IRA

IRA (Irish Republican Army) The origins of the IRA are to be found in the Irish Republican Brotherhood (popularly known as the Fenians), founded in Dublin and New York in 1858, but it is currently known as a terrorist organization which campaigns for the ending of the union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the establishment of a united Ireland. Fenian risings were repressed in 1867, but the Brotherhood took part in the Easter Rising of 1916. In 1919, it was recognized by Sinn Féin as the army of the Irish Republic, with recruits from the Irish Volunteers, to fight in the War of Independence. It was first commanded by Michael Collins, with Sean McBride as Chief of Staff. After the signing of the December 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty (which gave southern Ireland – the Irish Free State – virtual independence), the IRA split. Members fought on both sides during the Irish Civil War (1922–3), and were also active through terrorist acts in Britain. Many members who fought against the Free State were imprisoned, and the IRA was outlawed by the Irish government in two stages in 1931 and 1936. It was involved in bomb explosions in England in 1939, but during World War II hundreds of its members were interned without trial in Ireland and in the UK. It launched a new campaign against the security forces in Northern Ireland in 1956, but by 1962 it appeared to have been defeated.

When Northern Ireland was plunged into disorder in 1968, the IRA once again rose to prominence. Initially it tried to protect Catholic homes from Loyalist attacks, though with so little success that the British army was called in. The IRA vigorously debated how it should respond to the campaign for civil rights, and in December 1969, the IRA Army Council voted to grant token recognition to the Stormont, Dublin, and London Parliaments. This angered hardliners in the IRA, who had advocated abstention from established institutions, and the use of physical force. This soon resulted in the Provisional IRA leaving the movement. It is this group that is now known as the IRA, also often called the ‘Provos’. The remaining Official IRA called a cease-fire in 1972, and has been effectively inactive since. The Provisional IRA, however, embarked upon a terrorist campaign against the security forces, which continued, but for a brief period in 1972, until its cease-fire in 1994. This consisted of hunger-strikes, assassinations, and bombings in both Northern Ireland and Britain, including the assassination of Mountbatten, and an attack on the British Cabinet in Brighton in 1984.

In what may have been a further split within its ranks, part of the Provisional IRA resumed its terrorist campaign on 9 February 1996, though the majority of the IRA kept a ceasefire from the Good Friday Agreement. The IRA continued to be reluctant to give up its arms, and moved many of its operations overseas. According to a CIA report published in 2002 during the War on Terrorism, the IRA was an integral part of a worldwide terrorist network with links to Colombia, Cuba, and the Arabian peninsula.