Though criminological literature has paid attention to the use of informers in ordinary law enforcement, there is a research gap regarding their usage in contexts of conflict and political violence. This article explores the social, political and security functions of IRA informers in the transition from conflict in Northern Ireland. Based on that experience, it develops four heuristic models regarding informers that the paper argues may be of direct relevance to other conflicted and

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... l societies. These are the informer as folk devil, the informer as rumour, the informer as political manipulator, and the informer as celebrity. All these themes demonstrate the long-term effects of the use of informers during the Northern Ireland conflict-an important finding given the increasing prevalence of the use of informers in a political context. 1 This article is part of a wider PhD research project examining the legacy of the use of informers against the IRA and the responses of republican communities to informing, both during the conflict and in the current transitional phase. For the purpose of this article, interviews were held with several key individuals, including republican ex-prisoners and persons active in republican community organizations, soliciting their current perceptions of informing and informers. Given the sensitivity of the topic, all interviews were held on condition of anonymity. 2 For example, compare Dunningham and Norris (1998) , dealing with recruitment and operation of informers in ordinary law enforcement, and Cohen and Dudai (2005) , covering similar questions in relation to informers in the context of political violence.