Violence

This module explores the use of physical force by the various parties to the conflict in their own words and through the perspectives of their victims.

The film resource material in this module is divided into four strands which look respectively at:

• Violent Conflict: Perspectives that illustrate the dehumanising effect of violent conflict.
• State Violence: Perspectives on state violence from its victims and former combatants of the conflict.
• Republican Violence: Perspectives on republican violence from its victims and former combatants of the conflict.
• Loyalist Violence: Perspectives on loyalist violence from its victims and former combatants of the conflict.

The strands have been constructed to ground the exploration in the reality of violent conflict. Each strand is introduced by a piece of film which dramatises violence. Strand 1 begins with an overview of incidents involving the use of violence by all sides while illustrating its dehumanising effects. In the subsequent strands the first testimony to follow the dramatisation is always that of a victim of that violence speaking about it. This in turn is followed by the testimony of an advocate of that violence. Other testimonies of victims and former combatants follow to challenge or support the violence and each strand concludes with a clip which, for the given perspective, represents tangible evidence of the validity of their case for their use of physical force.