The contemporary Irish republican movement : between past and future

Abstract

The Peace Process opened a new season in the history of Northern Ireland. Yet acts of violence continue, and the leadership of the main parties involved is in deep crisis. After offering an historical overview of the main events, the Author engages in a roundtable three eminent exponents and commentators of the political life of Northern Ireland. They reflect on the changes undertaken by the contemporary republican movement before and during the Irish Peace Process. How has its leadership been able to communicate a vision of politics and society freed from those elements of radical antagonism which permeated a wide sector of the nationalistic community? This evolution produced relevant changes also inside the Unionist community. The roundtable introduces poignant criticism toward the republican movement, echoing the contemporary political and historiographic debate, which never appeared in Italian publications. The roundtable also approaches the question of the justifications used to explain the armed struggle as an instrument of political activity in highly polarised contexts, and the processes which suspended those methods.