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AMID THE AFTERMATH of the Paris terror attacks, a report was released this week highlighting the impact of terrorism all across the globe.
The Global Terrorism Index revealed an increase of 80% in deaths from terrorism last year when compared to the previous year. This is the largest increase in the last 15 years.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been a nine-fold increase in the number of deaths from terrorism, rising from 3,329 in 2000 to 32,658.
Though the report pointed out terrorism remains highly concentrated in countries like Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria, it said it is spreading to more countries. The number of countries experiencing more than 500 deaths increased from just five to 11 on one year.
In the West, ‘lone wolf’ attacks account for 70% of all terrorist deaths since 2006. The majority of these incidents were attributed to a mixture of right wing extremists, nationalists, anti-government elements and other times of political extremism, rather than Islamic fundamentalism.
So where does Ireland stand in all of this?
In this latest index we ranked 48th in the world in terms of the impact of terrorism, well behind other European countries like the UK at 28th and France at 36th.
When it comes to fighters travelling to Iraq and Syria, Ireland ranks low on the list. The majority of foreign fighters from countries where Muslims are not in the majority travelling to join terror cells from Russia and France.
Previous research has already indicated 26 fighters have left Ireland to join Syrian rebels.
Terrorism-related deaths
Of the 37 deaths from terrorism in western countries last year, 18 were in the US.
According to the report, there were 30 attacks in Ireland, but no deaths were recorded in these attacks. The highest number of incidents was in the UK. However, none of these 102 attacks resulted in fatalities. The majority of these attacks occurred in Northern Ireland and involved the New IRA.
Northern Ireland has also influenced European statistics. The region had the lowest ratio of deaths per attack because of the 79 incidents in Northern Ireland which had no casualties last year.
In Europe around half of the attacks used explosives and 10% of attacks used firearms. Terrorist attacks became more deadly in 2014, even though 46% of attacks didn’t kill anyone, the lowest proportion since 2007.
“Possible but not likely”
The attacks in Paris have changed the climate somewhat and big changes and decisions are currently being made in European countries.
This week Taoiseach Enda Kenny said additional Irish troops may be needed in peacekeeping missions in Lebanon and Mali as France may decide to withdraw their presence.
He said an incident in Ireland is “possible, but not likely”. A Claire Byrne Live/Amárach Research poll this week found 91% of Irish people believe Ireland is not adequately prepared to defend against a terrorist attack.
An Garda Síochána, which is responsible for national security, said it is in close contact with security partners in Europe. Since the events, the force has conducted an intelligence assessment review and the threat level remains unchanged.
However, it said the level of threat will be kept under constant review and all appropriate measures will be taken to deal with any threats.
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We are lucky that when the uda/uvf parade around with the oo it’s is deemed culture and heritage on display and deserving of funding from taxpayers.
The uvf’s bad batch of ectasy that killed 12 people in the Belfast area recently won’t happen again due to stricter quality control,so everything is grand
Sweep sweep
Ask the department of defence Counterterrorism section whose minister Simon Coveney shares his brief keeping down those mad & dangerous lot IF (irish farmers) with his second brief Agriculture ….We just don’t take it seriously enough with resources & proper government attention given it’s a part time minister
That war on terror is going well . 3 Trillion Dollars Euros Pounds later.
Pretty sure more people die from peanut allergies each year than terrorism
Don’t say that out loud you will attract the islamaphobs
Fortunately the IRA are no longer offering terrorism training courses overseas, like they did in South America and North Korea. It wouldn’t look good in this climate.
How do you know they could be watching you right now .
Actually like hezbellah terrorist organisations in other countries are exactly what would prevent Isis coming in. That said Isis are never coming in and the ira are gone for good
that reminds me
the new Johnny Depp movie Black MAss
he plays that animal whitey bulger
will martin ferris have a cameo ?????????????
One is reminded of Brendan Behan’s comment that “the terrorist is the one with the small bomb”, over the same period how many hundred oft thousands have died in American led and perpetrated wars. If one were to add the millions that died from starvation, preventable diseases, lack of clean drinking water, no health care etc. terrorism becomes a very small global issue. Like gout, terrorism is the rich mans worry.
@ Charles Williams
“Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious” –Oscar Wilde
Table 3. above has 18 death from terrorism in the USA in 2014. Given on average 80 persons are shot dead in the USA every single day, amounting to an annual death count of 29,200, why was this form of terrorism ignored in your statistical analysis above. Was the figures of 29,200 not significant compared to 18 from political terrorism.
It is obvious that Ireland is very low risk from a terrorist perspective and the risk is very low of any Daesh sponsored attack on Ireland. We need to keep a sense of perspective about this.
That’s true. Our Muslim population is only about 1%. We probably wouldn’t be high up there on their list of desired targets. Radicalised lone wolfs living here are probably the greatest threat rather than a concerted effort by IS to strike us.
As well as this, we respect our Muslim communities, some of our European neighbors don’t. Ghettos and banning burkas that women are proud to wear is hardly respectful. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not into sharia law, but I believe that a national feeling of contempt towards a certain community can lead to problems.
That’s the spirit Stephen….the French and Belgians had the poor divils terrorised…..
Exactly Stephen. There is no excuse for terror but we can certainly make it less likely to happen if we have an inclusive society without segregation
I would suggest that’s it’s difficult for any immigrant group to assimilate into a new society. One thing that seems to help is limited numbers. When a country can’t accommodate large numbers the ghettos form. Immigrants also have to be willing to adapt to their new society. They don’t have to completely give up their culture but certain aspects need to be abandoned if they wish to live in the west when they are the antithesis of our principles. The burka is one such tradition that should not be tolerated as it represents the worst form of sexism. How anyone claiming to be liberal can defend it is beyond me. You’d have to question why any immigrant would go to a country and not be willing to adapt to the local way of life. Telling such immigrants they’re not welcome seems perfectly reasonable to me.
ISIS hate America for obvious reasons and they hate France (who joined in)
they could care less about us
Yeah, they’d feicin freeze to death instead
Steve, absolutely NO to anyone covering their face, if that’s what they want then let them go back to where the came from. When in Rome !!
Where ever others tell us to stand?
have your say