The Volunteer

Posted on 07. Jun, 2018, in Community, Conflict, Places of ConflictComments Off on The Volunteer

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As the threat of terrorist attacks increase across Europe, we look at this piece on Ireland’s own history with terrorism and understanding the mentality of someone who signs up to a terrorist organisation.

Shane O’Doherty joined the IRA at 15 years of age and was very quickly graduated from minor acts of insurgence to running a campaign of letter bombs in London. Here he gives his account of what it was like to be a IRA volunteer, explaining to Pat Coyle that he was usually too busy running from the law to have any real concern for the rights and wrongs of what he was doing. As far as he was concerned, his goal was to kill and do as much destruction to British soldier before they captured or killed him. He explains to Pat how his early experience of violence from soldiers led him to initially volunteer for the provisional IRA.