Researching Proscribed Armed Groups: Interviewing Loyalist and Republican Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland

This chapter will describe the use of biographical-narrative methods, interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) and thematic analysis to delve into the Northern Irish conflict. The chapter is in two main sections. I begin with a brief discussion of social science research into the Northern Irish conflict and engagement in political violence, before describing our research. This discussion of our research describes the stages involved, but instead of focusing on the methodology per se I illustrate how the data was employed to build up an understanding of the phenomenon of participation with armed groups in Northern Ireland, focusing on the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Red Hand Commando (RHC). Following this discussion, the research methodology and methods used in these studies of politically motivated violence are described. Finally, I’ll reflect on experiences researching in a post-conflict environment with people who have engaged in violence or been victimized by political violence. The theoretical approaches taken in this chapter is taken from social and political psychology