Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, has not played the same role in the Irish process, the leader of Batasuna, Arnaldo Otegi . Adams has shown greater predisposition to end IRA violence Otegi to end the ETA. Adams has shown to be a great partner, meeting with politicians of the extent of Clinton and Blair, while large Otegi meetings have been with the judges in the Audiencia Nacional.
The case of Northern Ireland has a historical component that Basque does not. And is that the territory of what is now Northern Ireland belonged to the Republic of Ireland before being colonized by the British crown, so the feeling of independence is a historical sense of justice. By contrast, the Basques have never been independent of Spain in more than five centuries history of our country, so that their claims are a gross historical review that make them at will.
Irish nationalism in religion plays an important role as Irish Republicans are deeply Catholic, politics and religion go hand in hand. While radical Basque nationalism is considered a Marxist, so that their religious faith is the atheist or agnostic. In Northern Ireland Catholics are divided Republicans and Protestant Unionists, but in Euskadi radical nationalists are atheists or agnostics and moderates if they are more conservative and Catholic, but both are independents.
The process in Northern Ireland has been a great depth in the global society, not only in Europe but even in the U.S., where politicians and global organizations have been involved in seeking a solution, ie there is a kind of recognition Irish claims. While the process has had nothing Basque that has been debated in the European Parliament the negotiations, but there is no official recognition of a possible independent state of Euskadi by the estates.
Regarding the similarities between the two terrorist groups, both the IRA and ETA are divided within their organizations. On the one hand the terrorists who advocate abandoning ultimate weapons after decades of attacks and prefer that the process is carried out through diplomatic channels. And those who distance themselves from these claims, preferring to continue the attack. In the IRA after the cease-fire declared in 1994, there was a division called the 'Real IRA' he continued with armed struggle where its peak was the Omagh bombing . For its part, the terrorist group ETA has questioned these two tracks from the 80's, and internal divisions have been patententes between the terrorists themselves. A clear example of this division was the formal conviction that historical and today hicieron'miembros ETA prisoners from the prisons, violence, and their subsequent exclusion from the group by leaders at the time of ETA.
