testants already had, the conflict would decrease or end completely. The unionists (police, government officials, even civilians) now became the victims, as they were targeted in the IRA’s attacks. On the other side, while many nonviolent nationalists were being unfairly interned, they were rarely killed. One IRA bombing in March 1972 killed two young women and injured seventy others. A senior doctor remembers how young the victims were, how they weren’t paratroopers or government officials. In a newspaper report, the horrors were described, noting how one of the girls “planned to marry” (McKittrick and McVea 2002, 78). The violence against the nationalist community on Bloody Sunday garnered support, but the violent attacks in response to the injustices from that event and many others made IRA seem more like terrorists. Freedom fighters wouldn’t be targeting and killing young women preparing to get married. To many, it seemed as if the IRA was killing without reason, as the conflict reported more civilian casualties than soldier. During these years, the IRA was in no way political. Their one goal was to make Northern Ireland ungovernable and illicit many casualties in hopes that Britain would give up and conclude that the province was no longer worth it (Neumann 2005,). In their minds, violence was more effective in letting their voices be heard; once that happened, politics would be a useful tool in negotiating withdrawal from the United Kingdom (Neumann 2005,). However, this line of thought was no longer working in the late 1970s. Instead of listening to the IRA’s “demands” (which were made through acts of violence), anti-terrorism measures were put into place. The collective victimhood of the republicans was not enough to erase the IRA’s terrorist image, even if some believed that their actions were “justified.” Margaret Thatcher, for example, stated that “the IRA are the core of the terrorist problem” (Matchett 2015, 11), and declared that these crimes were not political in nature. In order for there to be progress for the militant nationalists, methods would have to change.