Radicalisation is a cancer in our society

JUST as one man’s meat is another man’s poison, one man’s radicalisation is another man’s awakening; one man’s conversion is another man’s apostasy.

Like anything, and especially great change based on evolving personal beliefs, radicalisation is a subjective process. Nevertheless, from zeitgeist’s perspective, saying someone has been radicalised means they have crossed a line, taken a step too far, that they may have been exploited and may have become a threat to society.

Many of us — but not all of us — would challenge the suggestion that last year’s 1916 centenary celebrations were an exercise in radicalisation. Despite that, historians are coming to the view that the 50th-anniversary celebrations of 1916 were one of the many reasons that made the Troubles in the North almost inevitable. Those long-ago 1966 celebrations, held in a far more insular, toe-the-line Ireland, are now seen by some as a renewing event for violent nationalism.