the execution and its message The executions abounded in ceremony, and those who watched executions, and the general public, added their own interpretations to both the event and all its ceremonies. In those interpretations the theme of martyrdom was often pronounced. The significance of the active role of the individual in the martyrdom delivered a fuller meaning to the changes to the rituals of the executions, reducing the role of the executed to solely an object of the actions of others.426 An afterword to the theme of martyrdom can be found in a debate that led to the abolition of capital punishment in Ireland in 1990. An argument heard was that some groups cared so little for human life that if their members were to be executed it would be welcomed, because their martyrdom would be politically useful.427 1948 p 168 sqq, Linebaugh 1975 p 730 sqq, Rawlings 1988 p 409 sqq, Motraye 1723 p 360 sq, Knauth 1825a p 33, Kristiansson 1953 p 401, Troschel 1790 p 5, West 1852 p 210. 426 See Boyarin 1999 p 95. 427 Miller 2016 p 106. 121
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