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In Northern Ireland, the 1998 peacetreaty marks the beginning of a sort of“normalization”. In this armed post-conflictsituation, violence linked to clashes betweenparamilitaries and British security forceshas dramatically decreased. However, smallparamilitary republican groups are opposedto the peace treaty and still consider thearmed struggle as a legitimate means forachieving Irish unification. They use theviolence as a strategy of anti-normalizationand community space control, which allowthem to strengthen their fight against Britishforces. However, their influence remainslow, partly because of Sinn Fein’s existence.Indeed, the political wing of the IRA comesfrom the same political and socio economicbackground than these paramilitary republican groups but has made the choice to abandon the armed struggle. Henceforth the partyonly seeks the reunification by democraticmeans and the gradual seizure of power inNorthern Ireland and Republic of Ireland,thanks to its electoral successes built by theinvolvement of Sinn Fein activists in localcommunities.