Irish Republican Army

synonyms: Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), Provos, Óglaigh Na hÉireann, Direct Action Against Drugs (DAAD) The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was the main Republican paramilitary group which was involved in the Northern Ireland conflict. The central aim of the IRA was to end British control of Northern Ireland and to achieve the reunification of the island of Ireland. The 'Irish Republican Army' dates from the meeting of the first Dáil on 21 January 1919 and was the name that was adopted by the Irish Volunteers who had taken part in the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. Following independence in the south of Ireland the IRA re-emerged at various times to conduct campaigns to try to end British rule in Northern Ireland. Following the failed 'Border Campaign' (1956-1962) there were attempts to move the IRA towards more political agitation rather than military operations. The Provisional IRA was established when the IRA split in December 1969 between the 'Officials' and the 'Provisionals'. Both groupings had a military wing, the 'Official' and the 'Provisional' IRA, and both had a political wing, 'Official' and 'Provisional' Sinn Féin (SF). The 'Official' IRA declared a ceasefire in the summer of 1972 and from then on the term IRA was used for the organisation that had developed from the 'Provisional' IRA. From a splinter group of a small and badly equipped paramilitary organisation, the 'Provisional' IRA developed into a comparatively large, well-financed, well-equipped guerrilla organisation which was involved in, what it called, an 'armed campaign' for almost three decades. This campaign involved violent attacks on security, political, economic and social targets in the region. According to Sutton (2001) the IRA was responsible for the deaths of 1,824 people between July 1969 and December 2001. During the same period the IRA lost approximately 275 members. As part of the 'Peace Process' the IRA called a ceasefire on 31 August 1994. However, because of what it considered a lack of political movement in the peace process the IRA resumed its 'armed campaign' on 9 February 1996. After the election of a Labour government to Westminster, a number of developments led to the resumption of the IRA ceasefire on 20 July 1997. The IRA considered that the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) "document clearly falls short of presenting a solid basis for a lasting settlement" (IRA statement 30 April 1998) however the IRA did not reject the Agreement. In the years after the GFA the IRA made it clear that its ceasefire remained in place although it was alleged by critics that the organisation was, at the time, involved in paramilitary activity of various kinds. This is something the Republican Movement always denied and on numerous occasions the IRA repeated that the ceasefire called in July 1997 remained intact. At various points during the Peace Process members of the IRA, who disagreed with the political direction taken by Sinn Féin, left the IRA. However, one of the most significant splits in the organisation occurred in November 1997 when many members left to form the 'real' Irish Republican Army (rIRA). For a period after the GFA the IRA refused to decommission its weapons; an act which it considered to be a surrender to the British government. However, on 23 October 2001 the IRA announced that it had begun a process to put its arms beyond use. This was then repeated on two further occasions on 8 April 2002 and 21 October 2003. On Thursday 28 July 2005 the leadership of the IRA issued a statement which formally ordered an end to its armed campaign and instructed all IRA units to 'dump arms'. On Monday 26 September 2005 it was announced by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) that the IRA had completed the decommissioning of all of its arms. Membership: It is thought that membership of the IRA peaked at around 1,500 in the mid-1970s and it is believed that at the time of the 1994 ceasefire membership was approximately 500 with a smaller number being 'active' members. The reduced membership coincided with the adoption by the IRA in 1979 of a 'cell structure' in an attempt to counter security force penetration through the use of informers. In addition to members in Ireland the IRA also had one or two 'active service units' in Britain and mainland Europe. Arsenal: After its formation the (Provisional) IRA quickly became the most heavily, and best, armed of the various paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. At its peak the IRA may have had: 600 AK-47 / AKM assault rifles (believed to be Czech and Romanian versions of the AK-47 rifle smuggled from Libya between 1984 and 1987); 60 Armalite AR-15 assault rifles; 12 7.62mm FN MAG medium machine guns; 20 12.7mmx107mm DShK heavy machine guns; 2 to 3 SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles; 40 RPG-7 rocket launchers; 40 Webley .455 revolvers; 6 LPO-50 flame throwers; 600 Assorted detonators; 3 tonnes of Semtex (commercial high explosive.) The IRA has always made use of 'home-made' weapons. These weapons became more sophisticated and more powerful over the years and included home-made mortars and fertiliser-based car and lorry bombs. Often these bombs contained hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of pounds of home-made explosives. Several large home-made bombs were used in the centre of London and Manchester causing hundreds of millions of pounds of damage. Reading: Bell, J. Bowyer. (1999). The Secret Army: The IRA (updated edition). Dublin: Poolbeg. Coogan, Tim. Pat. (1993). The IRA. London: Harper Collins. English, Richard. (2003). Armed Struggle: A History of the IRA. London: Macmillan. Kelley, Kevin. (1988). The Longest War: Northern Ireland and the IRA. London: Zed. O'Brien, Brendan. (1999). The Long War: The IRA and Sinn Fein (2nd ed). Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. Moloney, Ed. (2002). A Secret History of the IRA. London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press. Taylor, Peter. (1997). Provos: The IRA and Sinn Féin. London: Bloomsbury. See Also: Statements by the IRA. Clarke, Liam. and Johnston, Kathryn. (2001). Conclusion: An End to the IRA? chapter 19 from 'MARTIN MCGUINNESS: From Guns to Government', Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. Krings, Torben. (2006). 'With a ballot paper in both hands'. The transformation of the Irish republican movement from armed insurrection to constitutional politics, (29 April 2006), . CAIN: <http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/organ/docs/krings290406.pdf> Republican Movement. (1994). The 'TUAS' Document, . Dublin: Sunday Tribune. Ryan, Patrick. (2001). 'The Birth of the Provisionals - A Clash between Politics and Tradition'. CAIN: <http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/organ/docs/ryan01.htm> Sinn Féin (SF). (1979). Éire Nua, The Sinn Féin Policy - The Social, Economic and Political Dimensions. Dublin: Sinn Féin.