Provisional Irish Republican Army

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The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA; more commonly referred to as the IRA, the Provos, or by some of its supporters as the army or the Ra) is an Irish Republican paramilitary organisation. Since its emergence in 1969, its stated aim has been the reunification of Ireland which it believed could not be achieved without an armed campaign directed against British rule in Northern Ireland. On July 28, 2005, the Provisional IRA Army Council announced an end to its armed campaign, stating that it would work to achieve its aims using "purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means" and that "[IRA] Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever".

Like all other organisations calling themselves the IRA (see List of IRAs), the Provisionals refer to themselves in public announcements and internal discussions as Óglaigh na hÉireann (literally "Volunteers of Ireland"), the official Irish language title of the Irish Defence Forces (the Irish army).

Contents 1 Origins 2 Organisation 3 Weaponry and operations 4 Categorisation 5 Strength and support 6 Activities 7 The Belfast Agreement 8 End of the armed campaign 9 Notable events 9.1 1970s 9.2 1980s 9.3 1990s 9.4 2000s 10 P. O'Neill 11 Infiltration 12 See also 13 Footnotes 14 External links

Origins

The Provisional IRA has its ideological and organisational roots in the pre-1969 anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army. This organisation split into two groups at its Special Army Convention in December 1969, mainly over the issue of abstentionism and over the question on how to respond to the escalating violence in Northern Ireland. The two groups that emerged from the split became known as the Official IRA (which espoused a Marxist analysis of Irish partition) and the Provisional IRA.

Although a split in the IRA was inevitable given the irreconcilability of the two factions, a number of ministers of the then Irish Fianna Fáil government attempted to help the fledgling Provisionals by purchasing arms for them. This gave rise to the Arms Crisis scandal of 1970.

The main figures in the early Provisional IRA were Seán Mac Stiofáin (who served as the organisation's first chief of staff), Ruairí Ó Brádaigh (the first president of Provisional Sinn Féin), Dáithí Ó Conaill, and Joe Cahill. All served on the first Provisional IRA Army Council. The Provisional appellation deliberately echoed the "Provisional Government" proclaimed during the 1916 Easter Rising.

The Provisionals maintained a number of the principles of the pre-1969 IRA. It considered British rule in Northern Ireland and the government of the Republic of Ireland to be illegitimate. Like the pre-1969 IRA, it believed that the IRA Army Council was the legitimate government of the all-island Irish Republic. This belief was based on a complicated series of perceived political inheritances which constructed a legal continuity from the Second Dáil. Most of these abstentionist principles were abandoned in 1986.

Initially, both the Official IRA and Provisional IRA espoused military means to pursue their goals. Unlike the Officials, however, the Provisionals called for a more aggressive campaign against the Northern Ireland state. While the Officials were initially the larger organisation and enjoying most support from the republican constituency, the Provisionals came to dominate, especially after the Official IRA declared a ceasefire in 1972.

Although the Provisional IRA had a political wing, Provisional Sinn Féin, the early Provisional IRA was extremely suspicious of political activity, arguing rather for the primacy of armed struggle.

Organisation

The IRA is organised hierarchically. It refers to its ordinary members as volunteers (or óglaigh in Irish). Up until the late 1970s, IRA volunteers were organised according to where they lived. Volunteers living in one area formed a company, which in turn was part of a battalion, which likewise made up brigades.

In the late 1970s, the geographical organisational principle was abandoned by the IRA in many areas in Northern Ireland owing to its inherent security vulnerability. In its place came smaller, tight-knit cells under the direct control of the IRA leadership.

All levels of the IRA are entitled to send delegates to IRA General Army Conventions (GACs). The GAC is the IRA's supreme decision-making authority. Before 1969, GACs met regularly. Since 1970 they have become less frequent, owing to the difficulty in organising such a large gathering of what is an illegal organisation.

The GAC in turn elects a 12-member IRA Executive, which in turn selects seven of its members to form the IRA Army Council. The seats vacated on the Executive are immediately refilled. For day-to-day purposes authority is vested in the Provisional Army Council (PAC) which, as well as directing policy and taking major tactical decisions, appoints a chief of staff from one of its number or, less commonly, from outside its ranks. The chief of staff then appoints an adjutant general as well as a General Headquarters (GHQ), which consists of a number of individual departments. These departments are:

• IRA Quartermaster General
• IRA Director of Finance
• IRA Director of Engineering
• IRA Director of Training
• IRA Director of Intelligence
• IRA Director of Publicity
• IRA Director of Operations
• IRA Director of Security

At a regional level, the IRA is divided into a Northern Command, which operates in the area of Northern Ireland and the border counties of the Republic, and a Southern Command, which operates in the rest of Ireland. There are also organisational units in Britain and the United States.

Weaponry and operations

In the early days of the Troubles from around 1969-71, the PIRA was very poorly armed, having available only a handful of old fashioned weapons left over from the IRA's Border campaign of the 1950s. Such weapons included Lee Enfield rifles, Webley revolvers, and Thompson submachine guns. Their explosives were primarily gelignite - a commercial explosive which they either bought or stole from civilian sources. In the first years of the conflict, the Provisionals' main activity was providing firepower to back up nationalist rioters and to defend nationalist areas against attacks from loyalists, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the B-Specials and the British Army. The PIRA gained much of its support from these activities, as they were widely perceived within the nationalist community as being defenders of nationalist and Catholic people against aggression.

As the conflict escalated in the early 1970s, the numbers recruited by the PIRA mushroomed, in response to the nationalist community's anger at events such as the introduction of internment without trial and Bloody Sunday (1972) when the British Army shot dead 13 unarmed protesters in Derry. The PIRA leadership took the opportunity to launch an offensive, believing that they could force a British withdrawal from Ireland by inflicting severe casualties, thus undermining public support in Britain for its continued presence. To this end, they secured large amounts of modern weapons from supporters in the USA and Libya - most notably AR-180 rifles. During this period, a typical PIRA operation involved sniping at British patrols, killing local police and soldiers when off-duty, and the bombing of commercial targets such as shops and businesses. The most effective tactic the PIRA developed for its bombing campaign was the car bomb, where large amounts of explosives were packed into a car, which was driven to its target and then exploded. The bloodiest example of the Provisionals' commercial bombing campaign was Bloody Friday in Belfast, where 9 people were killed and many more injured. In rural areas such as South Armagh, the PIRA units most effective weapon was the "culvert-bomb" - where explosives were planted under drains in country roads. This proved so dangerous for British Army patrols that all troops in the area had to be transported by helicopter, a policy which they have continued down to the present day. Another very effective PIRA tactic devised in the 1970s was the use of home-made mortars mounted on the back of trucks that were fired at police and army bases.

The early 1970s were the most violent years of the Troubles, with 1972 being the most bloody single year - over 500 people being killed. As well as its campaign against the security forces, the PIRA became involved, in the middle of the decade, in a "tit for tat" cycle of sectarian killings with loyalist paramilitaries. The worst example of this occurred in 1976, when a PIRA unit in Armagh shot dead ten Protestant building workers at Kingsmills, in reprisal for Ulster Volunteer Force killings of local Catholics. As the PIRA campaign continued through the 1970s and '80s, the organisation increasingly targeted off-duty RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment servicemen. Because these men were almost exclusively Protestant and unionist, these killings were also widely percieved as a campaign of sectarian assassination. Towards the end of the troubles, the Provisionals widened their campaign even further, to include the killing of people who worked in a civilian capacity with the RUC and British Army. The bloodiest example of this came in 1992, when a PIRA bomb killed 8 building workers who were working on a British Army base at Teebane. Again, since Protestants and unionists were more likely to work for the British Army and police, this was widley seen as part of a campaign against Protestants. For the PIRA, such attacks may have been counter productive, as incidents such as these and facilitated the British government's aims to "criminalise" the PIRA and portray the conflict as one between sectarian gangs, and itself as a neutral arbiter.

Another plank of the PIRA strategy developed in the mid-seventies was the bombing of civilian targets in England. On at least two occasions, at Birmingham and Guildford, bombings of pubs (on the basis that they were used by British soldiers) caused large-scale civilian loss of life.

In the 1980s, the IRA obtained very large quantities of weapons and explosives from Colonel Gadaffi's Libya. These included Kalashnikov rifles, rocket propelled grenades, heavy Soviet made DShK machine guns and the plastic explosive Semtex. In spite of this, the PIRA was unable to substantially escalate its campaign due to the increased efficiency of the British security forces in infiltrating its structures. The organisation also suffered repeated losses at the hands of British special forces like the Special Air Service, the most spectacular being the ambush and killing of 8 armed IRA members at Loughall in 1987 (see shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland). The IRA and its political wing, Sinn Féin also suffered heavily from a campaign of assassination launched against their members by Loyalist paramilitaries. It has been alleged that the loyalists were aided in this campaign by elements of the security forces (see Stevens Report).

From 1990 until the ceasefire of 1994, loyalists killed more people every year in Northern Ireland than republicans, largely due to a large shipment of arms they received from the South African apartheid government (see Short Brothers). However, during the same period, the IRA also became very effective at bombing commercial targets in England, particularly London, which caused a huge amount of damage to property. Among their targets were the City of London, Canary Wharf and Manchester city centre. It has been argued that this bombing campaign helped convince the British government (who had hoped to contain the conflict to Northern Ireland with its Ulsterisation policy) to negotiate with Sinn Fein.

Categorisation

Due to its frequent use of bombs; its killing of hundreds of policemen, soldiers and civilians, predominantly though not exclusively in Northern Ireland; its status as an illegal organization; its role in racketeering, bank robberies, street 'justice' and the fact that the unionist/loyalist majority in Northern Ireland wanted to continue living under British rule, it is considered a terrorist group ^[1], although its supporters preferred the labels freedom fighter, guerrilla and volunteer.

IRA attacks on the British security forces (i.e. the British Army and the RUC) and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland could be described as guerrilla warfare, so "guerrilla" is a technically accurate term. This definition was criticised by unionists and constitutional republicans as suggesting that the IRA's actions had at least some legitimacy. In addition, aside from exessive collateral damage, PIRA attacks have repeatedly specifically focussed on non-military, non-police targets, which supports the use of the term "terrorist."

Membership of the IRA remains illegal in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland, but PIRA prisoners convicted of offences committed before 1998 have been granted conditional early release as part of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement. In the United Kingdom a person convicted of membership of a "proscribed organisation", such as the PIRA, still nominally faces imprisonment for up to 10 years.

Strength and support

The Provisional IRA has several hundred members, as well as tens of thousands of civilian sympathisers in Ireland, mostly in Ulster. In 2005, Irish Minister for Justice Michael McDowell told the Dáil that the organization had "between 1,000 and 1,500" active members [2]. However, the movement's appeal was hurt badly by more notorious bombings widely perceived as atrocities, such as the killing of civilians attending a Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph in Enniskillen in 1987 (the IRA maintain that their target was a contingent of British soldiers due to pass the cenotaph), and the murder of two children when a bomb went off in Warrington, which led to tens of thousands of people descending on O'Connell Street in Dublin to call for an end to the IRA's campaign. In the 1990s the IRA moved to attacking economic targets, such as the Baltic Exchange and Canary Wharf, the latter of which killed two Pakistanis. More cynical commentators contend that these bombings concentrated minds in the British government far more than the violence in Northern Ireland, which led to the beginning of informal contacts with the IRA soon after. The IRA had an official policy of bombing only targets in England (not the Celtic countries of Scotland and Wales), although they detonated a bomb at an oil terminal in the Shetland Isles in 1981 while Queen Elizabeth II was performing the official opening of the terminal.

In recent times the movement's strength has been weakened by members leaving the organisation to join hardline splinter groups such as the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA. According to McDowell, these organizations have little more than 150 members each [3]. The PIRA's associated political party, Sinn Féin, until recently received the support of only a minority of nationalists in Northern Ireland, and very few voters in the Republic of Ireland. Sinn Féin now has 24 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly (out of 108), five Westminster MPs (out of 18 from Northern Ireland) and five Republic of Ireland TDs (out of 166). This increase is widely perceived as support for the IRA ceasefire and some commentators maintain this support would decrease if the IRA returned to violence (although this did not happen during the brief resumption that occurred between the 1994 and 1997 ceasefires).

In the United States in November 1982, five men were acquitted of smuggling arms to the IRA due to insignificant evidence. The IRA has also, on occasion, received assistance from foreign governments and paramilitary groups, including considerable training and arms from Libya and assistance from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). U.S. support has been weakened by the War against Terrorism, the events of the 11 September 2001 and the trial in Colombia of three men (two known members of the IRA and the Sinn Féin representative in Cuba), for allegedly training Colombian FARC guerrillas ^[4]. The organisation has also raised funds through smuggling, racketeering and bank robberies. A significant US supporter from 1969 has been Noraid (Irish Northern Aid Committee).

In February 2005 the IRA was denounced by relatives of Robert McCartney, who was murdered in public by IRA members. The resulting controversy led Gerry Adams to advise republicans to give evidence against those IRA members who were involved, a first for the republican leader. Three IRA members were expelled from the organisation following the murder and an offer was made by the organisation to shoot those responsible for the killing. The family of Mr. McCartney allege that, notwithstanding public calls for information by Sinn Féin leaders, no one has come forward with information that would allow a prosecution to go further. They also allege that republican intimidation of witnesses has continued and that even the friend of Mr. McCartney who was stabbed with him is too afraid to make a police statement.

Activities

According to the CAIN research project at the University of Ulster, the Provisional IRA was responsible for the deaths of 1,706 people during the Troubles up to 2001. This figure represents 48.4 percent of the total fatalities in the conflict. 497 of these casualties were civilians, 638 of the casualties were from the British Army (183 from the Ulster Defence Regiment and 455 from other regiments). Another 271 of the casualties were members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Of its victims, 340 were Northern Irish Catholics, 794 were Northern Irish Protestants and 572 were not from Northern Ireland. The IRA was chiefly active in Northern Ireland, although it took its campaign to the Republic of Ireland, Britain, and also carried out several attacks in the Netherlands and Germany.

The IRA lost 276 members during the Troubles. In 132 of these cases, IRA members either caused their own deaths (as a result of hunger strikes, premature bombing accidents etc.), or were murdered on allegations of having worked for the security forces. These executions killed more IRA members than any other organisation did during the course of the Troubles.

The Provisional IRA's activities included bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, punishment beatings of civilians accused of criminal or "antisocial" behaviour, extortion and robberies (most notably being widely blamed for the £26 million Northern Bank robbery in 2004). Previous targets have included the British military, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and loyalist militants — against all of whom IRA gunmen and bombers fought a guerrilla war.

The IRA also targeted certain British government officials, politicians and civilians in both Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Many civilians assisting or perceived to have been assisting the security forces were killed in Northern Ireland, whilst many British civilians were killed during the IRA bombing campaign in England, which was often directed against civilian targets such as pubs and public transport, and targets of an economic significance such as shops and Canary Wharf.

One of their most famous victims was the uncle of Prince Philip, Lord Louis Mountbatten, killed along with two children and his cousin on 27 August 1979 in County Sligo, by an IRA bomb placed in his boat.

Many Catholic civilians have been killed by the IRA for collaboration with the British security forces (i.e. the British Army or the RUC). The IRA also summarily executed or otherwise punished suspected drug dealers and other suspected criminals in the past, sometimes after kangaroo trials. IRA members suspected of being British or Irish government informers were also executed, often after interrogation and torture and a kangaroo trial.

Members of the Garda Síochána (the Republic of Ireland's police force) have also been killed; most notorious was the killing of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, who was killed by sustained machine-gun fire while sitting in his car while escorting a post office delivery. IRA bombing campaigns have been conducted against rail and London Underground (subway) stations, pubs and shopping areas on the island of Great Britain, and a British military facility in Germany.

In the 1980s, IRA members kidnapped the racehorse Shergar and attempted to ransom it. Activities such as these were linked to the IRA's fundraising.

Although the PIRA only formally announced an end to its armed campaign in 2005, it had been on ceasefire since 1997 (although hardline splinter groups such as the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA continue their campaigns). It previously observed a cease-fire from 1 September 1994 to February 1996, after the Downing Street Declaration, although this was ended when the British government refused to talk to Sinn Féin.

The Belfast Agreement

The IRA ceasefire in 1997 formed part of a process that led to the 1998 Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. The Agreement has among its aims that all paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland cease their activities and disarm by May 2000. This is one of many Agreement aims that have yet to be realised.

Calls from Sinn Féin have led the IRA to commence disarming in a process that has been overviewed by Canadian General John de Chastelain's decommissioning body in October 2001. However, following the collapse of the Stormont power-sharing government in 2002, which was partly triggered by allegations that republican spies were operating within Parliament Buildings and the Civil Service (although no convictions came from the widely-publicised police operation), the IRA temporarily broke contact with General de Chastelain. It is expected that, if and when power-sharing resumes, the IRA disarmament process will begin again, and although unionists consider it to be well behind schedule, they are often reticent on the corresponding obligation of loyalist groups to do the same. Increasing numbers of people, from the Democratic Unionist Party under Ian Paisley and the Social Democratic and Labour Party under Mark Durkan to the Irish government under Bertie Ahern and the mainstream Irish media, have begun demanding not merely decommissioning but the wholesale disbandment of the IRA.

In December 2004, attempts to persuade the IRA to disarm entirely collapsed when the Democratic Unionist Party, under Ian Paisley, insisted on photographic evidence. The IRA stated that this was an attempt at humiliation. The Irish government (generally in private), and Justice Minister Michael McDowell (in public, and often) also insisted that there would need to be a complete end to IRA activity. This is felt by many to have been a major reason for the collapse of this deal.

At the beginning of February 2005, the IRA declared that it was withdrawing from the disarmament process, but in July 2005 it declared that its campaign of violence was over, and that transparent mechanisms would be used, under the de Chastelain process, to satisfy the Northern Ireland communities that it was disarming totally.

End of the armed campaign

On July 28, 2005, the Provisional IRA Army Council announced an end to its armed campaign. In a statement read by Seanna Walsh, the organization stated that it has instructed its members to dump all weapons and not to engage in "any other activities whatsoever" apart from assisting “the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means". Furthermore, the organization authorised its representatives to engage immediately with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) to verifiably put its arms beyond use "in a way which will further enhance public confidence and to conclude this as quickly as possible".

This is not the first time that organisations styling themselves IRA have issued orders to dump arms. After its defeat in the Irish Civil War in 1924 and at the end of its unsuccessful Border Campaign in 1962, the IRA Army Council issued similar orders. However, this is the first time in Irish republicanism that any organisation has voluntarily decided to destroy its arms.

On 25 September 2005, international weapons inspectors supervised the full disarmament of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, a long-sought goal of Northern Ireland's peace process. The office of IICD Chairman John de Chastelain, a retired Canadian general who in recent weeks has been in secret locations overseeing the weapons destruction, released details regarding the scrapping of many tons of IRA weaponry at a news conference in Belfast on 26 September, saying the arms had been "put beyond use" and that they were "satisfied that the arms decommissioned represent the totality of the IRA's arsenal."

The IRA permitted two independent witnesses, including a Methodist minister and a Roman Catholic priest close to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, to view the secret disarmament work. However, Ian Paisley, the leader of the DUP, has complained that since the witnesses were appointed by the IRA themselves, rather than being appointed by the British or Irish governments, they therefore cannot be said to be unbiased witnesses to the decommissioning. [5]

Notable events

1970s

• 1971: First British soldier on security duties, Gunner Curtis, killed by the IRA in current campaign in North Belfast. Three unarmed British soldiers abducted while off duty in Belfast and subsequently shot. IRA suspected but responsibility never admitted.
• 1971: Mother of ten, Jean McConville, is abducted and killed by the Provisional IRA, allegedly for informing the British Army of IRA activities, although her family contend that she was killed for comforting a wounded British soldier. The IRA would deny any involvement in the killing until the 1990s, when it would acknowledge its action and attempt to locate the body. [Northern Ireland]
• January 1972: Bloody Sunday Unrest in Derry/Londonderry culminates in action by British Paratroopers. The shooting by the soldiers resulted in the deaths of thirteen unarmed protestors. The resulting outrage gains the PIRA support from much more of the nationalist community than it previously enjoyed.
• 21 July 1972: On "Bloody Friday" 22 bombs kill nine and seriously injure 130. 30 years later the IRA would officially apologise for this set of attacks. [Northern Ireland]
• 4 February 1974: A bomb planted on a coach carrying British Army personnel and their wives and families explodes as it is travelling along the M62 motorway at Birkenshaw. Twelve people are killed; nine soldiers and the wife and two young sons of one of them. [England]
• 1974: The Guildford pub bombings kills five and injures 182. The motive for the bombing was that the pub attacked was frequented by off-duty, unarmed soldiers. Four people, dubbed the "Guildford Four", would be convicted for the bombing and imprisoned for life. Fifteen years later Lord Lane of the Court of Appeal would overturn their convictions noting "the investigating officers must have lied". Some had spent the entire fifteen years in prison, years after the IRA men who carried out the attacks admitted them to British police. No police officer was ever charged. [England]
• 1974: In the Birmingham Pub Bombings bombs in two pubs kill 19. The "Birmingham Six" would be tried for this and convicted. Many years later, after new evidence of police fabrication and suppression of evidence, their convictions would be quashed and they would be released. [England]
• 7 November 1974: Two people are killed when a nail bomb containing 6lb of gelignite is thrown through the window of the Kings Head pub in Woolwich
• 1974: In December a bomb explodes on the first floor of Harrods department store in Knightsbridge. Part of the store is gutted but there are no injuries. [England]
• 1975: Off-duty police officer Stephen Tibble is shot dead as he joins in the chase of a suspect on his motorbike in Barons Court, London. The suspect had been spotted by a detective coming out of a house which was later discovered to be an IRA bomb factory.
• 1975: The killing of businessman and TV personality Ross McWhirter, who with his brother Norris McWhirter, had offered reward money to anyone who would inform on the IRA.
• 1975: The Balcombe Street Siege.
• August 1975: Caterham pub bombing.
• 1976: An IRA landmine kills Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the newly appointed British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, resulting in the declaration of a State of Emergency in the Republic. The IRA also threatens to kidnap or kill Irish cabinet ministers and the President of Ireland.
• 22 March 1979: Sir Richard Sykes, British Ambassador to The Netherlands is assassinated in front of his house in The Hague.
• 1979: An IRA bomb kills Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the British Queen's first cousin, members of his family and a local child off the Irish coast. On the same day the IRA kill 18 British soldiers at Narrow Water, near Newry, County Down; in an attack described by the British government as "a classic guerrilla attack", they first plant one bomb, which kills six, and then begin firing with sniper rifles at soldiers, driving them to cover at a nearby gate where a second bomb explodes, killing 12 others. During an Irish visit, Pope John Paul II calls for the IRA campaign of violence to come to an end. [Ireland]

1980s

• 1981: IRA prisoner Bobby Sands, imprisoned in connection with his involvement in an attack involving a bomb and subsequent gun battle, is elected Member of Parliament at Westminster for the Northern Ireland constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone in a by-election. The moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party decides not to run a candidate (which would have split the nationalist vote), in protest of the British government's handling of the protest. This left Sands as the main nationalist candidate. Sands had been on a hunger strike for "Prisoner of War" or Special Category Status for 41 days prior to being elected. He died 23 days later. It was estimated that 100,000 people attended his funeral. IRA prisoners were ultimately de facto awarded political status by Margaret Thatcher's government, after nine more deaths by hunger strike. [Northern Ireland]
• 1981: The PIRA kill Ulster Unionist Party Belfast MP Rev Robert Bradford along with the caretaker of a community centre. Irish Taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald and former taoiseach and opposition leader Charles Haughey condemn the killings in Dáil Éireann. SDLP party leader John Hume accuses the Provisionals of waging a campaign of "sectarian genocide". [Northern Ireland]
• 10 October 1981: a bomb blast on Ebury Bridge Road in London kills two people and injures 39. [England]
• 26 October 1981: a bomb explodes at a Wimpy Bar in Oxford Street London killing the bomb disposal officer trying to defuse it. [England]
• 20 July 1982: In Hyde Park, a bomb kills two members of the Household Cavalry performing ceremonial duties in the park. Seven of their horses are also killed. The deaths of the horses receive almost as much coverage in the English tabloids as those of the men. On the same day another device kills seven bandsmen the Royal Green Jackets as it explodes underneath the bandstand in Regents Park as they played music to spectators. [England]
• 1983: A Harrods department store bomb planted by the IRA during Christmas shopping season kills six (three police) and wounds 90. [England]
• September 25, 1983: 38 IRA prisoners escape from the maximum security Long Kesh prison. One guard dies of a heart attack during the escape.
• 1984: In the Brighton hotel bombing a bomb in the Grand Hotel kills five in a failed attempt to assassinate members of the British cabinet. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher narrowly escapes. Five people are killed, and one woman permanently disabled. [England]
• 1987: The SAS ambush two IRA cells as they attempted to attack an Royal Ulster Constabulary police station in Loughall. Eight IRA men are killed. Sinn Féin later claim that they were "brutally executed without the right to a trial". [Northern Ireland]
• 1987: In the Enniskillen "Massacre" the IRA bombing of a Remembrance Day parade kills 11 civilians and injures 63. Among the dead is nurse Marie Wilson, whose father, Gordon Wilson, would go on to become a leading campaigner for an end to violence in Northern Ireland. The IRA would later state that their target was a colour guard of British soldiers, and stand down the local brigade. On Remembrance Day 1997 the leader of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, formally apologised for the bombing. [Northern Ireland]
• 1988: The SAS attack an IRA cell that were planning to detonate a bomb near a public military parade in Gibraltar. Three men and a woman, all unarmed, are killed. Although initial reports made clear the three terrorists had been shot dead when about to set off a massive car bomb, within 24 hours, the Foreign Secretary, Geoffrey Howe, was forced to admit there had been no car bomb. However, a car used by the bombers was found in Marbella two days after the killings containing 140 lb of Semtex with a device timed to go off during the changing of the guard. [Gibraltar]. At the funeral of the three IRA volunteers, Michael Stone, a member of the Ulster Freedom Fighters(UFF)launched hand grenades during the graveside oration, killing a further three people.
• 1989: Ten Royal Marine bandsmen are killed and 22 injured in the bombing of their base in Deal in Kent. [England]

1990s

• 1990: Car bombings in Northern Ireland kill seven and wound 37. [Northern Ireland]
• 27 May 1990: Two Australian tourists shot dead in the Netherlands, having been mistaken for off-duty British soldiers from a base across the German border.
• July 20, 1990: The IRA exploded a large bomb at the London Stock Exchange causing massive damage.
• 30 July 1990 Ian Gow MP is killed when a device explodes under his car as he is leaving his home. [England]
• September 19, 1990: The IRA attempted to kill Air Chief Marshall Sir Peter Terry at his Staffordshire home. Sir Peter had been a prime target since his days as Governor of Gibraltar, where he signed the documents allowing the SAS to pursue IRA terrorists. The revenge attack took place at 9pm at the Main Road house. The gunman opened fire through a window hitting Sir Peter at least 9 times and injuring his wife, Lady Betty Terry, near the eye. The couple's daughter, Liz, was found suffering from shock. Sir Peter's face had to be rebuilt as the shots shattered Sir Peter's face and 2 high-velocity bullets lodged a fraction of an inch from his brain. England
• 1990: A British Royal Artillery officer is killed by the IRA in Dortmund in the then West Germany.
• 18 February 1991: A bomb explodes at Victoria Station. One man is killed and 38 people injured. [England]
• 1991: Mortar attack on members of the British Cabinet and the Prime Minister, John Major in Cabinet session at Number 10 Downing Street at the height of a huge security clampdown amid the Gulf War is launched by the IRA. The Cabinet collectively got under the table to protect themselves. [England]
• 1991: Two IRA members are killed in St Albans when their bomb detonates prematurely. [England]
• 28 February 1992: A bomb explodes at London Bridge railway station injuring 29 people. [England]
• 10 April 1992: A large bomb explodes at 30 St Mary Axe in the City of London killing three people and injuring 91. Many buildings are heavily damaged and the Baltic Exchange is completely destroyed. [England]
• 12 October 1992: A device explodes in the gents' toilet of the Sussex Arms public house in Covent Garden killing one person and injuring four others. [England]
• 1992: Eight builders are killed by an IRA bomb on their way to work at an army base near Omagh. [Northern Ireland]
• 1993: Two IRA bombs at opposite ends of a shopping street in Warrington, timed to go off within minutes of each other, kill two children. [England]
• 1993: The PIRA detonates a huge truck bomb in the City of London at Bishopsgate, which kills two and causes around £350m of damage, including the near destruction of St Ethelburga's Bishopsgate. [England]
• 1993: A bomb at a fish and chip shop underneath a UDA office on the Protestant Shankill Road in Belfast detonates prematurely, killing ten, including one of the bombers and two children. [Northern Ireland]
• 8 March 1994: Heathrow Airport, four mortar shells were fired toward Heathrow Airport from a car at night following telephone warnings in the name of the IRA, but police said none of the shells exploded and no injuries were reported.
• 10 March 1994: Heathrow Airport evacuated staff and passengers from Terminal Four and closed its southern runway after the second attack on the airport in 30 hours. No one was hurt when four mortar shells were fired.
• 13 March 1994: Heathrow Airport, the IRA launched their third mortar attack on Heathrow defying tightening security. They fired four mortar bombs from a heavily camouflaged launcher buried in scrubland close to the southern perimeter. Later that night both Heathrow and Gatwick airports were closed for 2 hours after renewed coded telephoned bomb threats were received.
• 1 September 1994: The PIRA declares the first of two ceasefires in the 1990s.
  

  

  This postbox in Manchester survived the IRA bombing in 1996.
• 10 February 1996: The IRA ends its 1994 ceasefire, killing two civilians in a bomb adjacent to the South Quay DLR station in London's Docklands. [England]
• 15 February 1996: A 5 lb bomb placed in a phone booth is disarmed by Police on the Charing Cross Road in London.
• 18 February 1996: An improvised high explosive device detonates prematurely on a bus travelling along Aldwych in central London, killing Edward O'Brien, the IRA operative transporting the device and injuring eight others. [England]
• 15 June 1996: The IRA detonates a 3,300 lb (1,500 kg) bomb in Manchester, injuring 206 people and damaging 70,000 square metres of retail and office space. [England]
• 7 October 1996: the IRA kills one soldier and injures 31 people at the British Army's Northern Ireland HQ, Thiepval Barracks. [Northern Ireland]
• 19 July 1997: The IRA declares a second ceasefire.

2000s

• 2 February 2005: The IRA issues a statement summarizing their "ambitious initiatives designed to develop or save the peace process", including three occasions in which they had complied with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning in putting weapons "beyond use". The statement of 2 February goes on to say, "At this time it appears that the two governments are intent on changing the basis of the peace process. They claim that 'the obstacle now to a lasting and durable settlement… is the continuing terrorist and criminal activity of the IRA'. We reject this. It also belies the fact that a possible agreement last December was squandered by both governments pandering to rejectionist unionism instead of upholding their own commitments and honouring their own obligations." The statement concluded with two points: "We are taking all our proposals off the table." and "It is our intention to closely monitor ongoing developments and to protect to the best of our ability the rights of republicans and our support base."
• 3 February 2005: Following statements from the British and Irish governments, claiming that the new IRA statement was no cause for alarm, the IRA issues a second two-sentence statement: "The two governments are trying to play down the importance of our statement because they are making a mess of the peace process. Do not underestimate the seriousness of the situation."
• 10 February 2005: The Independent Monitoring Commission reports that it firmly supports the PSNI and Garda assessments that the PIRA was responsible for the Northern Bank robbery and recommends financial and political sanctions against Sinn Féin.
• 27 February 2005: Republicans in East Belfast hold a rally to demand justice following the murder of Robert McCartney.
• 17 March 2005: Sinn Féin is boycotted by United States president George W. Bush, Senator Edward Kennedy and leading Irish Americans during St. Patrick's Day celebrations because of the involvement of IRA members in the murder of Robert McCartney.
• 6 April 2005: Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams calls on the IRA to initiate consultations "as quickly as possible" to move from being a paramilitary organisation to one committed to purely non-military methods.
• 25 May 2005: British Intelligence claims that the IRA are still recruiting and training new members. A large number of new recruits are being trained in firearms and explosives and are also involved in "dry runs", practicing the targeting of their enemies.
• 28 July 2005: The IRA release a statement that it is ending its armed campaign and will verifiably put its arms beyond use. [6]
• 25 September 2005: International weapons inspectors supervise the full disarmament of the IRA.

P. O'Neill

The PIRA traditionally uses a well-known signature in its public statements, which are all issued under the pseudonymous name of "P. O'Neill" of the "Irish Republican Publicity Bureau, Dublin".

According to Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, it was Seán Mac Stiofáin, as chief of staff of the Provisionals, who invented the name. However, under his usage, the name was written and pronounced according to Irish orthography and pronunciation as "P. Ó Néill". Ó Brádaigh also maintains that there is no particular significance to the name, thus discounting claims that it is a reference to Sir Phelim O'Neill, the executed leader of the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

Unionists have sarcastically commented that the "P" actually stands for Pinocchio, given the claimed factual unreliability of some of P. O'Neill's statements over the years.

Infiltration

The IRA has often been infiltrated by British Intelligence agents, and in the past some IRA members have been informers. IRA members suspected of being informants were usually executed after an IRA 'court-martial'.

In May 2003 a number of newspapers named Freddie Scappaticci as the alleged identity of the British Force Research Unit's most senior informer within the Provisional IRA, code-named Steakknife, who is thought to have been head of the Provisional IRA's internal security force, charged with rooting out and executing informers. Scappaticci denies that this is the case and is taking legal action to challenge this claim.

See also

• IRA Army Council
• IRA Chiefs of Staff
• Irish Republican Army
• Gerry Adams
• Martin McGuinness
• Sinn Féin
• History of Northern Ireland
• Terrorism
• The Troubles
• Northern Ireland peace process
• Proscribed paramilitary organizations in Northern Ireland

Footnotes

1. ^  The PIRA is described as a terrorist organisation by the governments of the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, Germany and Italy, the latter three of which have alleged the existence of IRA links with terrorist organisations within their own jurisdictions including ETA and the Red Brigades. It is described as a terrorist organisation by An Garda Síochána, the police force of the Republic of Ireland, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland, (PSNI). It is generally called a terrorist organisation by the following media outlets: The Irish Times, the Irish Independent, the Irish Examiner, the Sunday Independent, the Evening Herald, the Sunday Tribune, Ireland on Sunday, the Sunday Times and all the tabloid press. On the island of Ireland among political parties Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats who together form a coalition government in the Republic of Ireland refer to it as a terrorist organisation, as do the main opposition parties Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the Green Party, and the Workers Party, while in Northern Ireland it is described as a terrorist movement by the mainly nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the cross community Alliance Party, and from the unionist community the Ulster Unionist Party, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Progressive Unionist Party. Members of the IRA are tried in the Republic in the Special Criminal Court, a court set up by emergency legislation and which is described in its functioning as dealing with terrorism. On the island of Ireland the only political party to suggest that the IRA is not a terrorist organisation is Sinn Féin, currently the second largest political party in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin is widely regarded as the political wing of the IRA, but the party insists that the two organisations are separate. Peter Mandelson, a former Northern Ireland Secretary (a member of the British cabinet with responsibility for Northern Ireland) contrasted the activities of the IRA and those of Al-Qaeda, describing the latter as "terrorists" and the former as "freedom fighters". The United States Department of State and the European Union have taken the Provisional IRA off their lists of terrorist organisations due to the fact that there is a cease-fire. However, the RIRA and CIRA are still listed.
2. ^  These men were originally acquitted of aiding FARC and convicted solely on the lesser charge of possessing false passports; however the acquittal was overturned on appeal. The three men disappeared while on bail and have returned to Ireland, having departed from Colombia before the appeal was concluded. The Colombian government has said that it will seek their extradition, a position which has been supported by U.S. officials and by members of the Democratic Unionist Party in Ireland, while the British government has said that it will extradite them if they ever come within its jurisdiction. The case was controversial for several reasons, including accusations of heavy reliance on the testimony of a former FARC member (who was subsequently found to have perjured himself) and of dubious forensic evidence. The 3 Irishmen at one point accused the U.S. and British governments, who provided details about their background activities and gave technical support to Colombian forensic investigators, of setting them up (through the activities of their embassies in Bogotá). There was also political pressure from the government of Alvaro Uribe, supporters and members of which had previously called for a guilty verdict.

External links

• Information on all IRA groups as well as the INLA
• CAIN (Conflict Archive Internet) Archive of IRA statements
• FAS Intelligence Resource Program - Irish Republican Army (IRA)
• Terrorism: Q & A Irish Republican Army
• The Irish Republican Army and the armed struggle in Irish politics
• http://www.upthera.net Irish Republican Website

Irish armed groups using the name Irish Republican Army

Irish Republican Army[7] (Army of the Irish Republic) (1919 — 1922)

Organisations known by the name in later years Irish Republican Army (1922-1969) | Official IRA (1969 — present) | Provisional IRA (1969 — present) | Continuity IRA (1986 — present) | Real IRA (1997 — present)

See also Category:Irish Republican Army ^ The title Irish Republican Army after 1922 has disputed usage. The IRA prior to 1922 is undisputed.