Following on from the thread on Mafia membership, how is membership of an illegal organisation defined?
Its something I’ve heard a lot of, coming from Northern Ireland, there are all sorts of illegal and once-illegal organisations one could belong to. But how is one defined as a member? The Provisional IRA were helped by many ordinary people, banging bin lids on the ground to warn of approacing Army patrols for example. Is it a case of how many times you’re mentioned on documents held by the organisation? Or just how much you do for certain people on demand?
As an aside, in the 1970s my father was stopped at an Army checkpoint on the British-Irish border, brought in for interrogation and asked if he had membership of an illegal organisation. Simply answering no, he was immediately released and went on his way. He loves retelling the tale, not mentioning that a police officer recognised him and phoned his manager to vouch for him so that by the time it got to asking that one question, he was free to go 