Senior Spotlight: Interview with a Northern Ireland Terrorist

Who knew academic research could be so thrilling? Sarah Hollman sure did.

Upon receiving a university grant to perform her research this past summer in Northern Ireland, Sarah Hollman investigated numerous violent conflicts in the late 20th century by interviewing twenty-four individuals; three of them current legislators and government officials, one of them—a terrorist.

 

However, when asked why she chose Northern Ireland to study, Hollman, a political science major with triple minors in gender studies, Africana studies, and anthropology, said “it was the safest country in crisis for a 20-year-old woman to be.”

 

It also provided opportunity for Hollman to use all her fields of study, given its complex history. Hollman has dedicated over a year to researching how a system of ethnic power sharing, or “consociationalism,” has influenced different groups of people. Given the historical context of Northern Ireland, her expertise was valued.

 

Northern Ireland suffered from many conflicts in the 1900s such as, religious discrimination, police brutality, and civil war. In 1998, a peace treaty was established to diffuse many ethnic tensions, but in reality it carried with it many difficulties. Essentially, the center political parties controlling the government were taken over by two fringe parties. Though it became critical for the government’s center to maintain power, the fringe party leaders were able to rise to power because of the interests they represented. Whether or not the fringe parties operate on ideologically extreme ideal or if they act as ethnic tribune parties. Simply put by Hollman, “the weapon of choice for ethnic actors has moved from the bomb to the ballot.”

 

The goal of Hollman’s interviews was to collect a portfolio of first person accounts of the crisis and peace agreements during the 1970-80s. Although the crisis in Northern Ireland is not actively violent, the unemployment rate is rising significantly and the outbreak of another political crisis is becoming more and more possible.