IRA und Sinn Féin - Politisierung einer Terrororganisation? (PDF)

Bachelorarbeit aus dem Jahr 2008 im Fachbereich Geschichte Europas - Neueste Geschichte, Europäische Einigung, Note: 1,3, Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: This paper deals with the development of two organisations within the Republican Movement in Northern Ireland: the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Sinn Féin. It is supposed that the Republican Movement can be regarded as a Social Movement according to the definitions of Zirakzadeh and Raschke in particular. Consequently the IRA and Sinn Féin can be defined as social movement organisations. These pre definitions are important because there are different dynamics within social movements and movement organisations than in normal parties or military/terrorist groups. In this paper the shift within the Republican Movement from the primary use of weapons (IRA) to the concentration on electoral struggle (Sinn Féin) is examined.
First of all the Northern Ireland conflict is summarized in four periods, starting 1916, the Easter Rising and the emergence of the IRA up to today, when Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin, Republican) and Ian Paisley (DUP, Loyalist) are the leaders of the government in Northern Ireland. Secondly the changes within the two movement organisations Sinn Féin and IRA are studied with the model of social movement theorists Zald and Ash. It becomes obvious, that both organisations have a relationship that can be described as cooperation. That in consequence shows that the changes within the IRA also influenced the development of Sinn Féin and vice versa. Because of that it is thirdly looked at how the relationship between the two has changed especially in the period of the Northern Ireland Troubles (1969-1998). To understand the processes that took place prior to the changes, three models- those of Zald /Ash, Irvin and Weinberg- are presented and used to examine the procedures that took place within the IRA and Sinn Féin. After all an answer to the question whether the development in the Republican Movement was indeed a shift from terrorism to politics is suggested. It becomes clear that the importance of one organisation (IRA) was on the decline while the importance of the other (Sinn Féin) increased. It was not the shift from "the bullet to the ballot" within one organisation but rather the shift within the cooperation of two organisations from the military wing to the political wing in order to realise the goal of the Republican Movement: a united Ireland independent from Great Britain. Finally it is discussed in how far the changes within the IRA and Sinn Féin influenced the end of the conflict in Northern Ireland.