Although Milton’s relationship with Ireland will not be as active after 1653 as it had been in the previous fifteen years, Ireland does not entirely disappear from Milton’s work. Ireland is implied in “On the Late Massacre in Piedmont” and in Paradise Lost (1667, 1674). Ireland also appears occasionally in Milton’s The History of Britain. Milton’s personal connections to Ireland grow after the Cromwellian conquest. More importantly, though, Milton has been a persistent presence in Ireland – not only as a literary figure, but also as a republican political theorist: He is cited by Irish Republicans in the eighteenth and twentienth centuries, and by Irish authors including W. B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, John McGahern, Eimear McBride, and more. At the same time, Milton’s insights into pre-Cromwellian Ireland represent a hidden potential for today’s post-Brexit Ireland.

Against the backdrop of Brexit and a growing demand for Irish unity, dissident republican organizations have garnered much (negative) media attention in the wake of a spate of recent bombings and attacks, most notably, the killing of innocent journalist Lyra McKee in April 2019. Employing analytical frameworks from the field of Critical Discourse Studies, this chapter investigates the discursive legitimation and representation strategies employed by dissident republican organizations in their press statements released around the time of the killing. Through its analysis, the chapter aims to demonstrate how an investigation of discourse strategies, topics, and micro-linguistic features can provide insights into the framing and justification of (a continuation or resumption of) conflict in a society predicated on a hard-earned peace.

The narrative around contemporary terrorism and political violence has emphasise its transnational character. There has been a tendency to see this dimension of terrorism as something novel, rendering contemporary terrorist threats as more dangerous than those experienced in the past. The idea of globally networked violent actors is frightening, and understandably excites public anxiety. Yet the overwhelming majority of terrorism has tended to be not only domestic, but local, conducted by individuals in the country where they normally reside, usually striking at targets close to their home. Transnational connections do exist, of course, but rather than being the defining feature of some ‘new’ terrorism, they have been a feature of violent political movements since long before 11 September 2001. Indeed, they arguably date back to the emergence of terrorism itself as some phenomenon discernable from other forms of violent contestation. This chapter has two aims. It will assess the importance of transnational links to radical and violent non-state actors for Irish Republicanism. Further, through an analysis of the Irish case study, it aims to contribute to our understanding of such transnational links more generally.