Spoiling through performative nonviolence: ritualistic funerary practice as a Violent Dissident Irish Republican (VDR) spoiling tactic

This article assesses how Violent Dissident Irish Republican (VDR) groups have turned to funerary practice as a spoiling tactic in post-Good Friday Agreement (GFA) Northern Ireland. In doing so it moves the lens of interrogation away from the residual violence exercised by these groups and onto other nonviolent mechanisms and strategies. Locating this discussion within the wider study of the VDR phenomenon, the article asserts that militarised and ritualised funerals possess propagandistic and mobilisational benefits that make them particularly conducive to spoiling activity in a post-conflict site that is increasingly embracing the process of normalisation.