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The
Provisional IRA may have failed in its war to remove
the British from Ireland, but it has most definitely
not lost its ability to fascinate a public eager to
understand what made the organisation tick. When Richard
English’s book Armed Struggle was launched in
Queen’s University’s Great Hall in April,
it was received by a packed audience. Virtually, every
shade from across the political spectrum was present
in the audience. Patti Smith’s rock concert the
following month in the College of Art pulled similar
numbers. Which tells us that in terms of research
the IRA has certainly not gone away.
The
author claimed to offer an analysis of the Provisionals
based on the ‘widest range of sources ever used.’
This was no idle boast - many sources often ignored
over the three decades it has taken a Provisional
republican historiography to grow, layer upon layer,
were trawled for what insight they could provide.
Whether such an exercise allows for the width to be
complemented by the depth is a moot point. Reconciling
the tension between reach and grasp is the researcher’s
dilemma.
The challenges facing Richard English’s attempt
to both scale and bridge these polarised peaks were
magnified by a daring statement of intent on behalf
of his scholarly project. To study the Provisionals
‘in a systematic and measured fashion, and to
offer the fullest, most balanced and most authoritative
treatment’ yet is a statement that would have
raised few eyebrows back in February 1971 when it
could be reported that relatively little was known
about the Provisionals. Matters are not the same in
2003.
Provisional
republicanism is a goldmine whose coveted treasure
trove of illicit gems has drawn numerous researchers,
in the hope that they alone might shout ’eureka.’
Professor English’s cry of ‘I have found
it’ in this regard will be challenged by many
in the field. Fortunately, however, like all historiographies
not crafted by a central committee, many contesting
histories rather than one definitive history will
better replenish and enrich the fountain of public
knowledge.
In seeking to explain the origins of the Provisional
IRA Richard English has employed a novel variant of
the continuity theme which allows the IRA to trace
its history back to 1916. The pre-Provisional IRA
were responsible for the Civil Rights Movement which
in turn became the midwife for the Provisionals. There
is something of the auto-fusion here which allows
a greater emphasis to be placed on a linear progression
rather than those discontinuous ‘interruptions
whose status and nature vary considerably’ as
postulated in the work of Michel Foucault. A discontinuous
counterfactual interrogation of the theme of continuity
in Provisional historiography may better allow us
to assess the weight of Richard English’s contention.
A
major strength of Armed Struggle lies in the author’s
readiness to allow the participants to have their
say. His ability to politically evaluate the limited
effects of the IRA campaign avoids slipping into simplistic
and dubious moral evaluations of those involved. Sufficient
condemnation of republicans has emerged from within
unionism, without in any way increasing understanding
of what made them function. Richard English in approaching
them in a morally non-judgemental manner much better
allows students of the conflict in general to appreciate
the interactive and multi-causal nature of the political
violence that plagued the North for almost three decades.
In
a world where being right too early can lead to social
isolation Armed Struggle is a work of considerable
personal courage from a writer grounded in the unionist
academic tradition. Those republicans who seek refuge
in its pages as a shelter to shield them from Ed Moloney’s
incisive examination of the corrosive effects of a
leadership led movement, and subsequent deconstruction
of its strategy, will find only temporary respite.
English subtly but with clinical skill subverts the
purpose of the IRA’s war that leaves the reader
to stare at a gaping chasm separating objectives from
achievement.
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