Irish Republican
Army (IRA)
Introduction
The Irish
Republican Army (IRA), is an
Irish underground paramilitary organisation founded to promote
Irish nationalism and fight British tyrannical rule in Ireland. It is
also known as the Provisional IRA, PIRA, the Provos, Irish
Volunteers and, in Irish, as Óglaigh na hÉireann.
The IRA has never been used as the official name of
the organisation - they still use the name Óglaigh na
hÉireann as their official name the
adoption of the name Irish Republican Army was actually turned down by the
organisation during the war of independence.
Provisional IRA
In the late 1960s Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland
began a forceful campaign for improved economic and political status. Support
for the IRA grew, and clashes
between the IRA and Protestant activists and the British army escalated.
Disagreement in 1969 over use of fight tactics led to a split into two groups:
a radical group, the Provisional IRA, which carried out assassinations; and the
original group, the Official IRA, which declined in importance. Militants
from the Belfast and Derry ghettos rather than
the people from the south of Ireland
became the driving force in the Provisional IRA. This marked a turning point
for Irish Republicanism and signified the failure of the old IRA to defend the
nationalist communities in the North.
Cease Fire
On August 31, 1994, after 25 years of fighting, the
IRA declared an unconditional ceasefire,
promising to suspend military operations in favour of peace talks. However, IRA
disenchantment with the resulting negotiations led to a resumption of
violence in 1996 and 1997, following its refusal to consider a surrender of
arms as part of the negotiation process.
The ceasefire cessation
was marked by an explosion on February 9, 1996, at Canary
Wharf, in London's
Docklands, killing 2 people and injuring over 100, and by a bomb attack which
devastated Manchester
city centre on June 15, 1996. After Sinn
Féin (Sinn Fein is Ireland's
oldest political movement ) was included in the Northern Ireland peace talks on
September 15, 1997, the ceasefire was resumed.
A number of IRA attacks in England
and Northern Ireland
in 1997 and 1998 are thought to be the work of a breakaway faction, Continuity
IRA, and dissidents who left the IRA
in October 1997. This fragmentation within the republican movement can be
traced back to 1986, when Republican Sinn Féin and Continuity IRA were formed
after Sinn Féin and the IRA voted to allow republicans to take seats in the
Irish parliament.
Sinn Féin may be barred from taking ministerial posts
in the Northern Ireland devolved executive, to be set up under the Stormont
agreement of Good Friday, April 10-which Sinn Féin accepted-if the IRA does not
disarm first. IRA demands for early prisoner releases and Ulster
ministerial posts for Sinn Féin will depend on the outhanding of weapons, to be
overseen by an International Commission on Arms. Following referendums held on May 22, in which majorities in
the North and South voted in favour of the Stormont agreement, the commission
head, General John de Chastelain, emphasised
that the handing in of weapons would not be public or equal to surrender.
An IRA statement in early May, insisting that no
weapons would be handed over, was followed by one from the breakaway group
threatening renewed attacks. The bomb attack in Omagh in August 1998 by the
so-called Real IRA brought condemnation
from the IRA itself, however, as well as from more mainstream figures. The IRA
refused to accept the blueprint for arms decommissioning agreed between the
British and Irish governments in April 1999.
Methods of Attack
IRA operations have centred on bombings and shootings
aimed at the security forces and British troops in Northern Ireland, and have included
attacks on civilian targets, such as shopping centres, railway stations, and
motorway bridges, and specific assassination targets, such as Members of
Parliament. The most notable of these assassinations was that of Louis
Mountbatten, who was killed along with three others when his boat was blown up
by an IRA bomb at Mullaghmore, Country Sligo, Republic of Ireland,
on August 27, 1979.
Although many of the bombs used have been small enough
to be planted manually, the car bomb became a preferred weapon in the 1970s,
reaching a peak of destruction in July 1974 when more than 20 car bombs
exploded in one day in Belfast.
From 1974 the bombing campaign was extended to mainland Britain and included a series of attacks in
pubs, railway stations, carshops (such as Harrods in London), and shopping centres. Coded warnings
to newspapers and other organisations were sometimes used.
Massive economic disruption was wrought in 1992 and
1993, when several vast car bombs were detonated in London. One of these destroyed the Baltic
Exchange in the City of London
on April 10, 1992, killing three people. The IRA is regarded as the world's
most experienced bombing organisation; it has used bombs ranging from small
handheld incendiary devices to Truck bombs weighing hundreds of pounds, such as
the 230 kg (500 lb) bomb exploded at Canary Wharf.
Nitrobenzene and fertiliser are used in large bombs designed to
blow up buildings or in smaller devices designed to be thrown at the Northern Ireland
security forces. Home-made weapons have included the nail bomb and the
'drogue' bomb, an anti-vehicle grenade consisting of about 230 g (506
lb) of explosive packed into a tin attached to a throwing handle.
Home-made
explosives are made of fertiliser and diesel-oil mix. The largest of these
weapons was the vast bomb, containing 907 kg (1 ton) of fertiliser explosives,
which was detonated on April 24,1993, at Bishopsgate
in London. One
person was killed and 30 injured; damage to buildings amounted to £600 million.
(909 mio Euro)
