Why do young people join the IRA?

2005 has so far proven to be an annus horribilis, a dreadful year, for the republican movement.

This week it got worse with the jailing for four years of five Dublin men after they were found guilty of IRA membership.

The five were arrested in Bray, County Wicklow, in October 2002 after they were seen acting suspiciously by an off-duty detective.

At the scene and in the homes of two of the five, Irish police officers found a stun gun, a CS canister, balaclavas, fake police uniforms and Sinn Fein election posters.

For many, this was yet another link between Sinn Fein and the IRA.

But what others found interesting were the ages of those jailed.

One was in his 40s, two were in their 30s and two in their 20s.

The two in their 20s were 13 and 14 at the time of the 1994 IRA cessation.

United Ireland aim

So why do young Dubliners, 100 miles from the border, join a paramilitary group on ceasefire that is linked in the minds of many with criminality?

In the past, young southerners joined the IRA because they were idealistic and wanted to see Irish unity and an end to the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.

But, given the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and republican acceptance of the principle of consent means that there can be no change to Northern Ireland's position as part of the United Kingdom unless a majority votes otherwise, can that still be a reason?

Tommy Graham, the editor of the History Ireland magazine, believes young people are still becoming IRA members because they want to see a united Ireland.

"There may be a peace process and a Good Friday Agreement, but possibly some of them think that joining the IRA is still part of that process," he says.

That view is shared by Sinn Fein's Sean Crowe, a member of the Irish parliament.

The TD says that many young people are impatient for Irish unity and want to see it in their lifetime rather in their grandchildren's.

But he is opposed to them joining the IRA.

"I myself wouldn't encourage young people to join. I think the way forward is clearly through politics.

"I suppose there's a responsibility on (me) as a Sinn Fein leader in this city that I want to see politics work - and that's what we're about."

While most politicians will welcome those remarks, government and other opposition parties still believe Sinn Fein and the IRA are, to use Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's phrase, "two sides of the one coin".

And these guilty verdicts show that, despite Sean Crowe's hopes, young people are still joining the IRA even though the price of that membership can be a jail term if brought before the courts.

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