In Northern Ireland, the New IRA is gaining a foothold with younger generations

[Soph0571]

Over the last year, concerns have grown about dissident Republicans; those who reject the ceasefires of the peace process and continue to believe a united Ireland could be brought about by violence.

Social media footage from the night of McKee’s death showed young people, in their teens and twenties, rioting. Their giddy adolescent screams are audible; the footage shows a masked man with a slender, youthful frame step forward before firing the fatal shots.

Sinéad O’Shea, a documentary maker who spent five years in Derry researching dissident Republicanism for her film A Mother Brings her Son to be Shot, says she met one boy who told her he and his friends wanted the Troubles to return.

“I think they associated the Troubles with a time of status and purpose, and they felt hopeless about now. I can easily imagine other young people wanting some short cut to a feeling of ‘power’ in that community. Most jobs seem out of reach. It is fantastical for them to aspire to fulfilling employment. Drug and alcohol addiction was rife when I was there. Suicide was a common occurrence too. Everyone and everything seemed against them.”

[link:https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/northern-ireland/2019/04/northern-ireland-new-ira-gaining-foothold-younger-generations|

This is very concerning. These young people have never known the troubles but they think a return to those horrors will give them status? Seriously? Someone is radicalising these young people. Luckily the vast majority has no appetite for this call to arms..

[poli-junkie]

1. Putin's manipulating again

Any democratic society is going to get meddled by Pootie.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

2. You read my mind.

My first thought was -- what is being pushed in their on-line media ? We all know that the Russians have been very adept at spreading propaganda in Western democracies and manipulating stories to incite anger and discord.

[poli-junkie]

3. Yes, there's a pattern

to these stories that describe a sudden internal strife within a democratic society. I’m immediately suspicious of Russian influence.

[Denzil_DC]

4. I don't know how productive it is to start banging the Putin/Russia drum

every time we have incidences of unrest. I note that none of the UK-based DUers have leapt to that conclusion.

The "Troubles" in Northern Ireland/Ireland have a long and bloody history and have rumbled on since the Good Friday Agreement, so this is hardly a sudden development.

I've no doubt that if Putin thought it would serve his purpose, he'd meddle in Northern Ireland, but nobody has found any evidence of it, no Northern Irish politician is pointing to it, and the article gives some solid possible reasons for why a "return to the Troubles" might be attractive to some disaffected youth. The lack of care over the Irish border during the Brexit discussions is ample background to why urges to violence might be rekindled right now.

It's our problem. Blaming it on Putin doesn't absolve us of that.

[poli-junkie]

5. Thanks for the info.

Yes, I realize the history, but I suspect Putin's picking the resentment scab. Works like a charm.