plateformes. Ceci permet d’évaluer également leur caractère antisystème, tout en considérant leur contexte sociopolitique respectif. / Evolving within a global context of democratic representation crisis, the legitimacy of political parties is more than ever questioned. They face many challenges, especially in regard to the ever-increasing emergence of new social movements and various extremist parties. Some of them manage to blur the theoretical maps, the "antisystem" parties. Nevertheless, in order to aspire to govern and not alienate potential voters, formerly marginal parties may decide to participate to the institutions by changing their agendas and strategies. Therefore, why and how antisystem nationalist parties opt for the institutional integration path, while initially exercising a radical form of opposition to other actors and the political system as a whole? This thesis explores in a comparative perspective the reasons behind this process of integration by studying the cases of Parti Québecois in Québec, Scottish National Party in Scotland and Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland. The data used is theoretical and empirical, based on the analysis of their history through the creation of exhaustive timelines and their electoral platforms via an original index, the Antisystem Index for Party Platforms. This also makes it possible to evaluate their antisystemness, while considering their respective socio-political context.