Irish Nationalism: A Political Cartoon Analysis

In Michael Mays’ book Nation States: The Cultures of Irish Nationalism, he discussed a political cartoon by the editorial cartoonist David Horsey from 1991, which basically suggested that ‘the IRA’s raison d’etre rests solely in a mad campaign of vicious self -perpetuation: “I bomb, therefore I am”’ (Mays, 2007, p149). This cartoon proposed that the only reason the IRA could be as prominent and effective as they were, was their own awareness that the only way to be taken seriously would be through negative publicity following their attacks. Whilst this can be argued to be true to some extent, there are a number of reasons why the Provisional Irish Republican Army was such an enduring force throughout the troubles and even on into the peace …show more content…
Using this it could be suggested that one reason which contributed to the durability of the PIRA, and other paramilitaries, was due to their history. Many republican groups were based on previous paramilitary groups who were formed before the Irish Free State was created, such as the Catholic Defenders (Hayes and McAllister, 2001, p902), and even more so, the PIRA was building on the successes and in turn failures of the IRA in the South who had formed in 1917. Irish republicanism was not a new concept, and violent counter-actions to authority rule were set deep into the story of the Island over …show more content…
Morrissey and Pease suggest that West Belfast was the setting of a number of crime-related issues, and the Royal Ulster Constabulary were not quick to solve them, as they were not particularly interested in the affairs of the Catholic community (Morrissey and Pearse,1982). As a result of this it was left to the community to deal with. On the one hand, IRA control over crime and violence could gain support from the community, as a means to an end, as such a high volume of crimes committed in a majority Catholic area would have a negative impact on the Catholic community across Ireland as a whole, and by using extreme measures they could act as a deterrence. However, on the other hand it could have acted to almost undermine the movement itself, as an organisation which couldn’t control its members and supporters, and reverted to what was effectively corporal and even capital punishment in its attempts to do so, surely could not be respected on a global stage. In a news article analysed in Morrissey and Pease’s work, from the Irish Times in April 1982, the family of one victim of the PIRA’s punishment shootings only sees those who carried out the murder of her son, under PIRA orders as killers, not paramilitaries or ‘protectors’ as the