s, are terrorists in general. (So, too, are their extremist Protestant counterparts.)
That political violence in Ulster is predominantly terrorist in nature is demonstrated by the nature of the death toll there. Between 1969 and 1982, no fewer than 71 percent of those killed in the "troubles" were civilians.7 One consequence of our definition of terrorism is that the victims whose deaths or maimings can be most clearly defined as due to terrorist action are likely to be unknown and uncelebrated. When the IRA Provos attempted to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, it could at least be argued that she was their prime political enemy. Even Lord Mountbatten, blown up in his boat by the Provos, was a member (though retired) of the British power structure. The innocents who are blown up in a bar, or gunned down at their front doorstep, make no headlines, and we quickly forget or never learn their names.
Nowhere, not even perhaps in the Middle East, does present day terrorism have such deep roots in the past as i
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