Nationalist Violence and Terrorism: the Cases of Northern Ireland and Wales Compared

Abstract

This thesis examines the relationship between nationalism and violence, asking the question: why are some stateless nationalist movements largely nonviolent while others produce violence and terrorism against a state or other ethnonational groups in pursuit of their goals? To answer this, I compare the cases of Northern Ireland and Wales in the 1960s-1980s, when both countries experienced waves of nationalist violence but with Northern Ireland’s violence far surpassing that of Wales in its intensity, frequency and casualties produced and with Welsh nationalist violence finding little support from the broader population. I first examine the development of nationalist identity in each country and then utilize Jeffrey Ross’s model of structural causes of terrorism to compare the violence in each case. I find that several structural factors including strength of nationalist identity were present to a far greater degree in Northern Ireland than in Wales.