More than 3,500 people were killed in the 30 years of the Northern Ireland Troubles compared with 2,996 people killed in a few hours on 9/11. We have contributed through our research to EU-wide efforts to prevent political radicalisation among young people through the testimonies of former terrorists and victims of terrorism.

Our most recent research suggests that terrorism ought to be understood as a tool and terrorists as users of this tool. Professor Anna Bull’s work on terrorism in Italy , where terrorist means were used by extreme-right as well as extreme left groups, resulting in around 500 deaths from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, is going to inform the EU’s Radicalisation Awareness Network, particularly in the works of its working group Voices of Victims of Terrorism (RAN-VVT).

Professor Anna Bull was directly involved in a recent meeting in Rome where the active roles of the victims of terrorism in helping to prevent youth radicalisation was discussed.

Impact case study

This research was submitted to the Research Excellence Framework 2014.