(Photo: brasscheck.com/illuminating9_11/Flickr/CC BY-ND)

Hostilities and conflict in Northern Ireland have been around for so long that its people have forgotten the root cause of it. John Soule, a political scientist studying this ongoing conflict, declared that the conflict can be considered a ritual wherein both sides are locked in a dance and cannot get out. Using observations and interviews, he also stipulated that new recruits to the terrorist movements are being fueled by hatred and motivated by the desire to avenge fallen comrades, becoming oblivious to the original political purpose of the conflict.

Collaboration with the moderates

Governments are sometimes known to have collaboration with the moderates inside terrorist circles. If the government offers a deal to a heterogeneous terrorist organization, the leaders of that terrorist group will not hesitate to accept that deal. However, if the deal goes right and the moderate leaders return to the government, the terrorists are left in the influence of the extremists, which can increase activities of militant groups and widespread terrorist violence.

Nevertheless, if the deal goes smoothly, the government can require former terrorists, those who have switched over to their side to help in counter-terrorism efforts and technical know-hows, can improve the government’s chance in eliminating the terrorist threat.

Terrorists groups and internal conflicts

Terrorist groups are also known to have internal conflicts, and moderate leaders are more likely to accept deals from the government than extremist leaders. Moderates are known to engage in less violence. When the government offers a deal to the moderates, they leave the group and allow the extremists to take over, making the group even more dangerous.

Big challenges when confronting acts of violence

Democratic states these days face big challenges when confronting acts of violence considered terrorism. An over-reactive approach to the situation can alienate the population and damage the legitimacy of the government (which becomes more damaging than the terrorists’ activities). The credibility and capability of upholding the law by the police, the military and the government will also be undermined, especially when they prove incapable of handling such an event. The acts of violence must be approached in a steady, careful but immediate response with a positive result to maintain public confidence.

Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act

In the United Kingdom, a new law was passed called the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act, following their success in handling the terrorist bombings and killings during the conflict in Northern Ireland. This act allows the government to detain indefinitely, without trial, a non-national suspected of being capable of or implicated in terrorist activity. However, according to the British Law Lords, they ruled that “because only foreigners could be detained in this way, such an anti-terrorist law was discriminatory, disproportionate and unlawful under the European Convention on Human Rights.” Some of these “former” terrorists are even prohibited to seek and obtain immediate short-term financing, even with short term installment loans or bad credit payday loans, because of their former way of life.

Sources

MSNBC

http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/3271_bpsecurity.pdf

Many business victims of the Ireland recession resemble this boarded-up UK pub (Photo: Geograph)

It was just a year ago that Ireland was in recession and losing a job every five minutes. Now the Wall Street Journal reports that the nation has officially exited the recession, based upon export-driven domestic product growth of 2.7 percent for Q1 2010. However, Ireland’s road to economic recovery remains long. One of the hardest-hit euro zone countries in the recent global recession, Ireland’s GDP had fallen by more than 14 percent entering 2010. As the New York Times indicates, a tremendous deficit and 13 percent unemployment have prompted Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen to warn that there’s no easy way out of the economic quagmire.

Ireland and the recession: Investor confidence required

Ireland and its recession have continued largely because the country is paying much more on its benchmark bonds than more economically healthy euro zone countries, says the Times. This has given investors pause and has not reduced guaranteed loan borrowing, making it all the more difficult for Dublin to take care of business. Ireland’s primary goal is to restore investor confidence through deficit reduction, but higher taxes, lower salaries for public workers and the fallout of the burst housing bubble – including an uptick in the origination of low cost loans – have made it difficult for Ireland’s population to wait patiently.

Hanging their hat on exports

Ireland attracted companies like Intel, Microsoft, Facebook and LinkedIn to address previous recessionary woes, but this time, the Irish government is depending upon an export revival, according to the Times. Wage and energy cost decreases – as well as a falling euro – have “improved competitiveness,” writes the Times, but that may not create enough jobs. In fact, wage cuts have driven young workers away. They want instant money, not the promise of a better Ireland in 10 to 15 years, when experts predict future infrastructure spending will resume.

Prime Minister Cowen gritting teeth over 2012 elections

The long, hard road to economic recovery via tough deficit reduction may be the only way that Ireland will escape recession. However, politics are often a “What have you done for me lately?” arena. Prime Minister Cowen, despite his promise that he will not cut public salaries further in Ireland’s next budget, is on the ropes after the haymaker of public opinion. Irish voters may have had enough.

Sources:

Wall Street Journal

New York Times

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Statue of St Patrick in Aghagower, County Mayo, Ireland. (From Wikimedia Commons)

Top of the morning to you — or maybe not, if it isn’t morning when you read this.  Today is March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, and I thought everyone could use a quick lesson on St. Patrick’s Day history.  St. Patrick was born sometime in the late 4th century CE, and died sometime, depending on the source, between 420 CE (Common Era; we history geeks use that notation, but it’s the same thing as AD) and 495 CE – long before electricity, internet loans, or penicillin – or hops in beer, for that matter.

He is acknowledged and revered as the Patron Saint of Ireland. March 17 has been celebrated for a long time, and is one of the most widely celebrated of all saints’ holidays.  There are some interesting historical tidbits about St. Patrick and St. Patrick’s Day, so let’s get down to business.

First, about Saint Patrick

Patrick (Padraig) was actually born in England, kidnapped by Irish raiders as a young man, and taken back to Ireland as a slave.  He was put to work as a shepherd, fled to Gaul (France), became a priest, went back to Britain and, while there, decided to set about converting the Irish. The hitch about primary sources (earliest writings of a culture) is you never know how accurate they are. So, the essence of St. Patrick is that he made a lot of early converts to Christianity in Ireland, including a lot of the nobility (there’s the rub!), and then there was that whole bit with the Shamrock and The Trinity. Dates of his death vary, and he was reportedly buried in Downpatrick, just outside of Belfast in County Down, a pilgrimage site to the present. I’m sticking to the short version here, so I apologize if my brevity is mistaken for irreverence.

St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day wasn’t actually celebrated until the 17th century at the earliest.  St. Patrick had long been the most important figure in Irish Christianity for centuries and was suggested for a holy day by Luke Wadding, a Franciscan priest born in Waterford. (Waterford, as you might guess, is in Ireland.)  It became a day of obligation for Irish Catholics during the season of Lent, as it typically would serve as a day of feasting, an obligated respite during a fast.

Green, as we’re all aware, is the color of Ireland, but the color associated with St. Patrick is actually blue. (There is, in fact, a shade known as St. Patrick’s blue, a slightly darker shade of Sky Blue.)  Wearing green was a display of Irish nationalism, and it started out as wearing a green ribbon or shamrock.  Irish expatriates would often don green clothing of some sort on St. Patrick’s Day, to commemorate the land of their birth that they had departed from.

But why is it so popular?

Well, the short answer is that the Irish emigrated to just about everywhere.  If you had to endure the conditions forced upon them by the English, you’d think about getting some payday loans if need be and getting on a boat to – well, anywhere – yourself.  Irish communities were common throughout North and South America, and all over the continent of Europe, and thus, with so many people of Irish heritage of some sort, many note the occasion of St. Patrick’s Day. Erin Go Bragh!