The Differences in Talk about Violence and Terrorism: A Case Study of Northern Ireland and the Basque Country

Author

McClellan Davis, University of MississippiFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-9-2020

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Croft Institute for International Studies

First Advisor

Ana Velitchkova

Second Advisor

William Schenck

Third Advisor

Yael Zeira

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

The Northern Irish and Basque conflicts have been studied throughout the years, as both serve as examples of conflicts involving ethnonationalist terrorist groups and successful disarmaments. While there are similarities, there are also distinctions between the two conflicts. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) both fought for independence from a larger government, inflicted horrific pain on populations where they considered themselves members, but ultimately both ended without accomplishing their goal of separatism. This thesis seeks to understand the differences within these conflicts and their subsequent peace processes/disarmaments, which I believe contribute to the differences in ‘talk’ about each conflict. I conducted qualitative research using a newspaper source from each country, The Belfast Telegraph for Northern Ireland and El Diario Vasco for the Basque Country. Throughout my research, I found that the main actors in each case are drastically different. For the Northern Irish case, political actors monopolized newspaper articles with talk of The Good Friday Agreement, which is the 1997 peace agreement that still exists today between the government and the IRA. While there was no similar peace process in the Basque case, societal groups representing victims prevailed in the Basque newspaper articles, making victims and their families the center of Basque talk.

Recommended Citation

Davis, McClellan, "The Differences in Talk about Violence and Terrorism: A Case Study of Northern Ireland and the Basque Country" (2020). Honors Theses. 1390.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1390

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