The Social Ecology of Illicit Protection: A History of the Drug Trade in Northern Ireland

This thesis studies the evolution of illicit drug markets in Northern Ireland. The analysis spans roughly four decades, exploring how conflict, ceasefires, and relative peace have shaped demand and supply. This study deconstructs paradoxical assumptions that underpin rhetoric surrounding the role of paramilitary organisations in the drug trade: primarily the widespread belief that organisations successfully curtailed demand for, and supply of, illicit drugs in order to protect citizens; and then subsequently played a central role in the rapid growth of markets including facilitating large scale trafficking. The analysis illustrates that informal control of drugs is tied to wider social mechanisms and processes that organisations experience alongside the communities that they form part of; and that early growth of drug markets is largely attributable to actors who are unaffiliated with such organisations and who do not experience the constraints that membership brings. Moreover, this study shows that the market for protection surrounding illicit drug supply has changed considerably over time; and that the paradoxes inherent in public discourse are largely based on confusion between the supply of protection and functional roles in the drug trade. This study demonstrates that the norms and rules that underwrite drug markets can evolve and change, creating opportunities for new and existing actors. Ultimately, the analysis situates drug markets in Northern Ireland within the context of the social forces that underpin informal control of people and place, which provides a more nuanced understanding of the demand for, and supply of, illicit protection beyond the obvious consequences of prohibition and the role of state