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A lecturer at the British Army military training academy in Sandhurst has claimed the ‘glorification of terrorism’ helps dissident republican groups recruit in areas like Derry.

Dr. Aaron Edwards said: “If you look at certain areas, particularly Derry/Londonderry, it fires up the recruitment drive within dissident republic organisations.

"Republicanism has a history of splitting, much more so than loyalist paramilitary groups. How that is used in a ritualistic sense does feed recruitment, and we need to be very mindful of that.

"As I have said, that is perhaps not the intent for some, but certainly for dissident republican groups it is the intent. They would use ritualistic practices and commemorative occasions to replenish the ranks.”

A lecturer at the British Army military training academy in Sandhurst has claimed the ‘glorification of terrorism’ helps dissident republican groups recruit in areas like Derry.

Dr. Edwards made the remarks during a briefing of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, in response to DUP MP Carla Lockhart who asked him for his thoughts on the ‘glorification of terrorism and the impact of that, particularly from a republican perspective’.

The author of ‘UVF: Behind the Mask,’ ‘Agents of Influence: Britain’s Secret Intelligence War Against the IRA’ and ‘A People Under Siege: The Unionists of Northern Ireland, from Partition to Brexit and Beyond’ is Senior Lecturer in Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

He said he was addressing NIAC’s inquiry into paramilitarism and organised crime in a personal capacity.

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Dr. Edwards was asked about the United Nations (UN) Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) approach to peace-building where members of armed forces and groups are supported to lay down their weapons and transition to civilian life.

The academic said he remembers being involved in a project where republicans and loyalists from Derry and Belfast travelled to the Middle East on a fact-finding mission.

“When I first looked at UN best practice, I led a community-based project where we took people from republican and loyalist communities in Belfast and Derry/Londonderry out to the Middle East to learn from others from around the world.

"DDR meant something very specific: an amnesty on weapons, handing in weapons, demobilising the troops and giving them some kind of paid employment, or integrating them into the local economy.

“We have now moved on. We have second-generation DDR, where it is looked at more comprehensively as a strategy that ties us into an overarching political process,” he stated.

‘Glorification of terror’ helps dissident republicans recruit in Derry, Sandhurst lecturer tells NIAC

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