General

‘The desire to hate and kill’

Columnist takes aim at motivation for violence in Northern Ireland

In this biting commentary about the resurgence of deadly violence in Northern Ireland, London Times columnist David Aaronovitch takes aim at the motivation of the Irish Republican Army dissident groups, arguing that “the desire to hate and kill” came before the grievance. Rather than being born out of real social or political conditions, Aaronovitch maintains that the aim of this new wave of terrorism is to “return us to the Seventies, the golden time of death and certainty.” The killings of British security forces—the pair of attacks left one police officer and two soldiers dead, and four others wounded—are the first in Northern Ireland since the province’s peace deal was inked in 1998. Last weekend’s attack on Massereene Barracks occurred just months before the place was due to close—evidence, says Aaronovitch, that, “the shooting wasn’t designed to get rid of the British Army; it was designed to bring it back.”

London Times

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