The «War on Terror»: lessons from Ireland

Marx made many comments about history. But one particular comment is important when reflecting upon the current war on terror. He pointed out that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and second as farce. This is an apt description for the current racketing-up of the anti-terror legislation by the United Kingdom parliament. It conveniently ignores the 105 odd «Acts of Coercion» in Ireland in the nineteenth century, which did little to quell the dissent and led eventually to the granting of independence. It tragically ignores the Special Powers Act, the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Acts and the Prevention of Terrorism Acts of the twentieth century. Most of these anti-terrorist measures were counterproductive. Many of the actions taken simply served to increase the levels of violence and alienation and prolonged the conflict before a political settlement rather than a military defeat could be obtained. Now history repeats itself as farce.

The new proposed terror laws will include outlawing ‘glorification’ of terrorism, an offence of acts preparatory to terrorism, laws against giving or receiving terror training, a law against the indirect incitement of terrorism, laws against bookshops selling extremist material, the reintroduction of internment in the guise of detention with suspects able to be held for up to three months, and the requirement that those applying for British citizenship must be of good character. Many of these proposals have been tried before in some form in Ireland. The aim of this short paper is to comment on some of the more important measures.

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The War on Terror lessons from reland

Source : European Civil Liberties Network