IRA+Primary+Source

 **1. ARREST**

Most volunteers are arrested on or as a result of a military operation. This causes an initial shock resulting in tension and anxiety. All volunteers feel that they have failed, resulting in a deep sense of disappointment. The police are aware of this feeling of disappointment and act upon this weakness by insults such as "you did not do very well: you are only an amateur: you are only second-class or worse". While being arrested the police use heavy-handed `shock` tactics in order to frighten the prisoner and break down his resistance. The prisoner is usually dragged along the road to the waiting police wagon, flung into it, followed by the arresting personnel, e.g., police or Army. On the journey to the detention centre the prisoner is kicked, punched and the insults start. On arrival he is dragged from the police wagon through a gauntlet of kicks, punches and insults and flung into a cell.


 * What A Volunteer Should Do When Arrested**

1. The most important thing to bear in mind when arrested is that you are a volunteer of a revolutionary Army, that you have been captured by an enemy force, that your cause is a just one, that you are right and that the enemy is wrong and that as a soldier you have taken the chance expected of a soldier and that there is nothing to be ashamed of in being captured. 2. You must bear in mind that the treatment meted out to you is designed to break you and so bleed you of all the information you may have with regard to the organisation to which you belong. 3. They will attempt to intimidate you by sheer numbers and by brutality. Volunteers who may feel disappointed are entering the first dangerous threshold because the police will act upon this disappointment to the detriment of the volunteer and to the furtherment of their own ends. Volunteers must condition themselves that they can be arrested and if and when arrested they should expect the worse and be prepared for it. - An excerpt from __The Green Book__ (IRA handbook)


 * Analysis**

By reading the above excerpt from The Green Book, a handbook given to new IRA and PIRA recruits, it is clear about the dangerous nature of being involved in the terrorist organization. The handbook even tells the IRA volunteers what kinds of tactics the police use to extract information about the IRA, and how to resist them. Note that the handbook states that the volunteer has a just cause, and the enemy force that has captured you is wrong, and that there is nothing to be ashamed of when arrested. Basically, the handbook is stating that the IRA’s beliefs and methods are justified, and that any interference is unjustified, and wrong. This shows their enthusiasm about unification of Ireland, as they even go as far as to justify violence and death for their causes.