IRA and FARC: Comparing Two Persistent Terrorist Groups

Introduction

When the average American is asked to name two or three known terrorist organizations, he or she will most likely name al-Qaeda. Other groups that come to mind might be Hezbollah or the Taliban, and perhaps Americans still have some familiarity with the Irish Republican Army. It is a safe assumption, however, that many Americans are not familiar with FARC — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — and yet FARC is a violent and powerful force in South America.

The IRA has splintered into several smaller groups, including the Real IRA (RIRA), which continues to carry out violence against the British presence in Northern Ireland. Although a peace agreement ended the old IRA's armed campaign and the organization was formally disbanded, tensions remain, and the RIRA conducts violent actions to keep those tensions high. In Colombia, FARC is a far more potent organization than the RIRA and makes demands that the Colombian government cannot ignore. These two groups are less familiar to Americans than al-Qaeda or the Taliban, but they are persistent, violent, and ruthless, and deserve to be understood by anyone with a concern for peace in the world. This paper examines the history and current status of the RIRA and FARC, and draws comparisons between the two organizations.

The History of the IRA

Council on Foreign Relations journalist Kathryn Gregory explains that what people refer to today as the "IRA" is actually an outgrowth of a much older group that "successfully challenged British rule in the whole of Ireland" in the early twentieth century. Between 1916 and 1921, the original IRA violently attacked British troops occupying Ireland, and that campaign of aggression forced England to grant independence to most of the island. However, in return, the IRA's leaders "agreed to allow Ireland's six northern counties to remain under British rule" (Gregory, 2008). England then reconstituted the provinces the IRA conceded as Ulster — better known as Northern Ireland.

After that agreement was reached, several factions within the IRA remained deeply unhappy with the compromise and stayed hostile toward England. By the 1960s, Gregory writes, the actions of the dissatisfied factions had "dwindled significantly." Then, in the late 1960s, widespread reports emerged of discrimination against Roman Catholics in the British-governed sections of Northern Ireland. When civil rights marchers engaged in civil disobedience against the Protestant-dominated British police forces, tensions erupted into violence. The English government sent troops into the streets of Northern Ireland; that move alienated many Catholics and helped radicalize the IRA. Those within the IRA who turned to violence — snipers, assassins, and bombers — split off into the "Provisional IRA" (PIRA). The original IRA, which advocated peaceful tactics, faded into obscurity.

Then, in January 1972, British forces opened fire at a Catholic civil rights rally and killed 14 unarmed people. This event, known as Bloody Sunday, caused PIRA membership to soar, and over the next nearly two decades violence escalated dramatically. Militant Catholics in the north, though a minority compared to Protestants, joined the PIRA's campaign against British forces. Catholics were broadly discriminated against in housing, employment, and treatment before the law (Gregory, 2008).

In the years of bloodshed that followed, approximately 3,600 people died as a result of the conflict between the IRA and British troops. In the late 1990s, a peace accord was signed between the PIRA and the British government. Today, the political wing of the IRA — Sinn Féin — holds several elected positions in the Northern Irish provincial government, and most British military forces have withdrawn from the region.

In 2000, the U.S. State Department removed the IRA from its official list of terrorist organizations. However, two splinter groups that formed from the IRA — the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA — remain on that list. The Real IRA appears just above the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on the State Department's roster.

The Real IRA (RIRA)

According to Global Security, the RIRA is composed of former members of the Provisional IRA who refused to participate in the weapons decommissioning process in September 2005. The RIRA continues its armed resistance to British partition of Ireland. Global Security reports that the RIRA has carried out more than 80 terrorist attacks since 1999. The group's founder, Michael McKevitt, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in August 2003, but the organization has continued to operate and has been linked to firebombings in recent years. The RIRA also claimed responsibility for killing two British soldiers at an army base in March 2009.

There are estimated to be several hundred active RIRA members. The group raises much of its money by smuggling diesel and cigarettes across the Irish border. Unlike the Provisional IRA, which maintained an anti-drug stance, the RIRA is known to engage in drug smuggling and dealing (Global Security, 2008).

Conclusion

The Irish Republican Army and FARC represent two of the more persistent and violent terrorist organizations operating in the world today, though they differ enormously in scale, political leverage, and operational capacity. The RIRA is a small remnant of a once-powerful movement, keeping alive a campaign of violence that most former IRA members have abandoned in favor of political participation. FARC, by contrast, is a large, well-funded Marxist insurgency that has destabilized Colombia for decades, exploiting both the drug trade and the desperation of impoverished rural communities to sustain itself. While neither organization receives the same level of attention in American public discourse as al-Qaeda or the Taliban, both deserve to be known and understood by anyone who seeks a clearer picture of political violence and its consequences around the world.

References

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Gregory, K. (2008). Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) (aka, PIRA, "The Provos," Oglaigh na hEireann) (U.K., separatists). Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved February 6, 2009, from

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McDermott, J. (2005, January 14). "IRA influence" in FARC attacks. BBC News. Retrieved February 6, 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4528109.stm

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