rrorist groups are the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) of the Middle East, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) of Northern Ireland, and the Euzkadi to Azkazatuna (ETA, meaning Basque Homeland and Liberty) of the Basque provinces of Spain (Dobson & Payne, 1987, p. 296). All three are based on the desires of a particular ethnic group to have their own autonomous state. The PLO and the IRA also have strong religious elements (Muslims vs. Jews and Christians and Catholics vs. Protestants), but the ETA is just as Catholic as the rest of Spain.
All three can and do point to past injustices they have suffered as justification for their actions, and they believe implicitly that the ends justify the means. Similarly, each is part of a larger more mainstream political organization. The IRA is affiliated with the Sinn Fein (Ourselves Alone) and the ETA's political party is the Herri Batasuna (One People). Since the Palestinians have no actual state or government, the PLO doesn't have a political party per se, but it does engage in many political and propagandistic activities and utilizes mass support for demonstrations. Ethnic terrorist groups in general tend to have broader support and last longer than internal terrorist groups (of the left or right) which have no outside enemy to target (Lacquer, 1987, p. 168).
The struggle for Irish independence has been going on for centuries. It was almost resolved in 1921 when the Free State was established, but some Irish nationalists believed the fight must continue until all six counties of Northern Ireland were reunited with the South. From the medieval warrior clans of Ulster, the faction fighters of the 19th century, and the troubles of 1919-1922, to the terrorism just before World War II and from the 1960s to the present, Ulster has had a long and bloody history of violence. This long-standing tradition of war and aggression is one of the factors which is highly correlated with ...