The ‘Deserving’ Victims of Political Violence: ‘Punishment’ Attacks in Northern Ireland

Abstract

The plight of the victims of political violence in Northern Ireland and the enduring suffering of their families has recently assumed much greater public prominence. Some see this new-found concern by government for victims as no more than a necessary part of the political and public relations management of the prisoners’ early release programme within which victims were mere pawns in the wider unstoppable agenda for a peace deal. Preconceived notions of perpetrators and victims have been politically contested in ways which suggest there are those who are ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving’ of victimhood status. This paper considers one category of victim, those subject to paramilitary ‘punishment’ beatings and shootings, and argues that they have become expendable and legitimate targets for violence in Northern Ireland. They are expendable in the sense that any attempt to deal with the problem in a serious way would have widespread political ramifications for parties currently in devolved government. They are legitimate in that victims’ culpability derives from the communities within which they live and their ‘punishment’ is meted out by paramilitaries acting on the communities’ behalf.