Effect of The Tactic
The 'human proxy bombings' of October 1990 caused widespread outrage even among some IRA supporters, who claimed it irreparably damaged the republican movement. According to journalist and author Ed Moloney, "as an operation calculated to undermine the IRA's armed struggle, alienate even its most loyal supporters and damage Sinn Féin politically, it had no equal."
Moloney has suggested that the tactic may have been calculated to weaken the position of alleged "hawks" in republicanism—those who favoured armed action over electoral politics. At the same time Moloney argues that the widespread public revulsion would have strengthened the position of those in the IRA such as Gerry Adams who were considering how republicanism could abandon violence and focus on electoral politics. Peter Taylor wrote of the proxy bombs that, by such actions and the revulsion they caused in the community, the IRA inadvertently strengthened the hand of those within the republican movement who argued that an alternative to armed struggle had to be found.
Read more about this topic: Proxy Bomb
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