In Northern Ireland, the New IRA is gaining a foothold with younger generations [View all]

[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..