History of the Irish Republican Army: Origins and Legacy

Introduction: The IRA's Origins and Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of why the Irish Republican Army came into existence and how it has influenced Ireland's current political environment. This report will also attempt to determine whether there will be a need for this organization in the future.

The acronym IRA first appeared during the Battle of Lime Ridge on June 2, 1866, when the Fenians were organized into "IRA regiments." The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has its roots in Ireland's struggle for independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the early twentieth century. "At various times over the next 800 years, Irish men and women resisted British rule and attempted to assert Irish independence. Between the years 1916 and 1921, Irish nationalists waged a combined political and military campaign against British occupation."

It is important to differentiate between what is termed the "Old IRA" and the "Official IRA" from the Provisional IRA (PIRA), a splinter group that formed in the late 1960s in the wake of institutionalized anti-Catholic discrimination, riots, and murders, mainly in Belfast and Derry.

There are several paramilitary groups that claim or have claimed the title Irish Republican Army (IRA) and that advocate a unitary Irish state with no constitutional ties to the United Kingdom. "The IRA is an organization dedicated to ending British rule in Northern Ireland and unifying the province with the neighboring Republic of Ireland." All claims descend from the original Irish Republican Army — the army of the Irish Republic declared by Dáil Éireann in 1919. Most Irish people dispute the claims of more recently created organizations that insist they are the only legitimate descendants of the original IRA, often referred to as the "Old IRA."

The Provisional IRA (PIRA), founded in 1969, is best known for its paramilitary campaigns during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The term IRA is now almost always used to denote this particular group. "By the early 1970s, the emergence of a more formidable and politically aware republican movement — led by Joe Cahill, Seamus Twomey, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, and Dáithí Ó Conaill on the political front, and up-and-coming young militarists like Cathal Goulding, Joe McCann, and Seán Mac Stíofáin — created a split within the republican movement as to which direction they should go politically."

Factions and Splits within the Republican Movement

The Official IRA was the remainder of the IRA after the Provisional IRA seceded in 1969 and is now apparently inactive in the military sense. The reasons behind the split were the ending of violence by the IRA and the ending of abstentionism by Sinn Féin. This issue, which also split the Provisionals in later years, is a highly emotive one in republican circles.

During the 1960s, the republican movement, under the leadership of Cathal Goulding, was heavily influenced by the idea of the popular front and was close to Communist thinking. A key intermediary body was the Communist Party of Great Britain's organization for Irish exiles, the Connolly Association.

The sense that the IRA seemed to be drifting away from its republican roots into Marxism angered and distressed many republicans. Many in the Official IRA later called the Provisional IRA the "rosary brigade" because of their Catholic and romantic nationalist ideology. The Officials were known as the "Stickies" because they used stick-on orange lilies at parades to commemorate the Easter Rising. The Provisionals were known as "Pinheads" because they used pinned lilies. The term "Stickies" stuck, though "Pinheads" disappeared.

When the Provisionals — often called the "Provos" — split from the Official IRA, they took away many experienced volunteers, depriving the Official IRA of significant operational expertise and effectively finishing the OIRA as an effective paramilitary group. The Officials bombed Aldershot, the headquarters of the Parachute Regiment, in revenge for Bloody Sunday, killing seven people. After the unpopular killing of William Best, a Derry man home on leave from the British Army, the OIRA declared a ceasefire. The group is now considered defunct. In December 1971, the Official IRA killed Ulster Unionist Party Senator John Barnhill at his home in Strabane — the first murder of a politician in Ireland since the 1920s.

The Real IRA and the Omagh Bombing

The Real Irish Republican Army is a terrorist group founded before the signing of the 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement by former members of the Provisional IRA who opposed the Provisional IRA's 1997 ceasefire and acquiescence in the accord. It originally attracted disaffected IRA members from the Republican stronghold of South Armagh and some members from Derry. Its first leader was Michael McKevitt, a former "quartermaster general" of the Provisional IRA, who has since been imprisoned on charges of directing terrorism.

Shortly after its formation, the Real IRA began attacks similar in nature to those conducted by the Provisional IRA prior to its ceasefire. However, it lacked a significant base and was heavily infiltrated by informers, leading to a series of high-profile arrests and seizures by British and Irish police in the first half of 1998. Despite this, the Real IRA succeeded in bombing Omagh town center on August 15, 1998, killing 29 people. This caused a major outcry in Ireland. Many members abandoned the organization, and British and Irish police cooperated on an unprecedented scale in an attempt to destroy the movement.

The Real IRA called a ceasefire in the winter of 1998, but this was broken after less than two years when the organization conducted a number of attacks on the island of Great Britain, including a taxi-bomb attack on the BBC Television Centre in West London and a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the headquarters of MI6. Since then, the organization has grown weaker. Infiltration has continued, and the movement has been unable to conduct a significant bomb attack. In the autumn of 2003, its imprisoned leaders called for an unconditional ceasefire, citing alleged misuse of funds and the futile nature of their resistance to the British presence in Ireland.

In recent times, the Real IRA has continued to be a thorn in the side of both British and Irish authorities. December 2004 saw 15 firebomb attacks against premises in Belfast attributed to the breakaway faction. Many see this as a sign of growing support for the group, in the context of failed attempts to rescue the Belfast peace accord. In 2005, Irish Minister for Justice Michael McDowell told the Dáil that the organization had a maximum of approximately 150 members. The Real IRA is distinct from the Continuity IRA, another Provisional IRA splinter group founded in 1986. The 32 County Sovereignty Movement is perceived to be the political wing of the Real IRA. "The Real IRA was formed in 1997 by hard-liners who opposed the negotiations being pursued by the IRA and its political wing, Sinn Féin, which culminated in the April 1998 Good Friday accord, a peace pact that renounced violence. By continuing terror activities, the Real IRA hoped to disrupt Northern Ireland's fragile peace process."

The Easter Rising and the Formation of the IRA

The Irish Republican Army first emerged as the army of the Irish Republic that had been declared at the Easter Rising of 1916 and affirmed by the First Dáil in January 1919. It was an amalgamation of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, which were formed before World War I and had played a part in the Easter Rising. The Irish Defence Forces, the Official and Provisional IRA, and the Continuity and Real IRA all lay claim to the title Óglaigh na hÉireann (Irish: Irish Volunteers).

Michael Collins took an active role in reorganizing the IRA. Its formation and subsequent development were inextricably intertwined with the political history of the Irish Free State (which became the Republic of Ireland in 1937) and Northern Ireland, and any consideration of the IRA therefore needs to be set firmly in historical context.

Michael Collins studied the tactics of the Russian People's Will and the writings of earlier anarchists and militant strategists. He used these as inspiration for strategy and launched a guerrilla war against the British. After obtaining a list of British and loyalist Irish police and intelligence officers, Collins directed IRA operatives to target them. He attacked police stations and symbols of British authority, continuing a campaign of guerrilla warfare against unionist and Crown forces.

The Government of Ireland Act 1914, more generally known as the Third Home Rule Act, was an Act of Parliament passed by the British House of Commons in May 1914, which sought to give Ireland national self-government within the United Kingdom. Though it received the Royal Assent in September 1914, its implementation was postponed until after the First World War, which was at that stage expected to last only a matter of months. However, the outbreak of the Easter Rising in 1916 and the unexpected electoral success of Sinn Féin in the 1918 general election made any enactment of the Act redundant. It was never implemented but was eventually replaced by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which was to give Home Rule to six counties in the northeast (Northern Ireland) and to twenty-six counties in the south and west (the so-called "Southern Ireland").

"The Easter Rising of 1916 was the defining event in the history of Irish republicanism. Many would regard the Proclamation of the Republic issued then as the founding document of the IRA. It declared an independent Republic and pledged republicans to 'equal rights and equal opportunities' for all the Irish people."

For a minority of nationalists, the home rule conceded was judged to be too little, too late. In the Easter Rising of 1916, these nationalists staged a rebellion against British rule in Dublin and in some other isolated areas. Weapons had been supplied by Germany under the auspices of the prominent activist Sir Roger Casement. However, the plot had been discovered and the weapons were lost when the ship carrying them, the Aud, was scuttled rather than allow the arms to fall into British hands.

The rebellion was largely centered on Dublin. The leaders seized the Dublin General Post Office (GPO), raising a green flag bearing the legend "Irish Republic" and proclaiming independence for Ireland. Although many Irish people believe that the Rising and its leaders enjoyed broad public support, in reality there were calls for the execution of the ringleaders from the major Irish nationalist daily newspaper, the Irish Independent, and from local authorities. Dubliners not only cooperated with the British troops sent to quell the uprising but, in some instances, undermined the republicans as well. Many people spat and threw stones at the insurgents as they were marched toward transport ships bound for Welsh internment camps.