Republican Paramilitaries and the Peace Process

Abstract

The ending of the Provisional IRA’s armed campaign and its replacement by the electoral rise of Sinn Féin were the defining features of the peace process in Northern Ireland. The process witnessed the demise of the IRA, the decommissioning of its weaponry and the evolution of Sinn Féin into the solitary representative of republicanism, at the expense of that movement’s militaristic tendencies. Sinn Féin’s electoral strength was sufficient to yield places in the Northern Ireland governing executive from 1999 onwards. Since the beginning of this century, the party has become the majority choice of the Catholic population and the second largest party overall in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin is also the only significant all-Ireland party attracting modest support in the Irish Republic.